Moral Hazards - A 2024 Redux Full manifesto of EcoTerrorists "Volcano Group", who attacked energy infrastructure near Tesla's plant in Germany yesterday.
The very worst of humanity steeped in ignorance.
MAR 6
In May 2023, we penned a Substack post titled โMoral Hazardsโ. In the piece, we highlighted the new movie How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning How to Fight in a World On Fire, based on the book by Swedish Professor of Human Ecology and devout Eco-Marxist Andreas Malm. The Hollywood drama had just been released as an independent film the previous month, timed for Earth Day 2023.
The movie tells the story of a small ragtag group of angry environmental activists from across the country, all offended by a variety of activities caused by oil and gas development and refining, from California to North Dakota to Texas. They gather in west Texas to plot and carry out an act of EcoTerrorism against a pipeline.
In the piece, we also highlighted actual recent U.S. Department of Justice convictions of right-wing activists who were plotting to attack and disable electric substations with firearms. There have been several firearms attacks against substations in America over the last few years.
In that piece, we warned of the dangers posed by political fanatics who might target energy infrastructure to advance their ideologies. We wrote:
It would be unwise to underestimate the potential consequences that violence by disaffected, angry, nihilistic radicals on both sides of the political debate could have on western civilization if they turn their โmoralโ outrage on energy infrastructure. We can see such a degradation of order quickly descending into a downward economic and civilizational spiral none of us would recognize and only the perpetrators would choose. The mentality of โburning it all down,โ whether the object of oneโs outrage is fossil fuels/climate change or centrally-planned Statism, is a less-than zero sum game and high-speed road to hell for everyone.
We asked the question about such ideologies and actions, โis it ignorance or is it malevolence?โ
Yesterday, an EcoLeftist faction calling itself โVolcano Group Shutting Down Teslaโ set fire to a high voltage power line tower near the Tesla plant in Gruenheide, Germany outside Berlin. The resulting fire cut power to the Tesla plant as well as thousands of homes, impacting ~60,000 people. Power was restored for most residents within a day, but the plant remained offline.
โVolcano Groupโ posted an online manifesto in German. We quickly translated and scrutinized the document to see what we could glean.
We take political activists like โVolcano Groupโ at their word, and we take their words at face value. Accordingly, we can confidently say that while ignorance could be a factor in this attack, it was clearly motivated by malevolence.
Completely ignorant people are not able to articulate heat content of the tires they used as fuel, the melting point of steel, and consider how heat would effect physical properties of the support tower, such as metal stiffness, tensile strength and elasticity, buckling effects, twisting or deflection of the power line tower as part of their calculated act of terrorism. All of these are referenced in the manifesto.
As with our May 2023 Substack post Moral Hazards, we contemplated the possibilities that posting their manifesto might risk creating a Streisand Effect moment for Volcano Group, drawing attention to their EcoTerrorist attack, and spurring copycat attacks in Europe or America. But we believe this marks a new phase in domestic terrorism in advanced nations, and the more people understand the threats posed by this type of ideology the better.
A U.S. News & World Report story on the attack yesterday noted that in 2019, Berlin authorities listed โVulkangruppen, or volcano groups, as left-wing extremist organizations. Unknown individuals have been committing arson attacks in Berlin under the name Vulkangruppen since 2011.โ
Another reason we chose to post the full manifesto is that we expect traditional media to avoid doing so. Given the fact that Volcano Group is clearly associated with left-wing political radicals, we have little faith that traditional media publications, particularly those in Europe where the attack occurred, will give this story, much less the full manifesto, much air.
Based on our read of the manifesto, and the attack they perpetrated on energy infrastructure yesterday in Germany, we are comfortable describing Volcano Group as an EcoTerrorism wing of Antifa in Europe. We may have more to say about Volcano Group and this event in a future piece as new information unfolds in the story.
With that framing, we present Volcano Groupโs complete manifesto related to its attack on the high voltage lines near the Tesla plant in Germany yesterday
This is inevitable when you demoralize an entire generation and then, on top of that, you create a virtue spiral. If we are all going to die by 2030 because of climate change there is little you can do that is immoral in that context to stop it. Sure, destroy a massive energy structure. Okay, ten people die. But so what, in the context of billions dying.
Think of this in the context of the giant battery boats proposed for NY Harbour. A multi B$ floating structure that could be sunk with a couple of pounds of Semtex.