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.

  • Montreal_MetroEnglish
    46·
    2 days ago

    100% guarantee that he also had a Steam account and wore pants at some point in his life.

  • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
    28·
    2 days 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.

    • turtle [he/him]@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      21 hours ago

      You mean the reporters? I wondered about that, but then realized that the guy tended to use the same online nickname on various sites. Searching the web for that nickname probably turned up a bunch of his accounts and then they could read the comments to determine if they were likely the same person. Pretty good reporting, I thought.

        • turtle [he/him]@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          20 hours ago

          Yes, definitely a good privacy and security practice. Different passwords is important too. Different email addresses as well, if possible. There are services like simplelogin and anonaddy that make the email part simple.

          • Lime Buzz (fae/she)@beehaw.orgEnglish
            1·
            18 hours ago

            Yes, the email I use has that built in, though if I can I don’t use email for an account, like on Lemmy (which is how it should be everywhere in my opinion, just a username and password). All my passwords are different too!

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      315·
      2 days 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
    52·
    2 days 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·
      2 days 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.

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
          12·
          2 days ago

          But that’s me! I guess world is p heavy with the liberal apologia, so I can see it.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
            12·
            2 days 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
            73·
            2 days 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·
              2 days 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·
                2 days 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·
                  1 day ago

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

                • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
                  44·
                  2 days 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.

  • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.mlEnglish
    731·
    3 days ago

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

    • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
      12·
      2 days 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·
        2 days 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

    • masta_chief@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      17·
      2 days 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
        17·
        2 days 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
          4·
          2 days 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.

          • turtle [he/him]@lemm.eeOPEnglish
            2·
            21 hours ago

            I agree, you have very good points. I don’t particularly think that him having posted for about a month two years ago on a particular instance is any particular mark against that instance, as I think that that could have happened to many (but perhaps not all) Lemmy instances. Good point about backlash hitting eco activists too.

        • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
          11·
          2 days 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·
          2 days 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 [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
    75·
    3 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·
      2 days 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
      95·
      3 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

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    52·
    3 days ago

    lmao, the only mod action on his account was removing him as the mod of [email protected] three days ago, after he was already dead.

    Which was the day after the bombing, FBI must have been up LW’s ass pretty quick.

  • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    40·
    3 days ago

    In that same period, Bartkus’ rhetoric on alternative social media sites was dark.

    I’m just proud they know we exist.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
    452·
    3 days ago

    here comes the influx of fascists i guess?

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