4 ms·

> Over a few months in late 2012, the content of Taylor’s Facebook posts shifted from topics like trucks and music to videos from the hacktivist group Anonymous

by dymk 7y ago

> Over a few months in late 2012, the content of Taylor’s Facebook posts shifted from topics like trucks and music to videos from the hacktivist group Anonymous and posts about pandemic disease, the threat of GMO foods, the rise of Islam, and the Obama administration’s purported plans to confiscate everyone’s guns. “Rise of Islam” is just a dog whistle for Islamophobia. The guy sounds like he fell into, or near, the conspiracy theory/paranoia/alt-right hole.

davidw 7y ago
Yes, definitely. The man has issues, both major and minor. That said, I think he comes across as a bit more deserving of some pity because he was not, in fact, going to racist marches in Portland, but off doing his own thing just trying to get by; something he doesn't seem to be particularly successful at.
- dymk 7y ago
  I have sympathy for the man - not a lot, because I strongly suspect he'd hate me for my own ideologies, but I certainly can empathize with wanting to defend yourself when your life is threatened. And I do believe that he had little choice but to shoot Roy. My sympathy is tempered, though, by his willing decision to move outside of the safety net of society, then expect that he'd have society's support when he had no money, food, or means of transportation. Ultimately, his desire to be self sufficient put him in a situation where he had to kill a man to protect himself. That's not a situation I'd wish on anybody, but he seemed pretty steadfast in making sure he had no other options.
  - davidw 7y ago
    His life story looks like he certainly didn't get a great start, followed by a long series of bad decisions. It's just plain sad. BTW, I don't get the downvotes for dymk. It's certainly worth pointing out that this guy seems to harbor some ugly views.
    - linksnapzz 7y ago
      Downvoted b/c one must balance the ugly views of purported islamophobes with the ugly views of actual islamists. Contrary to popular HN/Vox/Atlantic/NYT/BuzzFeed/WaPo consensus, the latter are quite real, and not a figment of the imagination of the former. Part of the Tim Taylor's problem is that there isn't much work for guys with a physical disability. The other part of the problem is that, despite being an otherwise amiable sort and unafraid of doing hard, poorly remunerated work, he's kind of dumb. I don't just mean "not book smart". That's true, and I wonder if he had an IEP in middle or high school, based on the story and his mom's account of his dad's reading disability. Despite being an intermittently-employed manual laborer with three children to support, he takes his total life savings and spends it on an unimproved piece of property that he's never seen, in a part of the country he's never been to, with nary a survey or warranty deed to be had. Situated thus, past the edge of civilization (said civilization being where he gets his disability checks), he trespasses & commits petty larceny, attracting the negative attention of one of the local Road Warriors. He is repeatedly told (not in so many words) that the authorities are not in a position to keep the peace in such a place. So, once he's been pushed to commit what a sympathetic observer would call manslaughter at the very least, with NO WITNESSES to speak of, where the only evidence is the slowly-cooling corpus delicti in his driveway and the security-cam recording in his trailer...he... Dumps the corpse in a ravine away from his property, where the coyotes and vultures and bears can take care of the evidence? Wipes the video of him shooting the man in the back? Claims not to know anything about the whereabouts of his drunken violent neighbor should anyone happen to ask, which might be in a few days at the earliest, and a few decades at the latest? No, he CALLS THE COPS AND CONFESSES TO SHOOTING THE GUY. After trying really hard to make this neighborhood Not Their Problem, Tim Taylor makes the Klamath County Sheriff's Office an offer they can't refuse. A body with multiple gunshot wounds in the driveway of the man with the murder weapon, who has thoughtfully recorded the whole proceeding for the benefit of the prosecutor. Jesus Wept. Tragedies shouldn't have a punchline, but this one does. This Taylor guy not only has three kids by two different women, he now has grandkids. The first fifteen minutes of 'Idiocracy' kept flashing through my head as I read this story.
      - RankingMember 7y ago

by dymk 7y ago

davidw 7y ago

Yes, definitely. The man has issues, both major and minor. That said, I think he comes across as a bit more deserving of some pity because he was not, in fact, going to racist marches in Portland, but off doing his own thing just trying to get by; something he doesn't seem to be particularly successful at.

dymk 7y ago
I have sympathy for the man - not a lot, because I strongly suspect he'd hate me for my own ideologies, but I certainly can empathize with wanting to defend yourself when your life is threatened. And I do believe that he had little choice but to shoot Roy. My sympathy is tempered, though, by his willing decision to move outside of the safety net of society, then expect that he'd have society's support when he had no money, food, or means of transportation. Ultimately, his desire to be self sufficient put him in a situation where he had to kill a man to protect himself. That's not a situation I'd wish on anybody, but he seemed pretty steadfast in making sure he had no other options.
- davidw 7y ago
  His life story looks like he certainly didn't get a great start, followed by a long series of bad decisions. It's just plain sad. BTW, I don't get the downvotes for dymk. It's certainly worth pointing out that this guy seems to harbor some ugly views.
  - linksnapzz 7y ago
    Downvoted b/c one must balance the ugly views of purported islamophobes with the ugly views of actual islamists. Contrary to popular HN/Vox/Atlantic/NYT/BuzzFeed/WaPo consensus, the latter are quite real, and not a figment of the imagination of the former. Part of the Tim Taylor's problem is that there isn't much work for guys with a physical disability. The other part of the problem is that, despite being an otherwise amiable sort and unafraid of doing hard, poorly remunerated work, he's kind of dumb. I don't just mean "not book smart". That's true, and I wonder if he had an IEP in middle or high school, based on the story and his mom's account of his dad's reading disability. Despite being an intermittently-employed manual laborer with three children to support, he takes his total life savings and spends it on an unimproved piece of property that he's never seen, in a part of the country he's never been to, with nary a survey or warranty deed to be had. Situated thus, past the edge of civilization (said civilization being where he gets his disability checks), he trespasses & commits petty larceny, attracting the negative attention of one of the local Road Warriors. He is repeatedly told (not in so many words) that the authorities are not in a position to keep the peace in such a place. So, once he's been pushed to commit what a sympathetic observer would call manslaughter at the very least, with NO WITNESSES to speak of, where the only evidence is the slowly-cooling corpus delicti in his driveway and the security-cam recording in his trailer...he... Dumps the corpse in a ravine away from his property, where the coyotes and vultures and bears can take care of the evidence? Wipes the video of him shooting the man in the back? Claims not to know anything about the whereabouts of his drunken violent neighbor should anyone happen to ask, which might be in a few days at the earliest, and a few decades at the latest? No, he CALLS THE COPS AND CONFESSES TO SHOOTING THE GUY. After trying really hard to make this neighborhood Not Their Problem, Tim Taylor makes the Klamath County Sheriff's Office an offer they can't refuse. A body with multiple gunshot wounds in the driveway of the man with the murder weapon, who has thoughtfully recorded the whole proceeding for the benefit of the prosecutor. Jesus Wept. Tragedies shouldn't have a punchline, but this one does. This Taylor guy not only has three kids by two different women, he now has grandkids. The first fifteen minutes of 'Idiocracy' kept flashing through my head as I read this story.
    - RankingMember 7y ago