There is an
opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph by Mick Brown today which is really pathetic. Some highlights:
"It is 40 years since the "Manson family" killings, when over two nights in Los Angeles in August 1969, a group of young men and women, allegedly acting at Manson's behest, murdered six people, including Sharon Tate, the actress wife of Roman Polanski. Manson himself was not actually present at the killings – he was charged with conspiracy – but the prosecution alleged that, inspired by Beatles lyrics, he had ordered his brainwashed followers to carry out the murders in order to unleash a race war – "Helter Skelter". It was, in short, a very Sixties affair."
...
But perhaps the closest thing to Manson's own thoughts are to be found on a site run by two former members of his "family", who go by the names of Red and Blue. The opening page declares in large, Gothic letters "One World Order: Central Source for ATWA and Charles Manson" – ATWA being an acronym for Air Trees Water Animals. This suggests that rather than a murderer, Manson was just a misunderstood guru of radical environmentalism.
We want our madmen to be completely mad. It is in moments of lucidity that they are truly unsettling. We need to stop cutting down trees, Manson suggests, walk more and "get back to bicycles". And who could argue with that?
It's his enthusiasm for the Third Reich and the way he signs himself "Straight Satan – Charles Manson" that give you pause.
To do my own paraphrasing of this:
Wow, dude, did you know Manson is, like, a nature freak, man? I can really grok his vibe, you know? Don't cut down trees, man, don't cut down trees! How cool is that.
Too bad he goes and harshes my mellow with that whole Hitler-worship thing. Dude, like, totally uncool, dude!
This is a flavor of
environmentalism trumps all Gaia worship. As long as a mass-murdering psychopath is right-thinking on the environment, then can't really be as bad as he's made out to be.
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