Reply #85: Just read your points below, so deleting the snarkiness.

[JoeyT]

I will add that it's entirely possible he's perfectly sane. People that become involved in ultra right-wing groups tend to look crazy to outsiders, just because we can't imagine being that paranoid or angry. If you spend a bit of time around someone that's becoming involved in one, you can actually watch the progression from a sane person that's moderately conservative as they gradually slip further and further from reality.

Viewed from close to, these groups aren't actually all that different from growing up in a radical Muslim environment. There's a chosen group, and everyone that isn't in that group are enemies that are dehumanized. As time passes the dehumanization progresses more and more until "Not worth saving" often becomes "Deserves to die" frequently becomes "Someone should kill" sometimes becomes "I should kill.". The group itself is usually virtually indistinguishable from a cult. They often even cut themselves off from family if the family disagrees with them or won't join up.

So whether the guy was insane or not depends on what we're going to use as the definition of insane. Any definition that includes most of the people involved in these groups will almost have to include nearly every terrorist ever of every religion or political stripe.