Forbidden Texts

The SCUM Manifesto is a very interesting read. the SCUM, or Society for Cutting Up Men, Manifesto is a radical feminist work that encourages women to “overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex”(p.1). The author believes that men are inherently flawed with this flaw stemming from their incomplete chromosomes. “The male is a biological accident: the Y (male) gene is an incomplete X (female) gene, that is, it has an incomplete set of chromosomes. In other words, the male is an incomplete female”(p.1). She then explains how men’s inadequacy of not being female leads them to cause various issues such as war, prejudice, and censorship. I found it particularly interesting how she describes the continuation of capitalism/work as an attempt for men to overcome this inadequacy, give himself power over women, and to give himself a purpose. She argues that most work could be automated and money made obsolete but men prevent this because of these reasons. But the part of the text that this manifesto is most well known for is the advocation for the destruction of the male sex. “Just as humans have a prior right to existence over dogs by virtue of being more highly evolved and having a superior consciousness, so women have a prior right to existence over men. The elimination of any male is, therefore, a righteous and good act, an act highly beneficial to women as well as an act of mercy” (p.12). I find this entire text to be fascinating in how unapologetic the author is in her beliefs for the destruction of men, so much so that I question if this is a work of satire similar to “A Modest proposal”. Overall, I found this text to be quite interesting and enjoyable and it might be my favorite of the texts that we have read.

The SCUM Manifesto consists of 5 radical beliefs. She begins with stating how men are emotionally and biologically inferior to women. She calls men “A walking abortion” (Page 1) stating that their Y chromosome is and incomplete X chromosome making them deficient. Then she moves to explaining that their incompleteness results in poor emotional development. How men are egocentric, incapable of empathy, love, friendship, affection of tenderness. For me this was the most impactful part of the text. I know its not grounded in reality or even science, however it really caused me to think more in depth about my own personal experience with guys.

She goes on to talk about how their emotional deficiency is the reason society is essentially screwed, How they’re poor parenting results in self loathing girls and boys, the need for violence and war so they can feel stimulated, race wars to place their failures on others. Even explaining how they put these traditionalist beliefs on women to keep them in a position to serve men. Her solution to this is the women who are not bound by these traditions and beliefs, who hate men, the idea of being a mother, and even being peaceful. She believe if enough of these women worked together they could completely take down society and the money system. Eventually rebuilding a new world where men are dominated by their female partners, and if they are not subservient and instead combative, they should be disposed of.

I did not care much for her actual manifesto and conspiracy to take down the world, I suppose maybe I’m complicit, I felt she definitely had a lot of oversight. She definitely lost me quite a lot when she began discussing homosexuality and transgender people, I simply think thats not a group of people to be spoken for, especially stating that they all want to be women, and that their relationships are unstable.

However, as I said before when she talks about how men are incomplete emotionally because they’re Y chromosome instead of two X chromosomes, it made me consider personal experiences. Even some research I’ve looked into describing how boys develop significantly slower then girls. I found that even at the age of 18 boys are at least 1-2 years behind. I really had to sit on this because it genuinely made me process the difference in the mindset of many guys I’ve met versus the many women I know. Even knowing Solonas had no scientific evidence to back her claims, its hard to look at guys and not see them as underdeveloped.

I think this also is where the line of feminism and Misandry should be discussed. Feminism is about the uplifting of women from the position they’re put in by society. Solanas’s manifesto is not about lifting up women but instead about the destruction of men and patriarchy. It’s a personal pet peeve of mine when people conflate women uplifting women and women hating men.

While reading The SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas I found many of her ideas strange because she talks about men in a very negative way. I understand that she is criticizing how women are treated in society. I was surprised by how she blames almost every problem on men. On page 1 she says that “To be male is to be deficient emotionally limited” . I found this interesting because of criticizing specific behaviors she makes it sound like all men are the same. I think this makes her argument difficult to agree with even when she brings up problems that are important. 

Another thing that caught my attention was her opinion about money and work. Solanas believes that society would be better if money disappeared and machines did most of the work. On page 2 she writes that “There is no reason for money or for anyone to work more than two or three hours a week at the very most” . I found this idea interesting because work and money are such a part of everyday life that it is strange to imagine a society without them. At the time I think she makes everything sound too simple as if removing money and changing society would automatically solve its problems. 

