So.... what's Joseph Stark's freerepublic user name?

[scheming daemons]

...and before you quickly go for the unrec button.... admit to yourself..... deep down, you know he had one.

[AllentownJake]

1. His "manifesto" was written to appeal to certain aspects of both sides

I would have no doubt, that there is history on both left and right websites in his computer.

[The Northerner]

2. Yep,

It's strange that he quoted Karl Marx in his manifesto yet he seemed to hate government so much.

[AllentownJake]

3. He never said he hated "government"

he hated the current government.

I fully disagree with what he did, I think it was absolutely senseless and wrong.

However trying to put an ideological peg on this guy is not easy. He was pissed, some of his own actions contributed to his situation, and he exploded.

99% of people when backed into a corner, regardless of what that corner may have been caused by will not behave in a way that is conducive for any ones good.

You don't hear hostage negotiators telling people that have a gun to someone's head they are going to prison for a very long time when they put the gun down.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

4. Odd that someone with so many issues with the government

was not inclined to clearly state his political leanings. I kept expecting he would say something
negative about Obama but he did not.

[AllentownJake]

5. His battle with the IRS had been going on since Ronald Reagan

according to his letter.

[Confusious]

6. Seems to me he was a middle american

I didn't see any evidence of right wing freak. Just a guy who got wiped out time and again and couldn't take anymore which actually scares me more.

[Imajika]

7. Why?

I read his manifesto, it doesn't seem like a right wing rant to me.

I am not sure his diatribe really makes him look left or right, just kinda confused and angry in general.

Kinda looks like he was a bit of a tax cheat and got busted and sorta blamed everyone and everything for his troubles.

[enfield collector]

8. probably wouldn't be welcome there, you don't take the lord bush's

name in vain there unless you want a perma-ban. the guy seems to be a nihilist whacko to me.

[Blue-Jay]

9. Doesn't seem like he was a Freeper-type.

Sure, he was a crazy blame-the-IRS-for-everything dumbfuck, but you might be trying to create a left-right spin that probably doesn't exist. He was just a loon who (according to him) got constantly screwed by the government. A classic narcissist, if you ask me.

And, no, I'm not going to urec because I think he had a FR username. (I kind of doubt that) I'm instead going to unrec because you seem to think that every violent mentally ill person in the world MUST be a RWer.

Surely, you're smarter than to think that every time a nutbar loses control, that he's a Freeper. This particular kooky motherfucker didn't really seem to favor right over left, or vice versa.

[Arkana]

10. The bashing of capitalism just doesn't mesh with a right-wing tag.

But flying your plane into the IRS shows he wasn't an insane leftwinger either.

This guy can't be easily typecast.

[alfredo]

13. Paranoia? Or was he tired of it all. Life is hard. You either have

what it takes to endure or you don't.

Didn't anybody see this coming? Was he good at hiding his pain?

[Blue-Jay]

14. That's precisely my point.

The lefties are looking for a reason to blame the righties, and the righties are looking for a reason to blame the lefties. Idiots, all.

His own final "manifesto" didn't really seem to prefer one political position over another. He was a mentally ill sad sick dude, and he did a sad sick thing. I understand that it's difficult for many of our DU friends & family, but there's no way to blame this on either political party. The fact that Freeps AND DUers are trying to spin this into some sort of political "Gotcha!" is starting to sicken me.

[AllentownJake]

17. I don't think he was mentally ill

He disagreed with the tax rules, chose not to obey them, and tried to get away with it.

When faced with the consequences of doing such he had three options

1) Accept punishment
2) Flee
3) Fight

The man chose a very awful and disgusting way to fight, but it wasn't the act of a person with a mental illness.

Some people threatened his freedom most likely (tax evasion is a crime punishable by serious prison time) and he chose to strike back at them. His actions were precisely targeted at the institution that he was having problems with

If he would have taken out a school, I'd buy mental illness.

Just because we don't like or agree with something someone does, doesn't mean they are suffering from a mental illness.

[Blue-Jay]

18. You don't think so?!

A guy burns down his house (family inside), and then crashes a small airplane into the local IRS office, and he's NOT mentally ill?

I guess I have no response to this.

[AllentownJake]

20. A country is attacked by Saudi Arabian upper middle class fanatics

with box cutters who get past poor airline security.

and said country gets involved in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A group of financial institutions crash the world economy. Giving said financial institutions government money to "save the world" is the only possible solution to prevent an economic collapse that came anyway.

I don't agree with what he did, condone the violent action, or think positively of this man in anyway, but he seems to be more sane than our government has been for 10 years. He went after the institution that was threatening him, which they had the obligation to do since he is a US citizen and required to pay taxes.

He was wrong in evading taxes and than crashing a plane, however, insane is not the way I would categorize this individual.

[Blue-Jay]

21. You tossed a lot of stuff out there.

I was only talking about one particular thing. If you want to talk about that other stuff, start a new thread.

Meanwhile, I'll stand by my assertion that the dude was mentally ill.

Stay on target...

[B2G]

11. I don't get it

Why are both sides so intent on assigning political affiliation to these types?

Maybe we need a new "Batshit Crazy" party so everyone can be right.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[11 Bravo]

15. The bit about the Catholic church could have been written by any one of a number of DUers.

[fujiyama]

16. He seems a lot like the Michael Douglas character

from "Falling Down".

[Randall Flagg]

19. Just my opinion, but this sort of thing isn't needed here at DU.