Kurt Eichenwald Profile picture
NYT bestselling author, veteran of NYT & Newsweek. Bluesky: @kurteichenwald.bsky.social

Aug 13, 2019, 8 tweets

1. I'm not linking to the account where this Ohio kid's horrors are that led to his arrest and the discovery of his arsenal. But it is filled with every element of hate you could imagine - plus every conspiracy theory from Pizzagate to right-wing fantasies about Waco in 1993 ...

2...it shows how propaganda and right wing lunacy can twist someone into near mental illness. I have little doubt he got this from some parent figure - the kid actually lectures about Waco, saying "people dont remember" his fantasy version of a '93 event...vindy.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/news/documents…

3...that occurred about a decade before he was born. His entire world view is dictated by the worst lunacy. He actually cites propaganda from RT, so he has bought into not only Fox and Breitbart and Trump but also Russia.

I strongly believe they stopped a shooter. But this....

4...kid is an important lesson: Children are listening. When the lunacy spilled into his house and on his computer, this guy was a minor. Trump and Fox and Breitbart (whose founder the kid has concluded was murdered because RW lunatics say so) spewed their endless crap....

5...and it warped and warped this kid. Maybe it was going to happen anyway. But he was apparently scheduled to start college at UT next month. His life is now ruined. I dont think we can blame someone for being so twisted into a fantasy world when he was a minor. He only turned..

6...18 in May. But plenty of people are not able to look at the world as children and understand that there are people and companies that will lie to them, that will spin endless rage conspiracies to keep the ratings up and the money flowing in. We may laugh at the gullibility...

7...of people who buy into this garbage as adults, who believe in these massive conspiracies where the Clintons are behind everything, where every democrat is a child molester, where every conservative death is a liberal murder, and on and on. But god...it is not funny. Not...

8...anymore. Trump has validated the insanity, he encourages it. He promotes the craziness, and Fox and the rest of the bubble push it, and kids like this go to jail because of the delusions caused by the brainwashing.

Our country is pathetic. I hope this kid gets deprogrammed

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