Overall I think The SCUM Manifesto is an extreme text. I can understand that Solanas wanted to criticize the way society treated women. I do not agree with the way she generalizes an entire group of people. What stood out to me most was how she goes from criticizing society to suggesting that almost everything, about it needs to be destroyed. It made me think about how anger can make someone see the world in a different way. For me the book is interesting to read because it makes arguments but it also makes me question whether the solutions she proposes would actually make society better. 

To be honest, I found the SCUM Manifesto quite amusing because it is so extreme that it almost sounds like it could be satirical, similar to A Modest Proposal.

Overall, Solanas wrote the SCUM Manifesto in an organized, yet repetitive manner. She breaks the text up into several sections, each describing a different part of societal infrastructure that males have developed in an attempt to achieve womanhood and to also hide the fact that they are not females, while also manipulating females from childhood, who Solanas believes to be the superior sex, into believing that they are of the status Solanas believes men to be: that is, an empty, boring, insipid, and inferior blob. This manipulation of women by the male sex is what Solanas argues has allowed males to lead the world and for women to be on the sidelines (for example, being subservient and pandering to men instead of expressing original opinions).

She describes how men are always trying to “fuse” with females in order to become like them because males on their own are essentially lifeless and the only way for them to have some sense of feeling is to become a woman (the superior sex, according to Solanas).

She uses the SCUM Manifesto as a call to arms for women to not fall for male antics and rise above institutionalized maleness to reclaim the world for themselves by eliminating the male sex and all the institutions that it has established. She even goes as far as to say that “if women don’t get their asses into gear fast, we may very well all die,” (Solanas, 8).

Solanas also describes how the SCUM will reform society and how they will aim to eliminate the male sex and take over the world by undermining male-created infrastructure like the money-work system, taking over broadcasting, and breaking up male-female couples.

Another aspect of the SCUM Manifesto that I found interesting is how cynical it is, which I feel is not typical of someone that is trying to be revolutionary. In her call to arms of the female sex, suggesting that there is hope for society if the SCUM eliminates males, Solanas is also saying that there is no point in continuing society after the first generation. For example, on page 12, she asks questions like: “Why produce even females? Why should there be future generations? What is their purpose? When aging and death are eliminated, why continue to reproduce? Why should we care what happens when we’re dead? Why should we care that there is no younger generation to succeed us,” which does not seem conducive to a successful movement.

So why would Solanas write this manifesto?

Solanas was likely not happy with the state of the world and how current male-dominated institutions were negatively affecting society when she self-published the manifesto in 1967. This leads me to believe that the manifesto functions as a satire that mocks male-led societies and institutions. It could also be negative personal interactions with men throughout her life that factored into the way she writes about them in her manifesto. Her distrust of men, especially in the artistic world (which she details in her manifesto) could also be why she shot Andy Warhol in 1968 because her extreme distrust of male artists led to her experiencing extreme paranoia over a work of hers that she presumed Warhol stole. Solanas was also very resentful of anti-feminist women that catered to the patriarchy because in her eyes, they were allowing men to continue destroying the world, which she discusses in the SCUM Manifesto. 

Overall, I can certainly see why the SCUM Manifesto is controversial. If anything because of how extreme it is. However, like A Modest Proposal, Solanas probably saw real problems in society that she believed male-led institutions caused and wanted to bring them to people’s attention, which led to her releasing this manifesto. However, I am not so sure that it was effective, as people were not really aware of the manifesto until after she shot Warhol, and even with that exposure, large second wave feminist organizations such as NOW distanced themselves from her and condemned her actions, which stifled any support for her ideologies in the manifesto.

While humorous in its depiction of men at times, the SCUM Manifesto managed to annoy me with its ableist language and eugenics philosophy. For such a radical feminist proposal, I had thought its attitude might be kind to those deemed lesser by society; I was incorrect. Instead, Solanas declares genetic control will soon be possible and production of people with “physical defects of deficiencies, including emotional deficiencies” would be immoral. I disagree with this entirely, as people with disabilities or different abilities can have perfectly satisfactory or even enjoyable lives no matter their physical, mental, or emotional capabilities. People who are different are not lesser, they are just as worthy as everyone else. The suggestion of genetic control is not only scientifically inaccurate, as many disabilities can be caused by simple life activities, it is also abhorrent in philosophy, as it has historically discriminated against race, gender, sexuality, and marginalized communities. Later in her writings, Solanas promotes the formation and use of “friendly suicide center[s]” for handicapped “beings”, something that very much reminds me of Nazism and concentration camps. Thus, Solanas’ belief disadvantages the very people she claims to uplift; women.

