I found about him on the Something Awful forums, where they presented him as some kind of folk hero who was fighting against the man and AFAIK they still have Killdozer emoji.

He was actually a libertarian asshole who thought it was government tyranny that he couldn't keep emptying human waste into an old concrete truck barrel. He would've gotten a ton of money for his property that was going to have a concrete plant built on it, but he refused.

It was really just luck that he didn't kill anyone, he ran his dozer into a library where a bunch of children had gathered, but they were evacuated just in time.

I dunno why I'm talking about this now fairly obscure piece of Internet lore except I randomly thought of him a few days ago and realized it was almost exactly 20 years ago (chomsky-yes-honey). I guess it's also a good example of how telling a story selectively can change its perception, which is relevant with Tiny Man Square having its anniversary too.

  • xavier_berthiaume@jlai.lu
    ·
    5 months ago

    Aw man, I knew little about the Killdozer story other than he built a big ol machine and used it to fuck with cops, but didn't know he was a liberterian freak/the full story around why he did what he did.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]
      ·
      5 months ago

      Fun Fact: the

      Show
      guy was, in real life, against rebuilding a school because it would bankrupt him

        • utopologist [any]
          ·
          5 months ago

          Check it out

          Freedom of Speech depicts a scene of a 1942 Arlington town meeting in which Jim Edgerton, the lone dissenter to the town selectmen's announced plans to build a new school, as the old one had burned down, was accorded the floor as a matter of protocol.

          "Who needs a new school, we can use them kids in the mines!"