It's a Mad, Mad World

Threats, Death Threats, and Murder @ The Redneck Intellectual

***Late breaking news!

Today’s post arrives as something of a shock, even for me.

On Sunday, I started preparing an issue of “Dumb and Dumber” for today’s delivery. As I was doing my daily scan through the news cycle, I stumbled upon an online newspaper article that left my jaw on the floor.

What follows further below is one of the more bizarre experiences of my life, and it’s certainly the most bizarre experience in the history of this publication.

More on all this anon.

Before I share with you this deeply unsettling story, let me set the broader context, at least my personal context.

Those of you who have subscribed to The Redneck Intellectual since our launch in November 2020 know that I have received my fair share of abusive phone messages, unhinged emails, and the occasional nasty comment left here in the comments section at TRI. All of that is to be expected and is almost always amusing. Some of you also know that I have been threatened every now and then, either with physical violence or threats to my livelihood. You need a thick skin in this line of work.

I first started receiving these kinds of threats in the late 1990s when I was a young faculty member teaching at a small college in Ohio. I had a semi-regular column in the local newspaper and some of my op-eds would get picked up occasionally by the national and international press. In those days, I was mostly writing on K-12 education issues.

The positive responses to my essays relative to the negative ones always ran at a rate of about ten to one, but the “one” was almost always nuts or worse. Rarely if ever did I receive a thoughtful criticism. At a minimum, the negative notes and phone messages were abusive in one way or another, but some letters (email and snail mail) were sometimes more than snide, abusive, or defamatory. Some threatened my livelihood, my physical well being, my property, and some went so far as to wish ill upon my family.

Here are a few examples of my life back in the day.

The wife of a local school board member once sent a nasty letter to the president of my college demanding that I be fired because I had written an article denouncing the so-called “whole-language” method of teaching children how not to read, and I defended phonics as the only true method for teaching children how to read.

Shortly thereafter, the then Provost of same said college sent me a threatening letter for writing an op-ed calling for the shuttering of America’s so-called “Education Schools.” The Provost’s letter clearly suggested that my promotion to full professor would not be looked upon favorably if I continued to think, speak, and write. Silly me.

In response to the Provost’s threat, I was assisted by the academic free-speech organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). FIRE wrote a devastatingly brutal letter to the Provost. She was subsequently forced by the president of the college to take me out to lunch and apologize for her behavior. She was soon thereafter fired (as it were).

During those forgettable years, I received physical threats against my person to which I did not paid much attention. I have a vague recollection of once finding a threatening note on my car in the driveway at home. I drew the line, however, when one person sent me a letter telling me that he hoped my “daughter would die of a gut-wrenching illness.” My then five-year-old daughter was in fact suffering from a chronic “gut-wrenching illness.” That was the first time that I actually called the police, who did in fact visit said person. The gentleman (I use the term loosely) later sent a note of apology.

A few years later, I gave a talk at a college in Pennsylvania that required police protection. The local teachers’ union had read one of my education op-eds and sent ominous threats to the college hoping that my speech would be cancelled. I remember giving the talk with a police officer standing on each side of the podium, protecting me from the baying mob. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed giving a talk as much as that one.

Fast forward to 2020, the year I published my “The Pajama-Boy Nietzscheans” essay, which was followed shortly thereafter by three more essays on that queerly-named fellow, the Bronze Age Pervert (see here, here, and here). Mr. Pervert was not happy with the essays and set loose his BAP Boys, who sent me hundreds of abusive emails, messages, phone messages, and emails.

One of the tough guys (always writing under a pseudonym) published this Tweet in reference to yours truly:

And then a real nutter posted the following series of threats:

More recently, the threats have escalated to a new level. As I wrote in “Welcome to My World” (an essay cataloging some of the abuse I had received for writing two essays in defense of Jonathan Yudelman, i.e., “Who Will Defend Jonathan Yudelman?” and “The Yudelman Affair”), a troublesome trend clearly seems to be developing in America.

