Grievance, rebellion and burnt bridges: Tracing Josh Hawley's path to the insurrection

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

LEXINGTON, Mo. — Joshua Hawley was 13 years old, living comfortably as the son of a bank president, when his parents gave him a book about political conservatism for Christmas.

Hawley became enamored with the ideology. He began writing columns for the local newspaper that seethed with resentment against the political power structure. Even domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of a federal building, killing 168 people, sparked him to speak up for groups that express anger toward the government.

“Many of the people who populate these movements are not radical right-wing pro-assault weapons freaks as they were stereotyped in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing,” he wrote.

Twenty-six years later, those far-right rumblings reached a crescendo during another deadly attack on a federal building — this time with Hawley at the center of the action.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/11/senator-josh-hawley/

[Hekate]

1. Wonder if it was Atlas Shrugged?

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.

The other, of course, involves orcs.

John Rodgers

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. It was a book by George Will it says later in the article.

They don't say what the title was.

[Hekate]

3. I was being humorous, of course...

But for preference I would try to introduce an adolescent to LOTR, as being more humane than almost any conservative.