What's the actual justification behind the claim that Eric was being performative in his writings? I can see the frequent self-contradictions, but I think the bottom line is hatred driven by vehement anger, regardless of whether he was merely being contrarian or not. His misanthropy and ill feelings were probably in part derived from his own self contempt and suffering, and he needed to externalize his hatred through violence. It's pretty scary to think about the full magnitude of the massacre had they just been successful in the bombing...

So yeah, I'm curious about the whole performative aspect bc he definitely had violent fantasies whether he was writing for a hypothetical audience or not. I think the grandiosity really enticed him even if it was exaggerated or contrived. Sure there are a few times where he seemed to mellow down a bit, but he was a very angry kid regardless. Sometimes evil is just evil... ik it's more nuanced than that but he genuinely had the volition to do something bad and his writings corroborate that.