Elon Musk decided to stir up controversy yet again when he responded to a Tweet that broke the news of the death of the infamous mass murderer, Ted Kaczynski, known by the moniker “Unabomber.”

Along with the news that Kaczynski committed suicide at age 81, the Tweet mentioned the first sentence of his crazed manifesto: “The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.”

Elon Musk simply responded “He might not be wrong.” It’s difficult to tell whether this was a joke or not as Musk is well known to be a bit of an internet troll. It’s hard to imagine that Musk, who has dedicated his life to the advancement of technology (and made his fortune) with his many ventures including Tesla and SpaceX, would be so against technological progress.

This Tweet certainly wouldn’t be the first time he has been found to make simply contradictory statements.

For example, Musk constantly proclaimed that Twitter under his leadership was going to put free speech first. Not long after the acquisition it was discovered that he was acquiescing with even more censorship requests than the ones he lambasted the platform’s previous leadership for.

Who Was Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber?

Ted Kaczynski was an anti-technology, anti-liberal terrorist who killed 3 people, injured 23 more and terrorized millions. He lived in a wooden shack that he built in the Montana wilderness where he built bombs to kill innocent people.

Kaczynski made use of the expansive US Postal Service to send the bombs to unsuspecting businessmen, academics, and random people.

He quickly caught the attention of the American people and the media establishment because he was both a serial killer and terrorist. He struck (mostly randomly), terrifying millions of Americans who worried that they might be next.

Does the Unabomber’s Manifesto Have Any Merit?

Kaczynski’s manifesto opens with a rambling rant about leftism and how he believes that it is creeping towards totalitarianism. It’s important to note that Kaczynski wasn’t exactly right-wing either. It seemed like he hated any and all political groups.

He then dives into his extreme beliefs about the deleterious effects of technology in society. The general idea of his 35,000 word rant is that the advent of modern technology, ever since the industrial revolution, hasn’t furthered mankind but rather enslaved it.

Most onlookers at the time of his arrest and the release of the manifesto simply saw him as a psychopathic murderer who wrote a manifesto that was just as psychotic as he was.

Recently, Kaczynski has amassed a relatively large group of mostly Gen Z supporters. Thousands of these supporters can be found on TikTok where they share anarchist and environmentalist memes in hashtags like “#TedPilled,” a play on the red and blue pills in the Matrix. Krystal Ball, a popular political pundit, broke down the strange group in a segment of the show she co-founds.

Musk isn’t the only public figure to approve of at least some of the ideas in the Unabomber’s manifesto. Right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson and Blake Masters, a top candidate in the most recent Arizona Senate race, have both signaled approval of some of the terrorist’s ideas.

Though most agree that the man writing the ideas was a murderous lunatic, some of his ideas are rooted in truth. Modern technology has certainly had a number of deleterious effects on mankind.

For example, It is now widely known that social media use causes or at least worsens depression and other mental illnesses, especially in kids and teens. Despite the extensive scientific proof backing this up, little has been done to remedy it.

Perhaps the distance from his horrible crimes, a lack of meaningful change, and a focus on the negative effects of modern technology drove his strange online revival.

Remember What the Unabomber Did, Not Just What He Said

While the root of some of Kaczynski’s ideas have some degree of merit, his beliefs on how to put them into practice were nothing less than horrible (and pretty stupid). He thought that only societal collapse could ‘fix’ the issues he saw in the world. This is why he killed 3 innocent people and horribly injured and terrorized many more.

It would be easy to discount all of Kaczynski’s ideas as the crazed ramblings of a serial killer (and many of them are). Modern technology does have downsides and the public should be informed about them. However, we have to remember that he was a crazed serial killer and terrorist and that he really should not be praised.

Kaczynski simply shouldn’t be the champion of these ideas in the public discourse. It does no one any good and only serves to discredit the critiques (and those espousing them).

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