If you want an exhaustively researched book about Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, as well as it's history, context and legacy, this is the one
Come for the deep archival research, stay to be convinced that the entirety of the American security state, should be investigated from top to bottom, dragged out into the daylight, and most of its personnel executed. I mean, I already thought that, but now even moreso.
I am now completely convinced that either Timothy McVeigh was a federal informant or at the very least some of his unindicted coconspirators were
Nothing makes me feel more like a conspiracy crank than learning how close feds are to what feels like every single notorious incident in the last hundred years. It's just baffling how well it makes me want to doubt it despite the evidence that says it's all right there. I know sometimes they're orchestrating things and sometimes they just aren't paying attention to someone on their radar because they're too busy stalking and harassing civil rights leaders, but damn it if it isn't always a game of "Six (More Like Three or Fewer) Degrees of A Federal Agency".
I feel like a character in a Hideo Kojima game.
Saved for later, thanks.
Come for the deep archival research, stay to be convinced that the entirety of the American security state, should be investigated from top to bottom, dragged out into the daylight, and most of its personnel executed. I mean, I already thought that, but now even moreso.
My backlog is pretty deep right now, but I think if I can get back to the grindstone this will fit in nicely with my Whitney Webb books I still need to get to.
I got burned out trying to complete the book, so I think I only read around 60-75% of the book. There's a documentary floating around in Youtube that's based on the book and includes interviews with the author although fair warning, the documentary also has interviews from Alex Jones but this was back when Alex Jones was a generic conspiracy nut and not how he's today.
From what I remembered from the book:
-
McVeigh 100% fit the profile of a channer. He was participating in BBS bulletins as well as obsessing over Star Trek. I think he might have even been an incel. His entire mannerisms just remind me of some /pol/ incel. His letters where he would constantly underline words just remind me of some angry boomer.
-
The book kept on mentioning how McVeigh had fucked up teeth that became even more fucked up when he was deployed. I don't really get what the book was trying to say. I think the book even had dental x-rays. It's a weird focus that I don't understand.
-
The book/documentary makes a compelling case for being a OKC bombing truther. The arguments are pretty much the same as 9/11 truther except there's far less holes. I'm still on the fence personally and it doesn't really matter in the end, but the entire bombing has so many bizarre discrepancies even if you aren't a truther.
-
John Doe 2 is almost certainly an informant and definitely exists despite the feds trying to gaslight people and confiscate security footage even after sketching the dude.
-
Right-wing reactionaries are subject to their own version of COINTELPRO called PATCON. I guess just because the feds see fascists as a lesser evil compared to socialists doesn't mean the feds don't want to also fuck over fascists as well. One almost feels sorry for the fascist bastards.
Overall, what I got from the book is that there are thousands of McVeighs in 4chan right now, and the feds have long since used whatever they learned from MKULTRA and subsequent social experiments to prime those McVeighs to commit acts of stochastic terrorism. The feds fucked up with McVeigh because he blew up a government building instead of gunning down environmental activists or Indigenous water protectors.
-
