A fire, a fascination with explosives and family discord marked path to clinic bombing
www.latimes.com
Guy Edward Bartkus is the sole suspect in the bomb attack at a Palm Springs fertility clinic last Saturday. In the years leading up to the incident, his life was touched by family acrimony and a keen interest in explosives.

Imagine my surprise reading this on the LA Times this morning (emphasis mine):

“I would not acknowledge reproduction as a human right, but instead as a form of rape,” IndictEvolution wrote on Lemmy.World in July 2023. “I am also not bothered by infanticide as long as it is done humanely…”

Here is an archive of the article.

Here is his account.

It looks like he only stayed on Lemmy for about a month, most likely a temporary Reddit exile with the earliest exodus on June 2023. The article mentions threads on Reddit but doesn’t provide any quotes from there. User IndictEvolution on Reddit deleted their account, and the article makes it sound like they are referring to a different username that they don’t specify.

  • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
    27·
    23 hours ago

    Our very first terrorist. We’re going places boyos. Just hope this doesn’t bring like minded people here, especially since reddit banned that sub, and Lemmy’s is still up.

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      345·
      1 day ago

      I mean lemmy.world aims to be Reddit 2, and reddit had jailbait, fatpeoplehate, the_donald, keeps Gamergate subreddits open, r/conspiracy, and so many more horrid things kept up because it made more clicks.

      So why wouldn’t lemmy.world keep an active terrorist on board? Think of the potential money to be made.

  • Samsuma@lemmy.ml
    58·
    1 day ago

    Fucking wild that Lemmy made it on mainstream news… of course it had to be some stormfrontian to get it to that stage…

    • Stern@lemmy.world
      182·
      1 day ago

      If I had to choose between a bomber and something like r/jailbait (which was the medias first big look at reddit) as the sites big first exposure to the world, I’m going for the bomber every time.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
            14·
            1 day ago

            Usually is more common on Hexbear and other more explicitly Leftist instances, I don’t typically frequent slrpnk.net so I am not sure if that terminology has spread there. If it hasn’t, it’s likely due to defederation and whatnot, IMO. Just spitballing, but I’ve seen stormfront.world frequently enough.

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            93·
            1 day ago

            The defining trait of Stormfront of course being its liberal apologia. These people are not grounded in reality and just need to keep finding more extreme labels for the people that did them wrong.

            • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
              12·
              1 day ago

              No but liberals, esp centrists, have a much higher tolerance for fascist ideology, esp cryptofascism.

              It’s like when people just don’t perceive how awful racist dogwhistles like DEI, globalist, thug, etc.

              • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
                4·
                1 day ago

                I agree the term goes too far. I just see the connection. Most liberals are well meaning patsies, but they have a line.

                • BrainInABox@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  3·
                  8 hours ago

                  The last 18 months have made me increasingly skeptical that they actually do have a line.

                • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
                  45·
                  1 day ago

                  That’s an absurd level of connection though. It’s blown right past the mild hyperbole of calling Twitter a Nazi site because it doesn’t ban Nazis, past calling your Fox News uncle a Nazi for voting to “stop the caravan”, through labeling MSNBC a Nazi station because it buys into the “break the conservative fever” myth, and into the territory of “everyone who doesn’t agree with me is an actively organizing Nazi”.

                  Stormfront isn’t a site for “well meaning patsies” and calling .world a Nazi site is just making up a heroic story for why the fascist at 7/11 kicked you out because he hates communism rather than because you were being an asshole to everyone else in the store.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
      27·
      2 days ago

      I think I am a world user, it was just the top of a drop down menu when I created my lemmy. God damn it.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1714·
        1 day ago

        You’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s the largest instance. There’s no particular stigma for users on it. Unlike there is for the more ideologically selected instances, like .ml.

        • Logh@lemmy.ml
          2·
          9 hours ago

          I feel a little bit like I was duped by ml. Chose it because the devs were here, but I haven’t thought about the top level domain until I saw their profile pictures. Now, I’m no stranger to leftist views, but I’m pretty far from being ml. I might switch if things get ugly, but I can take some minor stigma for a while longer.

