The "Unabomber", Ted Kaczynski, dead at 81.

[BMWTurboDzl]

For sure, he won't be missed. Good riddance, should've fried him 20 years ago.

His younger years is a bit of a sad story though, especially in college. It's easy to understand why he went off the deep end like he did.

Perhaps it's why his case never went to trial. Too many outside entities who didn't want to be legally linked as a cause of an alleged mental break.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

That is so funny.

When one applies for a position at many U.S. Federal agencies such as the CIA, FBI, etc- the application asks which of these Universities did you graduate from (going from memory- may not be exact)
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
University of Chicago
MIT
University of Pennsylvania
Columbia
Northwestern
OTHER ___________________________

I'm not sure I remember if there was a list or not, but I do remember the FBI had a mandatory 4-year degree as a minimum. Didn't matter what it was in, just had to have a 4-year degree. This was in 1991, IIRC.

I had taken some sort of test, maybe one of those aptitude tests. Next thing I know, about 2 weeks later, I get an application, some letter and other information in the mail from the FBI. Next day got one from the US Marshalls.

There's three things I distinctly remember about them-

1. FBI required the 4-year degree, didn't matter what it was in
2. Starting salary for FBI was about $15,500 except in Chicago, LA and one other area, wasn't NYC - it was $1800 higher.
3. Starting salary for US Marshalls was $14,800, except in Chicago, Atlanta and LA, was about $2,000 higher.

After reading all the material, my thoughts were back to the salary and "Y H G T B S M".

Minimum wage back then about $4.25 ($8840/year). I was making $6.15 working at a grocery store in the meat market while going to school. I was making about $11,500 pre-tax annually then. When I got a full-time job at a small consulting engineering firm, I went to work for them at $12,000. I couldn't afford to live on my own at that point, I lived at home for another 2 years. No way I would have been able to make it on my own at $14,800 either...

Remember, back then there was no BS of "no income taxes under a certain income level", 18%+ was taken out for Fed Income Tax, then 7.65% and 5% state income tax back then, just like today.

 

[bbhero]

I feel like often the difference between a genius and a psychopath is perspective. A lot of psychopaths are quite intelligent. They come to hate the world, and the people in it, not because of a lack of connection and understanding of reality, but because they understand it too well. It drives them to madness.

True…

However…. Lack of connection and connection to reality is often times the REAL issue.. Aka potentially lack of ANY empathy and lack of any connection is quite often a massive issue for true evil and psychopaths.

Those people don’t see other human beings as…. Human or equal to themselves…

The horse number2 that many people like this have “low esteem” is part of the rationale for their actions… Has largely been found to be wrong by literally 180 degrees…. It’s the direct opposite. These people see themselves as superior to just about everyone and are narcissistic to a level that is grossly abnormal. Neither of which point to a lack of esteem…. Directly the opposite.

 

[Just a civilian pilot]

True…

However…. Lack of connection and connection to reality is often times the REAL issue.. Aka potentially lack of ANY empathy and lack of any connection is quite often a massive issue for true evil and psychopaths.

Those people don’t see other human beings as…. Human or equal to themselves…

The horse number2 that many people like this have “low esteem” is part of the rationale for their actions… Has largely been found to be wrong by literally 180 degrees…. It’s the direct opposite. These people see themselves as superior to just about everyone and are narcissistic to a level that is grossly abnormal. Neither of which point to a lack of esteem…. Directly the opposite.

I agree.

They lack empathy and feel superior.

I also lack empathy, for people like him.

 

[Just a civilian pilot]

He was suffering from late stage cancer, and I guess decided to go out on his own terms.

https://apnews.com/article/ted-kaczynski-unabomber-1197f597364b36e56bdbcaca9837bdc4

Why did he wait so long.

Guess living for free in prison wasn’t that bad.

Solitary confinement was easy for him.

 

[chrlsful]

I'm thinkin he wuz pretty early as 'eco terriorist' didnt show up (well,1827 'n other's aside) till the '80s right?

Isnt 'Tedly' a 1/2 doz yrs prior? He may have been a 'longest' but don't forget - he wuz a victim of pre-research ethic panels experiments. He was a college boy subject (many 1st class psychology students are subjects of their prof's experiments) ofa pretty terrible mind wrenchin study. There wuz no screening into the study (he'd B rejected asa "picked on hiskol kid" today), no pre-study review by human subjects ethics panel ("U cant do THAT to a bunch of college freshman!") and either of these should have left him out of the torture, never mind having BOTH! W/o this... he would have gone onto another math topic when his field of study (PhD dissertation) dead ended.
The wall that was damaged as freshman began crumbling when he hada resort to teaching as an out @ that time. That probably regressed him (usein the term in psychology not math terms now) into hiskol daze (his fam reports the beginning of his true weirdness). It probably shoulda figured more into the silly sentence: "U sir, get 4 life sentences!" Luckily he didnt kill himself over that but probably the slow painful cancer death sentence (no Death w/Dignity for terminally ill felons) recently given him. The direct, personal reminder of just what he was fighting (environmental degradation harming it's human causers) overwhelming him.
I can almost hear the Snidely Whiplash-like (Mr Peabody's World on Rocky'n Bullwinkle) comment "Curses, foiled again." ( picked on 4 being different, being a subject ina bad science experiment) as he completed the act~
good bye cruel world