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Notes -
Years ago I had an idea for a goofy story concerning two characters independently plotting mass shootings in the US. The first character is a misogynistic incel who wants revenge against the Stacies and roasties who've rejected him all his life in favour of Chads. The second character is an Islamic fundamentalist who believes the West is fundamentally, irreparably rotten and degenerate, and the only thing that can save it is the immediate imposition of an Islamic theocracy.
All the logistics and planning for the two mass shootings are ironed out. There's just one problem. The first protagonist is of Arab descent and is named Muhammad Assan: he's savvy enough to realise that, even if he publishes a manifesto long enough to rival Elliot Rodger's, the motivation for his mass shooting will be attributed to Islamism (even though he himself is an atheist) purely on the strength of his name and ethnic background. The second protagonist, meanwhile, is of Chechen descent, is named Adam Abubakarov, only became a zealous Islamic convert in college, and is ambiguously Slavic enough to scan as "white": even if he screams "Allahu akbar!" before commencing his rampage, he realises that his name and skin colour means that his rampage will be assumed to have been motivated by far-right extremism, hatred of women, James Holmes-esque psychosis or similar; his religious beliefs will be a footnote at best. So both would-be murderers are stymied by how to ensure that the underlying messages for their respective rampages are interpreted as intended.
The solution? It's 70 years old and no less effective for it: they'll swap rampages. Adam will publish Muhammad's manifesto under his own name immediately before shooting up a sorority house, and Muhammad will blow up a synagogue immediately after distributing pamphlets containing passages from the Qur'an.
TBH I'd read it.
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