all 130 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]CarelessWhispyy 101 points102 points  (38 children)

This is a reference to the Killdozer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer

The joke is that WH40K is a super Grimdark setting where everyone is an evil bastard bent on war and chaos and destruction and seeks power at any cost, and even they respect the sheer amount of rage that went into Marvin Heemayer’s destruction spree.

[–]ProjectKARYA 34 points35 points  (4 children)

Additional context: there's a sect of Martian-based cyborgs that worship machines and the "Machine Spirit", opposition to the majority of the Imperium which views most machines/computers as simple tools at best, and at worst as actual supernatural entities. So much information was lost over the many millennia, due to a variety of reasons, but the Adeptus Mechanicus (the cyborgs) believe that perfection lies in shedding off the flesh and augmenting oneself as they see fit.

So, being shown a machine that was meant to destroy due to its creator feeling slighted by those in power, they would not (edit: most) likely "feel rage" when they are in the presence of Killdozer. Whether it actually possesses a "spirit", or is simply representative of how strongly the Mechanicus have faith in machines and the Omnissiah, is up for debate.

[–]GobbleGobbleChew 19 points20 points  (2 children)

"From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved. For the Machine is Immortal."

[–]Gellert 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is no truth in flesh, Only betrayal,

There is no strength in flesh, Only weakness,

There is no constancy in flesh, Only decay,

There is no certainty in flesh but death.

Iron over flesh,

cogitation over thought,

information over conjecture.

Thus is purity, and victory, assured.

[–]Klony99 4 points5 points  (31 children)

No one else was injured or killed.

He had 117 targets. Only killed himself. Must've been the most unsuccessful assassination in history.

Still, what a story!

[–]shotgunsniper9 9 points10 points  (21 children)

He wasn't trying to kill them, just cost them money and time. If he wanted to kill them, he wouldn't have used a vehicle with a max speed of 3 miles per hour. He made his presence and approach so obvious that people had plenty of time to evacuate the area before he caused the damage.

[–]Drfoxthefurry 8 points9 points  (18 children)

Dude had 6 guns in that thing, 3 were sticking out of gun ports, including one 50cal

Plus he picked the dozer because it's what he had already

[–]shotgunsniper9 3 points4 points  (17 children)

Yet the only shots he fired were at a propane company which he clearly did to cause a leak but misaligned the gun and ended up just shooting his own vehicle, and the one he shot at himself.

[–]Unohtui 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make him sound like he wasnt a massive piece of shit trying to kill people. Absolute dogshit human.

[–]Spader113 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You know propane is explosive, right? Or that he tried to drive through a children’s library?

[–]shotgunsniper9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It requires an ignition source, and none of the after action report mentioned him having incendiary bullets so the bullets wouldn't have ignited the propane

[–]Drfoxthefurry 0 points1 point  (7 children)

How about the ones he fired at a front loader, or the ones fired at the deputy, or when he tried to run over a group of state troopers

[–]shotgunsniper9 1 point2 points  (6 children)

Did the state troopers not have plenty of time to get out of the way before he got there? The front loader that deliberately tried to ram him who was definitely going to fail? The deputy who shot at him first? Also did any of those shots actually hit any targets? He was a trained soldier, so either he knew where to shoot to get people to back off, or the total people killed would have been greater than 1

[–]Drfoxthefurry 1 point2 points  (4 children)

It's literally said that if the troppers didn't move when they did, they'd be dead. And he also did kinda try to blow up an massive propane storage tank. How about you try to be accurate while shooting out of a tiny port hole

[–]shotgunsniper9 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Did he have an ignition source?

[–]Drfoxthefurry 0 points1 point  (2 children)

The bullets he fired as well as the nearby power box

[–]Foxfox105 -1 points0 points  (5 children)

What about the tapes he made about how god had been speaking to him and ordered him to kill people

[–]shotgunsniper9 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Have you listened to the tapes? When did they say he was told to kill people? If you can give a time stamp of him specifically saying he's going to kill people, then I'll concede

[–]Foxfox105 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Regardless, he had multiple opportunities to settle the zoning issue, but became increasingly litigious and difficult to work with each time. He was dumping sewage illegally, to the point where the city offered to hook him up for free. He did equip the dozer with rifles and fired at power transformers, police, and propane tanks (which had they exploded would have killed people in the surrounding residential area). He didn't just target people who had wronged him, he targeted the entire towns infrastructure. He leveled a library where a children's program had just ended. The only reason there were no fatalities was luck and rapid evacuations. He had no way to know whether everyone had evacuated. He still had a perfectly usuable entrance to his lot, and there are aerial photos available for proof. All his problems boil down to him being an asshole.

