Mysterious Georgia Guidestones were partially destroyed in a bombing

boing
62

I would observe that a prevailing attitude here seems to be:
Prescribed demolition = OK
Unauthorised demolition = terrorism

That seems like you’re drawing a long bow. Who does it intimidate?
As an artpiece (?) of ho-hum merit privately owned and on private property its damage involves criminal trespass and destruction of private property and is at least disturbing in that regard. Someone didn’t want to see it endure that’s for sure.

Looking at that video you can also see that there is a bright flash from the light source to the left of the structure immediately before the explosion, which makes me think that something like an RPG was used.

63

Xtianists were under the impression that Satanic paedophiles/the NWO/the Elders of Zion/[some other shadowy group they don’t like] erected this monument. If they did this, bombing it was a message to all of their perceived enemies and society at large that they are willing to use violence to achieve their political ends.

Put another way, they are likely terrorists.

Well, yes. If a structure is demolished by its owner or the state under safe and scheduled conditions for some normal reason it’s ok. If it’s demolished at a random time with no safety protocols by parties unknown for unstated reasons it’s kind of scary. This was the comic premise of the “Stupor Duck” cartoon.

Also, note that there were no plans to demolish this monument, however sketchy it was with its message of eugenics. It was tolerated by most as the work of a crackpot.

14 Likes
64

And it has been that way for over 1000 years. Islam was just over 100 years old when the Iconoclasts were tearing down anything they thought was heretical.

13 Likes
65

Yeah gotcha. But there is something in this for everyone. One of my Qnut mates asked if I’d heard that this item was blown up and I said yeah but had only a cursory glance at the details. I said I understood it it had some kind of mystical engravings blah blah. “Ah, that’s what the media wants you to know” (you know how these guys rant). He said it had some kind of instructions for reducing the world population… (well who’s to say that’s not a desirable thing)…and that its destruction is the work of those against that.
So “Guidestones”…engraved in various (some ancient) languages. Who is it intended to guide? Our Alien overlords? Too much hokey pokey for my taste.
Ugly AF monument…yeah. Worthy of destruction?..well - it just might curb a cult. Terrorism? Find a better word. That is an exaggeration. Go with vandalism for sure. Attack of the neo-luddites if you like. I dunno…

Edit: I should say that my Qnut mate is always saying something along the lines of “it’s about to happen” - like public awareness is about to come to a head and the world will rise, caste out the pedophiles, reinstall Trump yatta yatta. So unless we see a great spate of this kind of “direct action” it might be too early to call terrorism. For me that has got to involve senseless killing of people.

1 Like
66

I think thats just an artifact of the camera’s rolling shutter.

7 Likes
67

Given the current state of American politics, and assuming the bombing is the work of some faction of the American right, I’m sticking with “terrorism” as the most appropriate descriptor.

One doesn’t have to kill people to terrorise them into accepting one’s demands, one just has to convince people one is willing and able to do so at the time of one’s choosing. Domestic abusers usually start by breaking things around the house before escalating to attacking their family members.

It’s really bad in the States, in a way that many aren’t yet grasping for understandable reasons.

17 Likes
68

The car looked like a 2004-2008 light colour Acura TL sedan, maybe.

1 Like
69

It’s weird how the far right are cheering this on when they’re the ones that love to talk about “useless eaters” and other Malthusian nonsense. I guess they decided to eat themselves for a little while longer before going back to the rest of us.

6 Likes
70

Give them a week, and they’ll flip to that the stones had knowledge that they don’t want us to know.

6 Likes
71

They managed to get heavy equipment in the very next day?

Unless the local contractors are all sitting on their asses, arranging the contract and scheduling the job should have taken longer than that.

Or someone was willing to pay “get it done now!” money.

5 Likes
72

Looking at the aftermath of the bombing, what was left of the monument looked extremely dangerous. Knowing that tourists and locals stop by frequently, I can see the town spending what it had to in order to expedite removing the hazard.

11 Likes
73

Sure, it was dangerous and had to come down, but there would be a number of people in that decision loop, politicians, lawyers, engineers, accounting…

It’s remarkable efficiency.

2 Likes
74

Has MTG accounted for her whereabouts? I’m not saying she did it, but “pipe bomb”.

7 Likes
75

.
Wow, they’re enormous! You can see the curve of the Earth in that video!