Women are more likely than men to have disabilities and women are more likely than men to not receive appropriate medical care. Thus, shouldn’t radical feminism support changing medical systems to be based around both genders, shouldn’t Solanas uplift the idea that all bodies are equal, instead of proclaiming the perfect female can be artificially generated? I might agree that the patriarchal society has consistently harmed and put down women for literal millennia, however, I do not believe in reckless violence or condescending behavior. I want careful education, better societal standards, and equal opportunities. Solanas roots for anarchist actions that destroy society, focusing on pure rebellion which would harm millions, even billions, including those she wants to save. This manifesto is not realistic, it is delusional hope dressed as political commentary.

The bulk of the SCUM manifesto is divided into two main concepts, Solanas’ current disdain and grievances towards men, and her view of an egalitarian, female-only future free from things like money, illness, or death. To present the former, Solanas gives a long list of issues that she believes men are responsible (such as ugliness, boredom, war, and conformity). One of the main issues that she presents is that she believes men are, in fact, “incomplete women” due to the Y chromosome, and thus lacking in things like kindness, empathy, or creativity. Because of this, she states that men attempt to become women by taking on “feminine values”, and projecting “masculine values” like shallowness, commercialism, and vanity onto women to feel superior.

Solanas presents a somewhat irrational view of a man-free future. She states on page 11 that if it were not for men hindering the scientific process, the concept of disease and even death could be eradicated in a mere matter of years. Going further, she later posits that due to people being functionally immortal, there would be no need for sex or reproduction, and humanity could become fully self-sustaining. These lofty ideals are presented in a way where they seem entirely practical, and while there’s no way for anyone to know how society would turn out if all men were eradicated, it seems incredibly aspirational to say that all humankind would achieve immortality just a few years afterward.

Solanas talks at length about her disdain towards those considered “great artists”, saying that most art exists only to uplift men and express female values, again going back to her idea that men want to become women. She believes that men can never be artists because of an inherent lack of creativity, arguing that “A degenerate can only produce degenerate ‘art'”(Solanas 9). When looking at this alongside the historical context of her shooting Warhol, her issues with art and artists seem rather telling.

It should be noted that, despite Solanas’ claim that men are responsible for prejudice in the world, she isn’t above it herself. Solanas frequently uses homophobic slurs in her writing, as well as referring to transgender women as “drag queens”. Despite her own definition of maleness as conceptual rather than entirely physical, she seems convinced that a transgender person cannot fully change their gender, and a transgender women to her is lumped in with the men she is so passionately against.

There is a case for the work to be an example of pure satire, with no real intended threat behind it, but when looking further at the context this is somewhat doubtful. The manifesto does seem to be satirising Freud’s theory of femininity, replacing the concept of “Penis Envy” with “Pussy Envy”. It does also bring to mind A Modest Proposal, with both being texts presenting the hypothetical positive consequences of the elimination of a certain group of society. However, considering that SCUM was an actual movement that Solanas attempted to start and the fact that she shot Andy Warhol (no doubt considered one of the so-called “great artists” she was so fervently against), it’s clear that, at least in part, her ideals were authentic.

On a personal level, while we have read multiple hateful texts in this class, this was the first one explicitly targeted against a group that i’m part of. It’s a little shocking to see this kind of vitriol towards people like me just because of our gender. While Solanas does have several beliefs that I agree with, like being anti-war and not being a huge fan of Andy Warhol, overall this just reads as a series of angry ramblings. Other manifestos i’ve read, like Mein Kampf and Industrial Society and it’s Future at least attempt to seriously analyze society and present solutions, entirely flawed as they may be, but the SCUM Manifesto is content with thinking up hypothetical issues and presenting hypothetical solutions that all rely on one initially sharing Solanas’ worldview. While it may not be an expecially dangerous work, and I don’t think it deserves censorship, I doubt there’s much merit to be gained from it’s analysis.

When watching Triumph of the Will, one of the things that stands out the most is just how grandiose everything is. The movie opens up with an aerial shot, flying through the clouds, and descends until you can see the city of Nuremberg, which almost looks like it’s out of a fairytale. This continues as the movie goes on, with large displays of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, enormous swastikas, and giant eagles that loom over the shots as if the film itself is trying to point the the apparent power of the Nazi movement.

