Skip to Content Subscribe Our Offers My Account Manage My Subscriptions FAQ Newsletters Canada Canadian True Crime Canadian Politics Health World Israel & Middle East Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Comics NP News Quiz New York Times Crossword Horoscopes Life Eating & Drinking Style Sponsored Play for Ontario Travel Travel Canada Travel USA Travel International Cruises Travel Essentials Culture Books Celebrity Movies Music Theatre Television Business Essentials Advice Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Buy Canadian Home Living Outdoor Living Kitchen & Dining Tech Style & Beauty Personal Care Entertainment & Hobbies Gift Guide Travel Guide Amazon Prime Day Deals Savings National Post Store More Sports Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Soccer Golf Tennis Driving Vehicle Research Reviews News Gear Guide Obituaries Place an Obituary Place an In Memoriam Classifieds Place an Ad Celebrations Working Business Ads Archives Healthing Epaper Manage Print Subscription Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ Newsletters Canada World Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Life Shopping Epaper Manage Print Subscription HomeNP CommentTerry Newman: Montreal shooter was a revolutionary communistContrary to reports, Seth Hatfield's manifesto is about taking down capitalism through terrorism, not lashing out against women You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.The Aylo (formerly MindGeek) building windows, across the street from the Hilton Hotel, were shot out during yesterday’s police incident. Aylo is a Canadian multinational pornographic conglomerate owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners based in Montreal and Luxembourg. Dave Sidaway / Montreal GazetteOn Monday, in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood, 25-year-old Seth Hatfield of Lethbridge, Alta., is alleged to have carried out a shooting that resulted in the deaths of an officer and a civilian before he was fatally shot by police. Initial media reports described Hatfield as an “incel” who sought to target women. Yet his 104-page manifesto is unarguably pro-communist, anti-western and anti-Zionist. It blames what he sees as the displacement of monogamy not on women, but on capitalism and consumer culture.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorHatfield argues that modern “hypergamy” — which he defines as the opposite of monogamy — has displaced monogamy as a direct consequence of this system. Under “high capitalism,” he argues, human relationships have been commodified, economic pressures have intensified sexual market inequalities and liberal consumer culture has eroded the conditions that once allowed average men to find mates.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againThe manifesto ends with his solutions, which include a list of targets and a call for acts of terror.Envisioning himself as some sort of revolutionary thinker, Hatfield encourages the publication of his manifesto in Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin, suggesting it may be “even more well-received” in these countries than in “western nations.”His goal is to “elucidate the true nature of the West to the inhabitants of those places, so that they may be disillusioned of any residual notions of western advancement or ‘superiority’ that they might still hold.”But this is by no means a simple case of a man who hates women and wants to murder them for being shunned or for competing with him for jobs, like Montreal’s Polytechnique shooter, Marc Lépine. Hatfield certainly has complaints about what he sees as common relationship problems with women, but he actually doesn’t blame them directly — he blames capitalism for what he refers to as “gloomy and pervasive male loneliness.”The “Foundations” section of the manifesto is a sociobiological exploration of sexual dimorphism: men can spread their seed widely while women cannot, driving intense male sexual competition for female attractiveness. It argues that the shift from primitive hunter-gatherer societies was beneficial, particularly because monogamous intimacy enabled male self-actualization.But Hatfield says this isn’t the case anymore, in what he refers to as the “high capitalist societies” of the “western world,” where “monogamy is no longer prevalent at all.” Hatfield suggests that the primary mode of intimacy in Canada and the United States is hypergamy.Once again, he blames capitalism for this state of affairs, leaning heavily on Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” and using terms like “bourgeois,” “proletarians” and “lumpenproletariat” throughout. He complains about bankers, merchants and businessmen. He argues that monogamy simply proved to be less profitable for the bourgeois than hypergamy.In fact, he says the characteristic feature of the hypergamy state is “an intense and appallingly unequal distribution of intimacy within the human population,” which sounds like a bizarre reformulation of Marx’s critique of wealth distribution under capitalism, but applied to intimacy.And, of course, if you blame capitalism, you likely see communism as a cure for all your woes. Hatfield bemoans the fact that after the world wars, “the international communist movement was still not as powerful as the western capitalist world,” which meant that the West was “absolutely free to restructure western society to their own wishes, namely towards the goal of increasing their profit and power.”In contrast, he puts communism on a pedestal — saying, “In regard to the communist world it is the case that little or none of the rampant degeneration of the west occurred there; and monogamy, along with traditional cultural customs, were maintained rather consistently” — and decries the fact that there are “but five communist countries left on earth.”You may not be surprised to hear that someone who loves communism is also anti-Zionist. I wasn’t, as the two go hand-in-hand these days. In his footnotes, Hatfield writes: “There was amongst the western bourgeois class many Jews, who in their newly acquired power immediately set about creating the State of Israel, which became essentially a kind of base from which they were to assist in the expansion of capitalist hegemony in conjunction with American and British corporations.”He then says that, “The influence of Zionist Jews upon the western bourgeoisie is in fact so strong that in my other works I sometimes refer to the western ruling class itself as the Judaeo-bourgeois class.” Then, as if an afterthought, he adds that it’s important to note that not all Jews are “globalist/imperialist” or “elite Zionists.”The most shocking part of the document is when Hatfield muses over who is “most worthy of being liquidated,” after already deciding that terror is both “effective” and “moral.” He then moves on to his targets. Hatfield doesn’t advocate for people to run over women with a truck or anything like that. In fact, the only mention of women as targets isn’t even specific (he lists “prominent individuals who are pornographic actors or actresses”).Surprisingly, Hatfield writes, “Women, though their behaviour can be very hurtful, are generally not at fault for things, nor are most of their male partners.” Instead, he insists, “It is the highly powerful and influential people — favoured males or otherwise — along with their most loyal, vile and crucial accomplices who are at fault for everything.”He then lists two classes of targets. Class A includes individuals like powerful CEOs, billionaires and elite bankers. Chillingly, it also includes places where they should be attacked, like conferences and corporate headquarters, echoing the alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione, who some on the left consider a hero.Class B includes individuals like drug dealers, pedophiles and creators of depraved content, like porn. Hatfield had set himself up, perhaps purposely, across from PornHub’s headquarters in Montreal.After listing these types of individuals and detailing how best to attack them, he bemoans the fact that, due to police capabilities, revolutionary acts committed by those like himself will ultimately result in death.Hatfield then writes about “permanent revolution” and the “preservation of the future order.” Again, he draws on Marx for his future vision of a world without hypergamy: the abolition of private property without compensation, the centralization of credit in a state bank, a planned economy and full state control over transportation and communications.Disturbingly, he ends by encouraging readers to use blades, bombs, guns or all of the above to attack the people and places on his list, advising them to: “Be unflinching, go forth, and KILL THEM ALL!”Is Hatfield an incel? In some respects, yes. But his violent, ideological bent is unarguably communist.National Post Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.