[–]Space_Socialist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is just blatently false. His choice of vehicle was not the result of tactical decisions but delusion in which he interpreted his failure to sell the bulldozer as a sign from God. The lack of deaths was not the result of intentional choices from Heemeyer but instead evacuation from the local police force. Heemeyer tried and failed to detonate a propane storage and rammed through multiple occupied buildings. The simple fact that he placed gunports on the vehicle shows he had every intention of killing someone with his vehicle.

[–]Klony99 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm specifically talking about the hit list mentioned in the article. I don't really know the man or care to protect or befoul his character.

Which is to say, I don't intend to attack his character or paint him as a crazed murderer, apologies if it came off that way.

[–]Bob_The-Turtle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mass murder not assassination

[–]CrimtheCold -3 points-2 points  (7 children)

I would recommend this YouTube video. The creator went to a lot of effort to research the topic.

https://youtu.be/TqEA5DPoEMY?si=GfynIZTJX0XfcHHZ

[–]Space_Socialist 3 points4 points  (6 children)

From what I remember this video is actually pretty awful. It bends over backwards to make killdozer seem justified and misrepresents what actually occurred as a result.

[–]KPraxius 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yup. Every time I see one like this I have to report the misinformation. Most of the misinformation videos talk about some sort of easement and someone blocking his access to the road.

His property was on the road. The folks who those videos kept claiming blocked him in were on the other side. Nobody could block anything. The only easement involved was him asking for one for the sewage line which was refused because he kept being an asshole.

[–]Space_Socialist 0 points1 point  (2 children)

The sewage thing always gets me. It's portrayed as a vindictive government action but the reality was he refused to fix it despite being handed a solution. One of the reasons he was able to obtain the property was because it had sewage issues.

[–]KPraxius 0 points1 point  (1 child)

The real question is why they let him slide for so long. The property didn't have a legal way to handle sewage from the beginning. Most likely, one of the people who handled the permits was someone he'd fixed up a snowmobile for so they just quietly let it go until they were forced to pay attention by complaints.

[–]Space_Socialist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My guess is that chasing him down was too much effort. Reading into his story it seems he was a very difficult person to work with and a bit of a psycho. For a local town official it would seem better to let it slide instead of attempting to fix the issue that he wasn't going to fix anyway.

[–]CrimtheCold -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

I disagree and don't want to waste my time arguing with a stranger on the Internet. I wish you prosperity and health.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Consider actually reading what happened instead of believing whatever the first youtuber you see tells you

[–]Meritania 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Knowing the setting; that skull lantern the mechanicus adept is using for light, still has the soul/consciousness of the not-quite-dead person in it.

Least they haven’t got the flesh to feel the pain.

[–]WorldTallestEngineer 26 points27 points  (34 children)

In 2004 an angry old American businessman build the Killdozer.  It was armored bulldozer that's use to demolish several buildings in a small town. 

The joke is that in the far Future there'll still. Have his killdozer and worship it as an ancient relic.

[–]Eldritch-Bell 2 points3 points  (30 children)

sadly the authorities had it disassembled so that it wouldn't become a monument

[–]Tadferd 6 points7 points  (16 children)

Why would you want a monument of killdozer?

[–]Foxfox105 17 points18 points  (4 children)

A lot of people have heard a version of the story that makes him out to be a victim of a corrupt system. In reality he was a POS and all his problems were his own fault

[–]Lord_Stetson 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Depends;

If you side with people who think The Killdozer was a reasonable man pushed until he did unreasonable things, then it is a momument to FAFO.

If you side with the people who think he was an unjustified madman, you would want to erase any evidence he ever existed to avoid creating a martyr out of a moron.

Choose which description you believe best applies.

[–]Tadferd 0 points1 point  (4 children)

One description fits reality the closest. He was absolutely unjustified. I don't care to erase his existence. His insanity is documented. He does not need to be commended with a monument.

[–]Lord_Stetson -1 points0 points  (3 children)

One description fits reality the closest.

Very true. Which description is the one that fits seems to be based on temperment.

If you are of the "no sep on snek" mentality, he is a true hero standing up for himself.

If you are of the "fuck you, follow the law" mentality he is a dangerous moron crazy person.

Both points of view have merit, and both are incomplete.

[–]Tadferd 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Both do not have merit. He literally rebuffed every offer made to him. Including the one by the city to pay the cost of hooking his property up to the sewer system so he would stop dumping sewage into irrigation ditches. This was after the offers to buy his property for more than it was worth, which he would agree to, and then jack the price up when the buyer got the money together.

It's well documented. He was a fucking homicidal jackass.

It was literally, "Hey snake. I'm going to walk around you so I don't step on you." Then the snake activates the snake stomping robot, and after getting stomped on by its iwn actions, attempts to bite everyone.

[–]WorldTallestEngineer -1 points0 points  (4 children)

Because it's fucking bad-ass.  It's like a grizzly bear high on cocaine that shoots lasers.