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            2·
            3 hours ago

            .ml used to feel similar to .world in that it mostly indicated you just joined a pseudo-default, but it feels like it’s getting more ideological over time. The devs run two instances, .ml and lemmygrad, and lemmygrad was the explicitly Marxist instance, but since lemmygrad got defederated from some large instances it feels like .ml is now getting more ideological.

            I wouldn’t worry too much about it impacting your experience or what people assume of you in the near term. It’s still generic enough that a .ml handle doesn’t automatically mean something. It’s more like a confirmation when someone is already posting some extreme things.

            • Logh@lemmy.ml
              2·
              4 hours ago

              I have been exploring Marxist thinking deeply in the past but not for the past few years. True, it might be something to go back to sometime.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          384·
          1 day ago

          Lemmy.world is also ideologically selected, they deliberately defederated from the larger explicitly Marxist-aligned instances. Lemm.ee is an example of an instance that tries to be more ideologically neutral, .world is openly liberal aligned.

          • Etterra@discuss.onlineEnglish
            21·
            1 day ago

            It’s also run by Europeans so they decided to stomp down on discussions of jury nullification around the time somebody (I didn’t believe it was Luigi) ventilated that healthcare CEO’s head. Which is why I changed instances. Jury nullification is the last tool available to an oppressed citizenry to fight back against unjust laws and/or unjust applications of law.

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            1212·
            1 day ago

            They’re a huge instance most people joined by default. No one sane thinks a .world account means anything about the person posting under it, except maybe they just went along with the pseudo-default.

            You guys think there’s a big rivalry and anyone who hasn’t rebelled against the unjust persecution of the tankiest instances must have cast their lot in with the enemy, but in reality no one really thinks about it at all.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              323·
              1 day ago

              I don’t judge people based on their instance at an individual level, that’s not my point. Like you said, most on Lemmy.world picked it because it’s the largest instance. However, the moderation and admins do have an ideological bent, and over time this filters out users that don’t “fit in” with that, leading to an “average user” with views aligning with the average mods and admins.

              I don’t really care ahout inter-instance drama, it’s not that deep. But I do notice trends and I understand how soft-censorship works and how consent is manufactured. Plus, there are terminally online users on Lemmy.world that do see all Marxists as enemies and wish to take down Lemmy.ml, so that does exist, and is tolerated by Lemmy.world mods and admins.

              • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
                181·
                1 day ago

                Then there’s me, who joined .world because it was the largest, is a Marxist, but has no idea how to even switch instances or access .ml where I would like to be 😂

                • turtle [he/him]@lemm.eeOPEnglish
                  14·
                  1 day ago

                  Personally, I try to stick to instances that will only defederate from others if there are major, serious issues, like illegal content and what not, and that are also not largely defederated by other instances. That way, I get to have a more complete experience of Lemmy / the threadiverse without missing out on major chunks of it. I think it’s counterproductive that the majority of instances defederate major, legitimate instances, especially now that the Lemmy software allows each individual user to block entire instances if they wish to. This only serves to weaken the threadiverse as an alternative to other major discussion sites. It’s even possible for instances to issue default instance blocks on new accounts if they are worried about the new user experience, removeable by the users themselves if they so wish (like lemmy.zip seems to be doing).

                  The main instances that I’ve found so far that seem to follow this “defederation only as a last resort” philosophy are the following:

                  • lemmy.ml (although this one is a bit risky for this purpose because there is constant lobbying on liberal instances to start blocking it, despite it being the original and reference Lemmy instance)
                  • lemm.ee (my main instance, appears to have the second fewest defederations of other instances)
                  • lemmy.zip (they don’t defederate from much - third fewest out of this list - but I understand that new accounts have for instance hexbear and lemmygrad automatically blocked, which each individual user can unblock)
                  • lemmy.sdf.org (they defederate from the fewest instances that I’m aware of - the only defederation they currently have seems to be due to technical issues arising from a dead instance)

                  If you would like to keep contact with the broader range of Lemmy instances, these are the ones I would look into. You can check which instances any Lemmy site defederates from by visiting <site URL>/instances and clicking the “Blocked Instances” tab.

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
          9·
          1 day ago

          I do think it would be better if people spread out a bit more though. I don’t believe it’s healthy for our communities to have any instance approaching “default” startus.

  • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1041·
    2 days ago

    The next terrorist to come from lemmy better not be another edgy fash loser. Do better.

    • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
      111·
      1 day ago

      I disagree. terrorism and accelerationism are not needed and do more harm than good. The idea that you can just commit political violence and solve your problems is too tempting to angry people, who then believe that the actually successful tactics like organizing are not necessary. It’s taking the easy way out and usually just turns more people against you.

      Of course, violence to protect people from the violence of the fascists is entirely acceptable and to be lauded.

      • Alsephina@lemmy.mlEnglish
        19·
        1 day ago

        I think they’re joking lol

        Well, some adventurism seems to have some positive effect though. Look at how taking down the UHC pig is being received by the public. Could be used to radicalise some people perhaps

        • Spacehooks@reddthat.comEnglish
          5·
          1 day ago

          attempted to ignite a large propane tank and set our ( pro profit detention center) buildings on fire"

          Spronsen said that “it’s time to take action against the forces of evil”, citing “highly profitable detention/concentration camps and a battle over the semantics”.

          Dude was a carpenter too. Is this what they call based?

        • Spacehooks@reddthat.comEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          That was quite a read. Going to need to watch some youtube on this but concerned it may lead certain names going up on “The list”

    • masta_chief@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      19·
      1 day ago

      We’ll have to push back with pointing to the decentralized nature of the fediverse, and that there’s gonna be crazies on some instances. I always use email as an analogy when explaining Lemmy, maybe we could continue that and argue you wouldn’t blame all of email infrastructure if an extremist had a gmail or Hotmail or whatever.

      Actually now that I read that, it just might be more confusing. But there’s gotta be a counter angle to argue to get ahead of people thinking “Lemmy=bad”

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
        18·
        1 day ago

        Also even if the cops shut down world, people will just … move. Like yours and my instances don’t even have the word “lemmy” in the domain. I don’t think anyone would care beyond “we shut down that radical forum.”

        Though most likely is it goes completely unnoticed and some bombing or shooting or human rights abuse next week will shoves it down the memory hole for good.

        • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
          2·
          19 hours ago

          It would not bode well for the future of discourse if lemmy.world of all places gets shut down for radicalism. Our instance is significantly more radical than lemmy.world. Can you imagine some ecofascist idiot who posted on slrpnk.net a couple times committing a terror attack and getting the instance taken down? I can, which is why this news should be very concerning.

          Edit: Just looked through some of the bomber’s comments and their replies and some users even pointed out that his rhetoric was reminiscent of ecofascism. Anti-natalism and ecofascism are ideological siblings. The backlash to this attack is going to catch environmentalist groups in the crossfire, with many environmental activists being accused of having anti-natalist views. Anyone who’s ever advocated for degrowth might get lumped in with them.

        • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
          12·
          1 day ago

          some bombing or shooting or human rights abuse next week will shoves it down the memory hole for good.

          Next week? Try last night in DC. I’m doubting this will even register tbh

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
          11·
          1 day ago

          It’s funny because even of the people I know, it’s actually like “lemmy=what?” Even of the people I’ve talked to about it.

          They’re so painfully disinterested, they usually tune out after the first five words of my fediverse elevator pitch.

  • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
    114·
    2 days ago

    This person was removed as the sole mod for [email protected] three days ago.

    Edit to add:

    .
    He’s still the sole mod for [email protected] and [email protected], though those communities never really got off the ground.

    • markovs_gun@lemmy.world
      11·
      1 day ago

      Man this will probably hurt the amateur chemistry community due to overreacting crackdowns, even though this is one guy who was part of that community and plenty of other people have done bombings without any interest whatsoever in amateur chem. I do think the community needs more moderation given how frequently I see dumbasses on reddit doing some extremely dangerous shit without realizing it, but this will probably get any discussion of fun chemistry banned everywhere.

    • ZephyrXero@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1010·
      2 days ago

      Wow. Now there’s a bunch of people who should never have been born. Too bad they’ve gotta make it everyone else’s problem

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
    652·
    2 days ago

    here comes the influx of fascists i guess?

    when they come looking for the dangerous hacker known as lemmy.world