John H. Richardson: The Acolytes & Apostates Of Ted
Channel: Last Born in the Wilderness Podcast
Date: 2019-06-19

This is a segment of episode #199 of Last Born In The Wilderness “Kaczynski Moments: A Generation Of Unabomber Acolytes (& Apostates) w/ John H. Richardson.” Listen to the full episode: http://bit.ly/LBWrichardson

Read John H. Richardon’s article ‘Children of Ted: The Unlikely New Generation of Unabomber Acolytes’ at New York Magazine: http://bit.ly/ChildrenOfTed

In this segment of my interview with journalist John H. Richardson, former Writer at Large for Esquire, we discuss his captivating article ‘Children of Ted: The Unlikely New Generation of Unabomber Acolytes,’ published December 2018 in New York Magazine. John takes a deep dive into the world of Theodore Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) acolytes and apostates, a journey that documents his interactions with various individuals and groups that have been inspired (or adjacently-inspired) by the anti-civilizational writings and philosophy of Kaczynski (and even his multiple deadly acts of terrorism leading up to his arrest by the FBI in 1996). While John’s article is centered around the story of John Jacobi, who become radicalized (in part) through his exposure to Kaczynski’s manifesto ‘Industrial Society and Its Future’ and his subsequent correspondences with him, the article more broadly examines a phenomenon Richardson describes as Kaczynski Moments. “The Kaczynski moment dislocates. Suddenly, everyone seems to be living in a dream world. Why are they talking about binge TV and the latest political outrage when we’re turning the goddamn atmosphere into a vast tanker of Zyklon B? Was he right? Were we all gelded and put in harnesses without even knowing it? Is this just a simulation of life, not life itself?” As John writes and states in this interview, Kaczynski Moments cut through almost every political tendency and ideology, and yield wide and varied results. In writing the piece, John interviews some of the most prominent anti-civilizational activists, writers, and even a terror-friendly propagandist for an eco-extremist outfit operating in Mexico and South/Central America. 

John H. Richardson is a journalist and former Writer-at-Large for Esquire Magazine. He is the author of three books, including ‘My Father The Spy, An Investigative Memoir.’ He was born in Washington D.C. in 1954, and grew up in Athens, Manila, Saigon, Washington, Seoul, Honolulu, and Los Angeles. John has worked at the Albuquerque Tribune, The Los Angeles Daily News, Premiere Magazine, New York Magazine, and Esquire Magazine and taught at the Columbia University, the University of New Mexico, and Purchase College.

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