Now that Caitie Parker has been confirmed as a friend of Jared Lee Loughner’s, it seems relevant to ask whether Loughner was still a left wing radical, as he was when Caitie last saw him over two years ago. Among the clues are his apparent postings under the name Erad3 at Above Top Secret (ATS). That Erad3 and Loughner are one and the same is indicated by his cross-posting of some of the same material on both YouTube and ATS. In searching through Loughner’s posts as Erad3, several stand out.
On July 7, 2010, Loughner posted his assertion that the war(s) in Iraq and Afghanistan “is a war crime from the Geneva Convention articles of 1949”:
There was help with cleaning the uranium from the Iran and Iraq war in the 1980’s?
Article 33 of the Geneva Convention is the prohibit of pillage.
All military invasions with armed forces into a foreign country are war crimes in the Geneva Convention articles of 1949.
The Iraq and Afghanistan war of 2010 is a military invasion with armed forces into a foreign country.
Therefore, Iraq and Afghanistan war of 2010 is a war crime from the Geneva Convention articles of 1949.
Ouch! For the thoughts of war.
In a thread on unemployment, Loughner quotes with seeming approval, portions of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserting “the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity” and “the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.”
And then there are his frequent attacks on religion and Christianity, e.g.:
Crap on God!
Crap on God!
Crap on God!Talk to the toilet seat for a hour.
Of course, many responsible people think that the current wars are a “war crime.” Perhaps the majority of the world believes that the state owes people health care and a good standard of living. And at least a couple of the bloggers on this site are atheists (including myself). But these views are much more common on the left than on the right, as is the belief that 9/11 was an inside job.
From reading through page after page of Jared Lee Loughner’s rantings, I see no evidence that he has changed from the left winger that he was in 2007. Indeed, less than six months ago, he was calling the Iraq and Afghan Wars “war crimes” under the Geneva Convention.
My hope in exploring Loughner’s politics is to take the political argument off the table, not to turn it around. Unfortunately, I think that the likeliest way to get some people to back off their hateful and inflammatory rhetoric — blaming people who are not at fault — is if the people doing the finger pointing begin to realize that Loughner was more probably a mentally deranged left winger than a mentally deranged right winger. In either event, the derangement, not his political orientation, is the proximate and ultimate cause of his mass murders.
On Tuesday or Wednesday I will explore other probable sources of Loughner’s ideas, including his interest in brainwashing, new currencies, and flag-burning.
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