- Joined
- Aug 1, 2019
McVeigh before Waco and Ruby Ridge: "Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that. But it might."McVeigh was pretty far right long before Waco.While in the service he was often uncomfortable among black soldiers he was also an avid reader of far right books like the Turner Diaries.Lets be honest here McVeigh came from a portion of New York state were mistrust of anything not white and protestant or at least pretending to be that was not uncommon.Waco might have made him more commited to action but he was already associated with such ideas long before it happened.Even before Waco people who knew him were genuinely alarmed by his rethoric.Waco was more like the fuze but he wasn't some hippie that turned bad because of one incident.Ironically David Koresh is probably the kind of guy McVeigh would not have been too fond of had he known him personally.Koresh was basically a sex offender turned religious preacher.Not entirely sure McVeigh would have actually sympathised with Koresh had he ever got to know him.Odds are pretty good McVeigh would have been like 'these people are nuts'.Long story short a lot of small town weirdos who inspired one another into increasingly nuttier stuff.
McVeigh after Waco and Ruby Ridge: Passing out pictures of an FBI sniper hoping someone would assassinate him.
While he may have held some fringe beliefs before, I think it's pretty clear that those events were the tipping point for him deciding shedding blood was necessary.
Ironically, considering Bob's outlook, McVeigh was also a guy who was bullied as a kid who went on to project that experience onto his political enemies, saying that the federal government is "the ultimate bully."
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