One thing that strongly stood out to me was how disturbingly similar it is to the modern world. In fact, when Hitler first got off the plane at the start of the movie, the enormous crowd of cheering people almost reminded me of the clip of the Beatles first arriving in New York. The people in the film look like normal, friendly people, individuals who I would walk past every day, and that’s because they were. The film shows the more “human” side of the Nazi party, which is where the danger of harmful ideologies like Nazism comes from. Anyone can become entangled in them, and by recognizing the Nazis as humans, it allows us to better identify the causes behind their beliefs, and ultimately prevent anything like the Nazi movement from occurring again.

In fact, the movie takes great strides to try and legitimize the Nazi party as the only reasonable way forward for Germans. A lengthy scene shows Hitler talking to the gathered members of the Hitler youth. This scene, as well as others showing Nazi officials interacting with Nuremburg’s children, appears to be a way to further endear the party in the eyes of the German people.

Interestingly, despite the facade of power projected by Hitler during the rallies, there appear to be cracks forming. Hitler speaks extensively about the SA (more commonly known as the brownshirts), reassuring them that they won’t be dissolved and that they’re an important part of the movement. I was curious about this, and as it turns out that this movie was made shortly after the Night of the Long Knives, where the SA leadership was purged by the SS. In light of this, it makes sense why Hitler seemed so desperate to maintain order; the party was undergoing a serious period of infighting, and Hitler didn’t want the cause losing any momentum.

Overall, Triumph makes great strides to show off Hitler’s vision of the Nazi party, and I think that it does have quite a lot of value from a historical perspective. While it does serve as propaganda, I think that that negative is outweighed by the fact that it lets viewers get a look into the mechanics of how strength and power is projected, and how even the most ordinary-looking people can become swept up into dangerous ideologies.

The goal of this paper is to understand how often people, who speak out against societal norms, get punished. There are many cases we learn about in school of people who took a public role in speaking out and then facing some form of retributions in return. For each person I investigate I want to understand what they did, how was the public reception to what they did, what were the consequences for the public position they took, and where they ended up as a result for it. The people I’m researching won’t be just activist who got in trouble. I’m interested in looking into Malala, a women’s activist from Pakistan who protested against the Taliban banning girls from school, Malcolm X a Black activist from the United States who advocated for black empowerment, and Galileo a scientist who said argued for the heliocentric theory against the predominant Catholic church. I am aiming to keep this paper diverse in people who were shunned for a belief.
            This idea originally stemmed from learning the context behind the 120 Days of Sodom. Although de Sade himself faced no real consequences from his book, the book eventually became a piece of debate in communities of research and censorship of books.

References I intent to use:

X, Malcolm, and production company Educational Video Group. Great Speeches Video Series. Volume 16, Malcolm X : “Democracy Is Hypocrisy” Speech. Educational Video Group, 1960.

X, Malcolm, and production company Educational Video Group. Malcolm X : “Who Taught You to Hate?” Speech Excerpt. Educational Video Group, 1962.

Glyde, Tania. “Malala: Agent of Change.” The Lancet [London], vol. 386, no. 10006, Nov. 2015, pp. 1814–1814, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00770-9.

Attia, Shaimaa Mohamed Shehata. “Malala’s Mission: Challenging Taliban Rule and Patriarchal Norms in Pakistani Education.” Maǧallaẗ Kulliyyaẗ Al-Adāb Wa Al-ʿulūm Al-Insāniyyaẗ – Ǧāmiʿaẗ Qanāẗ Al-Siwaīs, no. 49, 2024, pp. 457–82.

Liana, Zbigniew. “Criteria for the Acceptability of Scientific Theories as Locus Theologicus: A Methodological Analysis of Catholic Church’s Reactions to the Cases of Galileo and Darwin (Bellarmine—Pius XII—John Paul II).” Religions (Basel, Switzerland ) [Basel], vol. 16, no. 2, Feb. 2025, p. 153, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020153.

One of the most striking things I noticed about Triumph of the Will was that it did not mention Jews or any other racial group as a source of Germany’s problems, especially since this propaganda film was produced in 1934, a time when Germany was trying to lift itself out of economic struggle following global disasters like WWI and the Great Depression. I found this very interesting because, in my mind, I associate Hitler and the Nazi movement most strongly with the Holocaust, and how scapegoating “inferior” racial groups was a primary ideology of the Nazi regime, and yet, this film seemed to me more focused on German nationalism and the German people themselves uniting as one and working together to save Germany from economic ruin. In fact, there was a huge emphasis on encouraging Germans to put themselves to work in the film. There were several long scenes of men working tirelessly, but with a smile on their faces, appearing as though they were happy to be working. The one work scene that stood out to me the most was where Hitler was addressing 52,000 German working men with shovels in their hands (“soldiers with hammers” as they are referred to in the film) where he tells them to make more fields for the farmers and “carry Germany into a new era.” He also declares that “no one in Germany shall not work.” This scene did an excellent job of portraying how the focus of Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1934 was to get every able-bodied German employed to resolve Germany’s economic issues. The emphasis on working also highlighted for me how the goals of the Nazi Party changed throughout the course of Hitler’s reign. At first, their goals seemed to be more oriented towards increasing German nationalism and promoting work to lift Germany out of its dire economic condition at the time in order to maintain their existing state, whereas after this had been achieved, and Germany became a force to be reckoned with, the goals of the Nazi Party became more focused on expansion and purifying the “Aryan race.”

