Laleh Khalili: This is an immensely disturbing piece, not least because of a) the hegemony of bullshit “free speech” violence; b) the pathetic lives of some of these violent trolls; c) how utterly degraded political life and public discourse in the US seems to have become – and it was already at a very low (and violent and racist) ebb.
That said, there is an utterly farcical bit in here about Anglin’s time in the Philippines which is like Kurtz + Napoleon Chagnon + every colonial official who went native + every white hippie who went “East” to look for some tribe and/or spiritual salvation:
“Anglin emerged with a plan: He would return to the jungle, build his own hut, and exist “completely outside of the system.” He would live with the T’boli at first, but he hoped to push even deeper into the mountains in search of Muslim tribes and “people that are still fighting with spears, killing miners and loggers.” He would also, counterintuitively, launch a website called Reality Situation to chronicle his new off-the-grid life. He put his belongings up for sale to raise cash for a horse, chickens, and ducks. There was a messianic zeal to his plan. “I’m going to do it,” he told another truther. “I’m going to live without money. And I’m going to set up a community that does the same. And I’m going to video tape it.” […] “He was going to go back to the jungle to be the white savior and teach everybody how to grow crops properly.” And according to Edward, Anglin had another motivation: “He was going out there to marry two 16-year-old Muslim girls. He’d already met them and was buying them livestock for the dowry.””
Article here.