This is a one year old project which hosts a huge archive of texts related to Ted Kaczynski.

The website works just like Wikipedia, where anyone can submit new texts to the website and new edits of texts currently on the website.

We, everyone who has contributed, have archived:

• A ton of primary source documents on Ted's life and ideas.

• Documents analyzing the effect he had on the public's understanding of radical environmentalists, anarchists, terrorists, criminals, the mentally ill & simple mental neurodivergence.

• Lots of great suggested reading on anarchism & other issues.

We, the librarians who bought the website domain, are pro-tech anarchists, but we just find his life story and impact really interesting.

So, we’re hoping the website can work to draw people in with similar politics to him and similar mental health issues frankly. Then for the cold hard reality of the primary source reading material, the epic-ness of the suggested reading material and the inviting discussion spaces connected to the website, to all have a deprogramming effect and be a mental health support.

For example, a popular text on the website for a while was simply a book on how to Unfuck Your Friendships and the discord has already played host to a discussion between people encouraging each other to think rationally about their depression diagnosis.

Which texts go up on the website is decided by a small collective of librarians, but all decisions will be put to a debate that anyone can join, in the live chat discussion spaces linked below.

Discussion Spaces

On the discord and matrix live chat spaces you’ll get:

• Updates on when new texts go live.

• Help with how to request rare documents from university archives.

• The chance to co-ordinate with others on copy typing up handwritten documents onto the website.

• The option to debate what new texts go up on the website.

Ethical steps taken by this project

We have a list of essays critiquing Ted’s politics & philosophy on the front page of the website.

There are long critiques and disclaimers added to some texts and we aim to add more.

When collecting together research on misanthropic groups and projects, we simply title the text ‘a text dump on ______’. That way for example we don’t dignify fictional stories terror groups weave when they write their own press releases and title them as communiqués.

Anyone can join the debate over which texts should go up on the website, obviously if you join just to troll or spam though, you will be removed.

A record will be kept of all texts that were rejected, whether for minor formatting reasons or deeply held political reasons.

A record will also be kept of controversial texts that were approved, where for example there was a sizable disagreement.

Ideally, in the future we will have popular sorting mechanisms directly under the main search box, such as a check box for 'only anarchist texts' that would exclude texts labelled 'not anarchist'.

Frequently asked questions

Why idolize Ted by naming the website after him?

People who are curious about his life and impact are just the main audience we hope to draw in with this website.

Since we think he's going to be remembered as a true crime curiosity anyways, we thought we might as well capitalize on that interest and create a space to promote critiques of people with similar politics to him and advice that can help people with similar mental health issues to him.

Also, there are other anarchist archives with similar names such as The Ted Kaczynski Papers.

Finally, here are the words of one of Ted's intended bombing victims, on the positive value of making lots of Ted's rarer writings available to the public:

“I respectfully urge the court ... to open all the Kaczynski materials, including the decoded journals, to public scrutiny in the expectation that valuable public safety information may be obtained and used to save many lives. Academician analysts will certainly be able to draw a more accurate picture of the mind of a killer and the connections to eco-terrorism if the original materials are in their hands.”

—‘William Dennison of the California Forestry Association, the individual to whom the bomb was addressed that killed Gil Murray in April of 1995.’

Was Ted K ever an anarchist?

He definitely identified as an anarchist in the 1990s at least. His first letter to the media, in June 1993, began with the words: "We are an anarchist group calling ourselves FC." A later communiqué from April 1995 repeated: "We call ourselves anarchists." The Manifesto discusses "our particular brand of anarchism".

Also, for many years after his arrest his message remained fairly consistent: "the social ideal I would put forward is that of the nomadic hunting-and-gathering society." Plus, that: "after the techno-industrial system has been eliminated, people can and should fight injustice wherever they find it."

Does Ted K have any relevance to anarchism?

I think Wayne Price said it best when he answered this question in the following way:

First, I answer “No.” His views have nothing in common with my views on anarchism. And even the most misguided anarchist bomb-throwers and assassins of the past would not have killed professors and students.

But I also say “Maybe.” His views are similar to those of many anarchists: the lack of interest in developing a strategy for popular revolution; the belief that the enemy is industrial technology; not building an organization; not participating in popular struggles, but acting as an elite above the people; the worship of violence, abstracted from popular struggle; a willingness to impose their views on the people, even while denouncing as vanguardist those who try to persuade people. Perhaps I could add: an ambiguity about democracy, seeing anarchism as for freedom versus democracy, rather than as the most extreme form of democracy. All these concepts are reflected in the Unabomber’s letters and actions and are also held by various trends within the anti-authoritarian movements. No doubt the Unabomber will be used as an excuse for denouncing anarchism. The movement would be wise to prepare by having open discussion about him and his methods.

For further reading on this subject click here.

How easy was the website to set up?

We just bought the domain then asked the good folks at Anarchist Libraries.net to set up the Amuse Wiki software. They did it all for us for free, had it running virtually right away and have helped answer any questions.

If you're curious to live chat to them, there's a channel on the Hexchat program under Libera.Chat channels #amusewiki and #anarchistlibrary.

If you'd like to set up your own website with AmuseWiki software you can attempt to follow the steps described here and/or email anarchistlibraries-request@inventati.org.