One ancient Roman historian noted a case of a wild Germanic warrior who, frothing form his mouth, plunged alone into a Roman formation and was promptly slashed in the throat by several short swords. The anecdote served as a warning to those men trying to be “brave”. Was Richard Russell, who died by suicide after barrell-rolling a plane into a mountain, such a fool, or was he something more?
We don’t know what drove the Sky King to his actions other than from his own admission that he perhaps “had a couple of screws loose”. Or that he was struggling with his high-paced work as a ground service agent for Horizon Air, making ends meet.
When a jet fighter pilot, who was chasing the Bombardier that Russell had successfully hijacked and gotten off into the air, said, "they would give you a job doing anything if you could pull this off", Russell replied, "Yeah right! Nah, I'm a white guy."
And that simple remark, that he was a w-h-i-t-e g-u-y, made his death so iconic, if not heroic, for millions of White men instantly identified. Too many White men are, in fact, just as quietly suicidal, only pushing on to meet family expectations. Men feel they are the slaves of a society that never cared about them, and never will.
The internet is divided here. Wasn’t Russell just a man who abandoned his duties as a lover to his girlfriend, and a son to his family? Or was he, as in the eyes of his supporters, a hero who made a statement against the smallness of life, the rigidness of economic authority, the lack of purpose, growth, and development offered a White man?
I get the feeling that the hatred some White women feel for their brothers, fathers, uncles, grandfathers, and sons has been made public policy. And I say this because this oikophobic (self-race-hating) policy creates men such as Richard Russell, who'd rather die a stuntman’s death than try looking for a better job.
To many White men, Russell indeed became an instant cult hero with a massive online following. The "Sky King" memes still return once in a while on the social medias. So how did one man's suicidal wish turn into a heroic inspiration? It was, in part, because this working man taught himself how to fly a Bombardier Q400 passenger plane and do a barrell roll with it just by watching YouTube videos.
And because Russell did what too many men think of doing: clocking the fuck out of this rigid, unhuman life that leaves no room for one's self-betterment.
Every working White man feels this: We are stuck, life isn’t going anywhere, society is crumbling, and the controlling feminist women (of the Devouring Mother archetype) are threatening to eat their young lest they die in wars for economic profits.
In opposition to this dying-and-being-devoured world, Russell’s message communicated that there is a thing of genius hiding in every working-class White man, and if only we wouldn't fear death, the world would learn to fear us instead.
It’s not about committing suicide doing a big stunt. It’s about living heroically.