Intellectual, political, and religious differences are not to be tolerated. They’re to be obliterated. All must think alike. All must toe the party line. All must obey. All must bend the knee. Those who don’t must be defamed, threatened, hurt, ruined, or, as we all now know, murdered. Coercive force and violence have replaced thought, logic, proof, persuasion, and, most of all, good will.

More recently, in response to my “Nihilism and the Crisis of the West” essay, someone named John Jacob left not-so-veiled threatening comments in the comments section here at TRI.

A good friend of mine, a retired naval officer, has told me repeatedly that I should be reporting all of the threats to local law enforcement. I’ve always pooh-poohed his suggestions on the grounds that Mrs. Redneck is armed to her teeth (what few teeth she has left), locked-and-loaded, and ready to defend her man (well, most of the time or at least some of the time). That always seemed good enough to me—until now.

We all now know that America is a different place today than it was even in 2020, particularly in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The world is full of psychologically unbuttoned political lunatics, who have crossed the psychological Rubicon between civilization and barbarism.

And now, finally, on to the story of the day.

A few years ago, there was a self-evidently disturbed person on this site who would occasionally read some of The Redneck Intellectual’s essays and leave crazy comments. His name is Lorenz Kraus. His comments were typically snarky, abusive, and most often just plain kooky—and I mean really kooky. To be clear: not just a little bit kooky but a lot kooky. Eventually, I banned him from commenting at The Redneck Intellectual.

I thought I was done with him forever—until today.

This morning, as I was scanning the news, I ran across a headline that caught my eye: “Man arrested after confessing to killing his parents in TV interview.” I opened the link and read in dismay.

The article tells the story of a 53-year-old man who confessed during a TV interview a few days ago to murdering his parents in their home in 2017. He admitted to burying his mother and father in their backyard two days later, and he also admitted to collecting their Social Security checks for the last eight years.

The murderer’s name is Lorenz Kraus, and, yes, it’s the same Lorenz Kraus who has been a troll here at The Redneck Intellectual. Some of you even engaged with him. Thankfully, he was arrested immediately after the interview.

I’m linking below to Kraus’s TV confession, and I’m also providing screen shots of the statement he wanted to share with the world after his arrest. The reasons he gives in the interview for murdering his parents are, at a minimum, morally repugnant rationalizations and no doubt lies. Of his intellectually deranged written declaration, I can make no sense of it, nor do I care to. It’s bonkers.

Here is Lorenz Kraus’ Interview and Confession

And here is Kraus’ Written Statement on his “Creed”

Yes, the murderer who wrote this insane screed was actually on this site leaving equally insane comments. I have no time or patience for this lunacy. If y’all would like to figure out the meaning of his screed in the comments section, please go ahead. I will not attempt to make sense of it.

I now have a newly-found appreciation for the recommendations of my Navy friend, who cautioned me to protect myself and my family. Mrs. Redneck has been given the green light to restock her arsenal.

Let me say this loudly and clearly: Any person found to be abusive or threatening in the comments section here at The Redneck Intellectual will be banned forever. Same for those who send me threatening private messages. I will report you to the police. Lastly, I will also make you famous by publicly posting your written comments or voicemails here at TRI.

I shall return next week to our regular programming.

(Afterthought: This past weekend, I dug out of a buried box in the basement my correspondence with that former Provost from the spring and summer of 2000. As I reread our exchange of letters, I was reminded of the fact, and with a modest degree of pride, that I had done the right thing. I chose the road of principle with my career on the line and didn’t waver. I also found and reread a scolding letter from a now former friend and colleague denouncing me for my “imprudence.” He wrote that he agreed with my positions (e.g., defending children against Progressive education), but that it was imprudent to state them publicly. His letter was a reminder of how prudence is often a cover for pragmatism and how pragmatism is often a cover for cowardice. I would later write a book inspired by my experiences during those years. The book is titled Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea.)

I regret nothing. I chose the road less travelled, as Robert Frost once wrote, and that choice “has made all the difference.”

Be well, my friends!