Overall, Triumph of the Will does have historical and artistic relevance. I can also see why it was essential in promoting the Nazi movement and some of their ideologies (German nationalism, working), especially during a time where the German people were likely not happy with the direction that Germany was heading after struggling through the Great Depression and WWI, and wanted a leader like Hitler that presented the possibility of not only moving forward, but becoming a great nation.

For my research paper, I plan to answer the question, “Why does the Western political right love artificial intelligence”. From my personal anecdotal evidence, it seems the the biggest supporters and users of AI (artificial intelligence), specifically generative Ai and LLMs (large language models), tend to be members of the political right. I will be examining this relationship through prominent figures like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel.

I will first establish a relationship between the political right and AI. I will then analyze some of the potential reasons for why these people and their allies might be interested in this technology. One of the most obvious advantages of using AI is the replacement of workers. AI cannot unionize or advocate for workers rights. AI images and videos are also used heavily by the right. Members of the right have historically devalued artists and creativity. AI is used to replace artists while still getting the “art”. Another aspect of the right and AI that I will explore is how it is used to accumulate capital. When AI generates wealth, it goes to very few people.

Beyond just the reasons for why the right might like AI now, I will also explore the potential future laid out by some notable right wing figures. Most notably the Techno-feudalistic future proposed by Peter Thiel.

I will use a variety of sources for this paper. I will use scholarly papers and journal articles that relate to the right and its use of AI. I also plan to use the social media of both prominent and lesser known conservatives and analyze their uses of AI, their stances on AI, and their Ideas for the future and AI. I can also use any interviews of notable right-wing figures relating to AI.

For my research paper I want to study how the Protocols of the Elders of Zion became useful to propaganda. The Protocols was an antisemitic text that pretended to be the record of secret meetings where Jewish leaders were supposedly planning to control governments, money, the press and society. The text was first published in Russia in 1903. Was later exposed as a forgery but it continued to spread to other countries.

I want to focus on the connection between the Protocols and Adolf Hitler. The Nazis did not create the Protocols. They found it useful because some of its ideas matched the antisemitic beliefs they wanted to spread. Hitler referred to the Protocols in Mein Kampf and Nazi leaders continued to use the text and its ideas in propaganda. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum explains that Hitler and other Nazi leaders knew the Protocols was not a historical document but they still used it to spread their message.

My main research question will be: How did Nazi leaders use the ideas from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to support propaganda and why was the text useful even though it had already been exposed as a forgery? To answer this I want to look at the Protocols, Mein Kampf and other examples of Nazi propaganda. I also plan to use sources from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and scholarly articles from Simpson Library. I want to focus on how ideas about money, government, the press and control were presented.

I think this topic is interesting because it shows how a false document can still have a historical impact. The fact that the Protocols was known to be a forgery but was still used by Nazi leaders makes me want to understand why propaganda can be effective when the information, behind it is not true. This research could also help me understand how the Nazis used existing ideas and turned them into a political message.

