You would think that a man so dedicated to his cause that he’s willing to kill dozens of innocent people would at least take the time to write an original rambling, long-winded manifesto. But Anders Breivik, the Norweigan who has confessed to killing at least 93 people on Friday and arrived in court today for a hearing that is closed to the press and public appears to have stolen a noticeable chunk of his 1,500-page manifesto, “A European Declaration of Independence,” almost verbatim from the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. Perhaps it was intended as an homage and yet the two psychopaths weren’t even angry about the same things, so Breivik had to tweak some words here and there to make it work, as if he were reusing an old cover letter when applying for a new job.
Part of Breivik’s manifesto was taken almost word for word from the first few pages of the anti-technology manifesto written by “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, who is in federal prison for mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others across the U.S. from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Breivik changed a Kaczynski screed on leftism and what he considered to be leftists’ “feelings of inferiority” — mainly by substituting the words “multiculturalism” or “cultural Marxism” for “leftism.”
For instance, Kaczynski wrote: “One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of modern society in general.”
Of all the people to plagiarize, Kaczynski seems like a particularly risky choice. We hope Breivik is allowed to receive care packages in prison. Unscreened care packages.