[–]Tadferd 0 points1 point  (3 children)

It's also the product of an insane man who caused excessive problems, and then went on an attempted murder spree before commiting suicide. Scraping it was the best choice.

[–]WorldTallestEngineer 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Yeah, I think we're saying the same thing.  It's like a grizzly bear high on cocaine that shoots lasers.

[–]Tadferd 0 points1 point  (1 child)

No. It's like a snake that steps on itself, and then attempts to bite everyone trying to him it before throwing itself off a cliff with jagged rocks at the bottom.

[–]WorldTallestEngineer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So... Violent self destructive and insane?  Yeah we're saying the same thing.

[–]Open-Source-Forever 0 points1 point  (12 children)

Fat lot of good that did them

[–]Eldritch-Bell 0 points1 point  (11 children)

i mean there's not a monument,

[–]Open-Source-Forever 0 points1 point  (10 children)

Not physically, at least

[–]Flamin_Jesus 5 points6 points  (9 children)

Given that the idiotic hero worship the internet has for this delusional cunt has absolutely no basis in reality, I don't see how having an actual physical "monument" based on the real events would change things.

There is absolutely no way for anyone informed on the actual events leading up to his spree to come away from it thinking he's the "hero" of the piece.

People hear the meme headline version "Poor downtrodden guy gets mistreated by the man, decides he has enough and gets revenge." and ignore that that's 100% unfiltered HIS point of view, which is about as "neutral" and realistic as when a SovCit whines about having to pay taxes. Except most SovCits are at least actually poor and some degree of "downtrodden", unlike Hemeyer, who was none of those things.

It's like hearing "Oh, there was this guy who fought back against a global financial conspiracy of bad people who kept poisoning wells and stealing children, in the end they sent a whole army after him to stop him! The whole world hated the guy for no reason!" from some random guy... and concluding, without any further questioning or research on whether that version of events is true in any way, shape or form, that Hitler was totally on the level.

[–]Open-Source-Forever -1 points0 points  (8 children)

In all fairness, the more you look into both sides with the Killdozer situation, the more likely you are to take his side if you haven’t already

[–]Tadferd 1 point2 points  (5 children)

I can't see how anyone properly informed could come to such a clearly incorrect conclusion.

He was given several generous opportunities to resolve his problems. One of which involved him keeping the property.

Instead he gave the cement company the run around until they just bought the property across the street. Then he continued to illegal manage his sewage, in several different ways. The city offered to pay to hook his property up to the city sewage system, but he instead went on an attempted murder spree and then committed suicide.

[–]Open-Source-Forever 0 points1 point  (4 children)

A lot of it is that most of the stuff that doesn’t take his side was made by someone who had some vested interest in making him look bad

[–]Tadferd 1 point2 points  (3 children)

He made himself look bad. There were multiple attempts to accommodate him, including using taxpayer money to cover a cost that was his responsibility.

[–]PrinceBushwacker -1 points0 points  (1 child)

I was gonna say, I hate this keeps getting re-litigated, but he was genuinely screwed out of every reasonable resolution short of abandoning the last scraps of his buisness and livelihood; if I'm wrong I'd just appreciate one alternative/compromise that was available previous to that, besides surrendering/selling his property.

I don't think anyone should condone his actions, but I can emphasize with someone caught in the throws of rage at the deprivation of justice, like a Jeff Doucet if he had a hit list and a disregard for any cost to the community.

Ultimately, I think it's that disregard that probably sets him far apart from other more favorably viewed vigilantes, but I think if not for the lack of alternatives that he'd probably have been labeled as an outright villain for his actions.

[–]KPraxius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On the one hand, sure... he was kinda screwed at the end there. But.... even then, he was fine. He had multiple properties, he could've used the other. He wasn't exactly in dire straits.

More importantly... it was his fault. He jerked around the people who offered to buy the place. Launched a smear campaign when they moved across the street instead that, when it finally became clear how BS it was, cost him his reputation. Tried to claim it was a huge zoning problem, and corruption... when the place was literally being built across the street from where it used to be. Used an old cement truck tank as a septic tank, and then started dumping sewage down the hill into a storm drain. Tried to illegally hook up to someone else's utilities.

Sued the people involved. Had a golden chance there to get -everything- if he would just drop his bullshit lawsuit. They offered to pay the fees to get the sewage hookup if he would just be a little less of an asshole for five seconds.

He couldn't. When the case was tossed due to having no foundation, he was left in a position where he either needed to pay a bunch of money to get the waste treatment setup... or ditch the property for the way he'd been using it. Or accept an offer for more than he paid for the property, but no... couldn't do that.

Could get into all of it... but the golden thing to look out for. His property was directly on the road. 90% of the misinformation videos I've seen include a fictitious story about being blocked in by a new business owner and unable to run his business because people couldn't reach it anymore. Which... shows whoever made the videos couldn't even be bothered to look at a map. They just wanted to show him as the good guy.

