Breaking Hate by Christian Picciolini

Author:Christian Picciolini
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2020-02-24T16:00:00+00:00

11

Terror by Another Name

Koval

ADAM KOVAL LOVED GUNS. Big ones. The louder and more powerful, the better. His fascination with firepower began in early childhood. A lonely kid with no close friends, Koval made high-caliber weaponry his passion in life. He imagined the status that came with owning guns, and he fantasized about who he would intimidate and impress once he stockpiled them.

When Koval got bored, he found that some of the best sources online to learn and talk about his gun collection were white-supremacist websites. He became a loyal listener of the Infowars podcast hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and he read ultraconservative propaganda on Breitbart News—an influential online purveyor of right-wing opinions run then by Trump associate Steve Bannon. Koval developed a taste for identity politics and the unforgiving doctrine of the alt-right and soon found the views on Breitbart weren’t extreme enough.

When he looked elsewhere for people who were more interested in action over discussion, it took only a few clicks before Koval was trading Alex Jones and Sandy Hook hoax theories for Adolf Hitler and Holocaust denial. Instead of shunning Koval for his extreme talk, members of the online white-supremacist forums applauded him for his clapback against political correctness. Then, a user on Stormfront took Koval up on his gun talk.

“Just got my fully-auto MAC-10 back from the gunsmith so we can light it up in the desert. Come on out to Death Valley next month. I’ll connect you with some comrades who like heavy firepower,” wrote the Texas stranger with the screen name Rape.

“Are you serious? Consider it done. I’ve been reloading ammo all summer,” Koval replied through their encrypted chat on the popular online gaming platform Discord. “Got an oil drum full of steel-jacketed .223 rounds buried over at my folks’ place outside of Vegas. That little barrel of death plus my AR-15 should hold off the zombie apocalypse until at least 2020.”

“They’re the best ammunition to stock up on because they’re versatile,” said Rape. “The government wants to ban them and take your black rifles away—disarm you before the revolution.”

“Ain’t no zombie revolt gonna scare me,” Koval wrote, “and ain’t no socialists taking away my weapons either.”

“Well, friend, to be fair, zombies are the least of your problems,” Rape responded, shifting the conversation. “It’s the Zionist Jews and their minions you need to worry about. Bloodsucking kikes are the real poison.”

Koval didn’t agree with Rape’s ultra-extremist views. He didn’t know any Jews to speak of or hate them the way Rape did, and Rape’s hero worship of Charles Manson and Satan—not to mention his screen name—seemed bizarre. Those things didn’t faze Koval too much, though, since he learned from an early age to block negative thoughts out. First, he learned to ignore his father’s frequent criticisms—about his weight and a fluttered stride from a bicycle accident at thirteen—then he taught himself to tune out his mother’s laments about her unhappiness. But now, Koval’s wife was fed up with his regressive spiral into feeling sorry for himself.

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