Cody Wilson Uses COVID-19 Crisis To Re-enter Extremist Movement
A registered sex offender and antigovernment icon is trying to use the current global pandemic to whitewash his image. A recent post on Jacobite magazine鈥檚 website seeks to remind readers of Cody Wilson鈥檚 past contributions to the movement and to cast doubt on the government responsible for his arrest and sentencing.
Wilson, of Austin, Texas, went underground nearly two years ago after he 鈥渆ngaged in sexual intercourse and oral sex鈥� with an underage girl at an Austin hotel in 2018, according to an affidavit filed by local police. Wilson paid the girl 鈥渇ive $100 bills,鈥� the affidavit said. He was charged with sexual assault and led police on an international manhunt聽before he was , in September 2018.
Wilson pleaded guilty to 鈥渓esser injury of a child,鈥� a less severe sentence, according to court documents filed Aug. 9. The plea deal required him to register as a sex offender for seven years, to pay a fine and restitution, and to perform community service.
According to ArsTechnica, the judge admonished Wilson at his hearing, 鈥淚 see no reason to not go 聽though there is sufficient 聽to find you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for more than 鈥榠njury to a child.鈥欌��
Less than six months after announcing that the plea deal would allow him to , the registered sex offender and antigovernment movement icon offered up his thoughts on the current COVID-19 crisis.
On April 16, Wilson published a blog on the Jacobite website. The 鈥淐ovid-911鈥� post is typical Wilson. Citing Baudrillard, he spouts the conspiracy theory du jour: the current global pandemic is being leveraged to create a digital and philosophical police state.
Wilson suggests a solution to 鈥渃heck this system of deterrence in broad daylight,鈥� again citing the post-Marxist cultural theorist:
鈥淭his, Baudrillard tells us, only terrorism can do.鈥�
Wilson stops short of direct incitement to violence, though he doesn鈥檛 voice opposition to mounting calls for violent reprisal against the state in antigovernment circles.
鈥淐OVID-911,鈥� in spite of its invocation of 鈥渢errorism,鈥� isn鈥檛 even really a call to action. True, Wilson calls for readers to create 鈥渧iral simulacra鈥� that will bring the system to its knees. The thrust of Wilson鈥檚 Jacobite musings deal with 鈥淕un Models鈥� as one such form of simulacra.
It鈥檚 a familiar story. Prior to his arrest, Wilson was lauded as an antigovernment wunderkind, a man who single-handedly drew the government into a lawsuit over whether gun schematics constitute free speech after releasing the files to his website in 2013. The files would allow anyone with an internet connection and a 3D printer to create an unregistered 鈥淟iberator鈥� pistol, a single-shot pistol Wilson designed.
Wilson invokes the history of the Liberator and the work of his Austin company, Defense Distributed, to remind the audience of his past relevance, a year and a half after Wilson fled the country for Taipei City.
Wilson makes a fleeting mention of his arrest, criticizing the 鈥渟ame powers that chased 鈥� and drawing a line between his fight to legalize 3D-printed gun files, his arrest and prosecution, and 鈥渢he system.鈥� It鈥檚 here that the thrust of 鈥淐OVID-911鈥� becomes apparent.
The assertion is that if the government, public health officials and tech companies, aka the 鈥渢otal state,鈥� is willing to lie to citizens in order to uphold the fa莽ade of the 鈥渟imulation鈥� undergirding global pandemic, then they should not be trusted about the circumstances around Wilson鈥檚 guilty plea.
ArsTechnica 聽that at his sentencing, a statement from the mother of Wilson鈥檚 victim was read aloud to the court:
Our daily life was shattered, but she never wavered from the truth. Once she knew who you are and what you did, she never wavered. She remembers the gun you put in her hands and the feeling of your skin. But you ran, despite the publicity you have always been seeking from your fans and followers, you ran. You hid in a foreign airport and . She stood up in a public forum despite talk of conspiracies and setups...
I pray that you will not be killed, especially that you will not be killed by a gun. ... The truth is you are now hiding behind the laws of the country you mocked for years. But the biggest truth is my daughter is strong, vibrant, and has a beautiful future. And I speak this truth in front of you because that鈥檚 the most important truth in all of this.
Photo illustration by 人兽性交
