Like Time Magazine, MSNBC, and the Washington Post, New York Magazine cherry-picked portions of Stack's apparent suicide note, which he posted online, in order to support the contention that he was acting out of a radical hatred of the IRS and the federal government in general.
Also like the those three bastions of media liberalism, NY Magazine did not include the final two lines of Stack's note. They are perhaps the most politically consequential lines in the entire note, yet they were suspiciously absent from the piece. They should also put to rest any notion that this man was in any way affiliated with the Tea Party movement.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Anyone who has ever been to a Tea Party knows that attendees revile Communism. Words like "communist," "socialist," "statist," and "collectivist" are considered epithets.
Yet according to a story on the New York Magazine website headlined "What Do We Know So Far About This Pilot Who Crashed a Plane Into a Building in Austin?" we know six things about Stack:
- He is a software engineer.
- He started off the morning by burning down his own house.
- He then went to Georgetown Municipal Airport north of Austin at about 9:40 a.m. and took off in the Piper. He did not file a flight plan because the weather was clear enough for one not to be required.
- He quickly directed his plane at a seven-story office building at 9430 Research Boulevard in northwest Austin, where, among other companies, about 200 employees of the Internal Revenue Service work.
- He was mad at the IRS, and left what CNN reports was a suicide note on a local website, detailing his trials with the agency. In fact, a lot of his rhetoric could have been taken directly from a handwritten sign at a tea party rally...
- Stack flew the plane low to the ground and veered for the lower floors just before impact. The act is being considered criminal, and not terrorist.
Despite the story being relatively short, NY Magazine managed to blockquote five paragraphs, none of which actually lead into each other in the note (as denoted by the suspension points between them). Nowhere, however, do they mention his praise for communism and scorn for capitalism.
We are … brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was "no taxation without representation." I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a "crackpot" traitor and worse.
…
While very few working people would say that they haven't had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainly that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
…
The law "requires" a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that's not "duress" than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
…
It also made me realize, not only how naïve I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their "freedom" … and they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.…
Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes … isn't that a clever, tidy solution. … I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less.
To selectively quote like this then make such a specious claim despite obvious evidence to the contrary is simply dishonest.
It's one thing to be a partisan hack of a reporter. At least present the facts like, you know, a journalist.
