The first chapter of the black-and-white PDF magazine begins with an ominous warning. Over four dense pages, the anonymous writers paint a picture of "an anti-tech revolution, beginning with the annihilation of the U.S. energy grid."
"The horrific effects of a nationwide blackout cannot be understated. Hospitals would fail. … Financial collapse," the magazine reads, continuing to detail traffic chaos, dwindling supplies of clean water and spreading disease before concluding that a successful attack targeting key points on the electrical grid would lead to "the collapse of the system … chaos, agony, and death."
The magazine was obtained by TPM in a chat group on the encrypted app Telegram dedicated to "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski. Along with the breathless depiction of a widespread blackout, it included a precise list of the locations of "THE MOST CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ELECTRIC SUBSTATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES."
This apocalyptic brand of extremist rhetoric — and the focus, specifically, on targeting substations — is part of a growing phenomenon that has captured the attention of both the far right and law enforcement. The trend has resulted in a dramatic rise in attacks that have left tens of thousands of people without power. Experts have attributed the wave to the digital spread of right-wing accelerationist ideology, which aims to hasten societal collapse, and materials like this magazine that encourage and provide instructions for targeting the grid.
Participants in the Telegram chat where TPM obtained the magazine shared it on multiple occasions, along with Kaczynski's writings, details on how he made his "boom packages," bomb making manuals and plans to build homemade, untraceable "ghost guns." They also hurled racial slurs and anti-gay rhetoric while talking about plans for staging attacks.
"I think you guys should start writing some manifesto papers but keep them hidden so no one will find them," wrote one member of the chat in August 2022. "Then one day if you unexpectedly die, there will be some papers on what you believed in."
A few days later, the member, whose avatar featured a glaring bald eagle, posted an even more specific vision naming a major provider of abortion care and reproductive health services.
"If I were to do something (If society doesn't start changing i might) I will take my time and plan carefully," they wrote, adding, "There is a planned parenthood not too far away."
Due to the inflammatory and potentially dangerous nature of the content, TPM is not naming the magazine, the alias of its writers, or the chat group in which we obtained it. One of the members who posted the magazine said it had been "removed" from other sites and "marked as terrorism." They noted that it "contains the addresses of those substations and how to deal with them" and encouraged other members of the chat to "download" it or keep it "somewhere you can access it."
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