1 Like
76

True story: Flat earthers felt the Georgia Guidestones proved the earth was flat, because there was a hole where Polaris is always in view at night. Nevermind this is an experiment you could perform in your own backyard any night, and proves quite the opposite.

6 Likes
77

Donald Glover Yes GIF

Yep. European Christianity has a history of violence, especially when you start to see centralization.

snl yes GIF

11 Likes
78

IMO, motivation and outcome is what is required to label something as terrorism.

Not all unauthorized destruction is meant as terrorism, some of it is just vandalism. In my home town about 10 years ago there were several kids making dry ice bombs. Put a little dry ice into a soda bottle, put it in a mailbox, and then run away. The intent was to vandalize and be a general nuisance - even though what they were doing was overtly dangerous. They weren’t targeting any one specific person, it was random. However, had they done this same thing but only to mailboxes of POC, then it would cross over to terrorism.

Another example would be tearing down Confederate statues. Don’t consider that terrorism, if anything it is combating the constant level of terrorism that its presence exuded. But if you tore down a statue of say MLK, then it would become terrorism.

If you had drunk kids ram and knock down the stones at night in their truck, then you might chalk it up to mere vandalism. But given the nature of the destruction (explosives), and the heat they had been getting by far-right Q-Anon types, this act is clearly meant to send a message against the “NWO” and whoever they feel are part of the “NWO”. So it is an act of terrorism.

I highly highly doubt it was an RPG. If it wasn’t a shutter artifact like @anon87143080 said, it probably was muzzle flash from a rifle. It is possible they used Tannerite to blow up the stones by shooting it with a rifle to set it off. Though if that was the case, not sure why some of it was left on scene, apparently. They would have just followed up with a 2nd round.

Dynamite could have been used if someone had access to it from construction or other applications. IIRC with dynamite you have the dynamite, blasting caps, and then wire to run from the detonator to the explosives. Then you need an electric charge via the detonator to send down the wire to set off the caps to set off the dynamite. But I don’t think that would have resulted in a flash like we saw. But it would explain if they didn’t do it right why there would have been explosives still on scene if bundle of sticks did not go off.

There was also a puff of dust between the flash and the explosion. Which could possibly be from the muzzle again kicking up dust, or IIRC watching Mythbusters, the explosion will cause a wave to travel back up the wire and kick up dust.

Anyway - I am sure the ATF/FBI/GBI will figure that out.

3 Likes
79

Not all unauthorised destruction qualifies as terrorism and not all authorised destruction is OK (Philadelphia 1985, Tulsa 1921 are prominent to name but a few). Presumably the perpetrators were no fans of Arthur C. Clarke or the druid ethos, bad architecture, or the ideals embodied in the inscriptions.

Agreed. It’ll be a mystery until then and probably the stuff of future movies.

80

IN this case, the evidence we have thus far leans pretty heavily in that direction.

We are currently living with a hell of a lot of violence from far right, happening on a nearly daily basis. This monument was put into the cross-hairs by a far right candidate running for office here, who explicitly stated that her goal was the destroy it, lost, and has since been very vocal about it, probably ginning up her few, far right supporters.

It might not be, but I’m guessing it’s HIGHLY LIKELY an act of terrorism. We don’t know for sure, but most signs are pointing to yes at this point.

12 Likes
81

The discussion of “terrorism or vandalism” in this case is an interesting one. I come down on the side of “terrorism” for the following reasons:

  1. Cultural context matters. We’re at a time of high violence and political extremism (especially in the US) so unauthorized explosions of any kind take on a very different tone. Even if no property damage occurred- say someone sets off a pipe bomb in an open field. It’s earning terrorism points right away.

  2. The message matters. This was (almost certainly) a christofascist group destroying a thing because they didn’t like the speech on that thing. Using explosions to silence the speech of others is pretty much the definition of terrorism.

  3. The method matters. Improvised bombs are a weapon of terror. Explosions are scary and unauthorized ones are meant to scare. They could have spray painted the monument, or any number of other mild forms of vandalism if they insisted on going outside legal channels, but they chose a bomb.

Of course the Guidestones are a horrible eugenicist fever dream and shouldn’t exist, but that doesn’t make it okay to set off bombs around it.

19 Likes