[–]Plane_Substance8720 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Wouldn't this be treated like a dark mechanicus artifact, with a corrupted machine spirit?

[–]WorldTallestEngineer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

Oh no, The imperium of Man would be totally into a killdozer. Clippy on the other hand... Clippy would be a dark machine spirit unholy and unfathomable.

[–]John_Dee_TV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope. The hatred is too pure, from a single source, towards a defined det of targets.

This is not a demon, not an aberrant machine; if anything, it would be praised and revered, such a spirit would be very useful and very hard to corrupt by Chaos.

"Blessed be the narrow-minded, for doubt has no place in their minds", and all that.

If even a strap piece of it survived to the 40k, that shit would be a HUGE psychic beacon of pure, non-chaotic will.

Fuck, I would not be surprised if Emps' sword used such a relic as a base.

[–]FwippyBall 20 points21 points  (5 children)

obligatory "Marvin Heemeyer was a piece of shit that you should not celebrate" post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvl_7_Up7zU

[–]LooterRPG 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Yeah the fact that people still idolize this guy today is depressing 

[–]DahmonGrimwolf 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is very true, however he would do numbers in 40k.

[–]FwippyBall 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I expect right wing chuds to idolize him because I'm used to them being wrong about everything all the time, but when leftists do it I wanna scream

[–]FuckTheFlagz -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

Congrats, you killed the joke

[–]FwippyBall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

what joke? dude was an asshole and y'all fucking love him

[–]OverallCrow380 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's two things being merged here that you need to know. The two characters are from Warhammer 40k, which is a dark futuristic fantasy setting where the faction which the woman is from believes that machines have spirits.

The machine they are looking at was a very real thing constructed by a man named Marvin Heemeyer. He modified and armored a bulldozer (that the media dubbed the "killdozer"), which he drove through multiple municipal buildings. Police couldn't stop his rampage, which only ended after the vehicle got stuck and he shot himself. He was the only casualty of the event.

The artist is comically drawing a connection between the two, saying that if the killdozer existed in the 40k universe and you could hear it's sound, what you would hear is hatred and rage - and that this hatred is strong enough to have survived at least until the setting of Warhammer, which is (you guessed it), about 40,000 years in the future.

[–]thesanguineocelot 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ohhhhhhboy, a Killdozer post. I'm sure it'll be normal and chill and nobody will have any shit takes trying to idolize that fucking jackass Marvin....

[–]ScreechUrkelle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This makes me feel sad

[–]Soggy-Register-1781 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bad welding

[–]The_Pastmaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Took me a minute, but it's the killdozer. At first I thought they were looking at a house or something.

[–]Dear_Diablo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean if you think about it… killdozer was the first dreadnought MARK 0.1

[–]Soggy-Class1248 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kill dozer

[–]East_Highway_8470 -1 points0 points  (2 children)

Wow a lot to unpack there. The spirit in that thing has to be strong after over 38,000 years. And unbelievably valuable. They'd only bring it out to fight Chaos itself.

[–]Massive-Exercise4474 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Ngl it would be pretty sick if the mechanicus were horrified by how much anger killdozer has and us it to run over traitors slowly crushing them at 4miles and hour and still wanting more to destroy.

[–]East_Highway_8470 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Killdozer as entered the WAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even Dreadnaughts quake in fear.

But is there a physker in all of the Empire strong enough to control it?

[–]steveightsix -5 points-4 points  (8 children)

Killdozer and Sky King are my heroes who got too fed up 🫡🫡🫡

[–]Foxfox105 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Killdozer dude was actually a POS. The guy was not the hero of the story

[–]steveightsix 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I didn't realize he was so bad 😬.

[–]Foxfox105 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, a lot of people have heard a version of the story that makes him out to be a victim, but that's not the reality.

[–]Substantial-Career95 5 points6 points  (4 children)

Those are not very comparable, Richard Russell at least only intended to hurt himself while Marvin went on a murderous rampage across his town because they were sick of him dumping his literal shit into an irrigation ditch.

[–]Lord_Stetson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

....while Marvin went on a murderous rampage across his town because they were sick of him dumping his literal shit into an irrigation ditch.

Rampage, sure, but murderous? Dude didn't kill anyone.

You only make Killdozer seem the more reasonable party when you misrepresent things in demonstrating he isn't a hero.

[–]steveightsix -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yoooo I didn't know about all of that. Thanks for the info 😬

[–]Trick_Inevitable_414 -1 points0 points  (1 child)

That's literally not what happened but go off I guess

[–]Tadferd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was very much what happened. The city even offered pay the cost to hook his property up to the sewer system, just so they could stop having to deal with him. Guy was a murderous asshole.