The historical argument that I will aim to answer in my research paper is to what extent did Richard Wagner’s own writings, ideas, and cultural legacy make his music particularly usable for Nazi ideology. This topic is particularly relevant because Wagner died in 1883, which was way before Nazism became popularized, and was even before Adolf Hitler, the dictator of the Nazi regime, was even born. Based on my preliminary search for potential sources for this research paper topic, I found that Wagner did write antisemitic essays such as Judaism in Music and also utilized nationalist and antisemitic rhetoric within his artistic works, which were widely circulated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to him being one of the most famous and influential German composers at the time. Additionally, his relation to the Bayreuth Circle, a network of Wagner fans that centered around the annual Bayreuth Festival and Wagner’s family, also seems to play a role in promoting nationalist and antisemitic ideologies that Hitler’s Nazi Party later appropriated. As far as sources go, I will aim to use sources that discuss Wagner’s antisemitism and nationalism and how these ideologies present themselves in his works and the impact of these works on Nazism. Examples of articles I found through the Simpson Library’s website that seem related to my research topic include but are not limited to: The Darker Side of Genius: Richard Wagner’s antiSemitism by Jacob Katz, Richard Wagner and the Impact of his Anti-Semitism by Pierre-Michel Menger, The Flying Dutchman, the Wandering Jew, and Wagner’s Anti-Semitism by Stephen McClatchie, Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner by Paul Lawrence Rose, Wagner, Hitler, and Germany’s Rebirth after the First World War by David Ian Hall, Revolutionary Art – Nationalism – Anti-Semitism: The Case of Wagner by Goran Gretic, The Effect of Richard Wagner’s Music and Beliefs on Hitler’s Ideology by Carolyn Ticker, and Why Fans of the Evil Genius Remain Fans: The Case of Richard Wagner and the Bayreuth Festival by Florian Stoll and Philip Smith.

The museum starts with explaining the growing antisemitism in the German population. It’s almost unsettling read about how the hatred for Jewish people was building up and leading to things like boycotts and vandalism, while simultaneously they have the audio of people chanting and singing as celebration of the rise of the Nazi party. Events like Bloody Sunday and the boycotts really put it into perspective the mistrust in people who practice a religion. There was a part that spoke about someone vandalizing a Jewish establishment writing “Jews are our misfortune” and it reminded me of the protocols and how people truly believe that Jewish people were the root of the crisis’s Germany was facing.

There were so many events where people destroyed things simply because they came from Jewish minds. I think the night of burning books shows how destructive and totalitarian the mindsets were becoming. It’s like a reflection of the question “who decides what gets banned and what stay”.
However, the Night of Broken Glass stays the longest in my mind. I remember learning about the destruction of the synagogues. The fact that people had blamed it on Jewish people when it had just been a last-minute attack.

There was a section about what did the Americans know, and I’m sure the museum did complete research and had real stories when building that section, but oddly enough I questioned this section the most. This part of the museum strongly suggested that we stayed out of involving ourselves or we’re not supportive of Germany. There was a debate on boycotting German products which led to a 2/3 voting against it. The Jewish-Americans were the ones who had to spread awareness about what was happening in Germany, and even so the Americans decided not to act. I just feel like this section was almost vague in a way and it made me want to do more research on what reactions of real Americans were.

In one of the final exhibits, The Final Solution, it truly goes into detail about Hitler’s switch to genocide. Moving Jewish people to ghettos that were overcrowded, lacked resources, and let to many starving to death. What causes a person to switch to mass genocide and expanding to kill anyone but the “perfect’ person he had in mind? Did the power get to his head or did he genuinely just have so much hate that killing so many people felt like a real solution.

Although I wasn’t necessarily interested in the liberation exhibit, the stories of survivors stuck the hardest. There were so many quotes and stories gathered from survivors. There was a particular story of a woman who, I believe, was in hiding with her group, and she had made a bet with one of her friends that they would split a pastry when they were finally liberated. The day they were liberated, the woman went to find her friend and when she finally found her, she had passed away. It broke my heart to think someone could manage to live through that and when she might’ve finally been able to feel relieved, she never got to.

Distrust of the government is nothing new. In the days of Flock cameras, political division, and mass online surveillance, it’s common for the younger generation especially to feel as if the American government doesn’t exactly have it’ best interests in mind. Occasionally, though, tensions boil over, and a person’s hatred towards the government results in tragedy, such as in the case of the Oklahoma City Bombing.
This bombing, the deadliest domestic terror attack in United States history, was motived by the then-recent incidents that occurred between the ATF and fringe extremists in Waco and Ruby Ridge, as well as racist ideals formed as a result of the perpetrator’s fascination with The Turner Diaries. This paper seeks to examine the motivation behind both this attack and the other incidents that preceded it (such as the Unibomber’s spree in the late seventies and eighties), establishing a pattern of anti-government sentiment resulting in preventable tragedy. This paper will also discuss the factor of literature as a motivator to these attacks, and whether or not it is worthwhile to prioritize national security over full freedom of expression.
I’ve already found a few sources for the paper. The library has a fair few books and journal articles on Waco (including one on the impact of it being televised!) which could definitely be interesting. The same goes for the OKC bombing and Ruby Ridge. Combined with the fact that we’re reading the Unibomber manifesto, I don’t think i’ll have any shortage of sources for my paper.