Anders Breivik wont get his wish for the death penalty or acquital, despite the fact that his claims that he was acting in self defense simply don’t pass the smell test.

Norweigan law permits only a maximum of 21 years in prison. If he’s found insane, he’d be locked away for as long as necessary to keep him from being a menace to society.

Consider that in his statements and evidence proferred, he doesn’t consider the court to have proper jurisdiction, he claims that he was acting in self-defense, and that he justifies the murder of 77 people to be in defense of the creeping multiculturalism and influence of outsiders on Norway.

Part of the problem in determining his sanity and his political claims is that he’s refusing to give any information that might reveal the identities of the Knights Templar and other like-minded individuals with whom he’s had contact and might confirm his claims that he’s part of a wider right-wing white nationalist group intent on fighting against multiculturalism and igniting a race war in the process. Thus far, police have been unable to corroborate his claims of other cells in Europe or Norway though he’s using a vocabulary common to those on the far right and many of these extremists are shifting away from politics towards a potential military solution.

It’s also interesting that he considers al Qaeda to be methodological role models, even though Breivik claims that his goals are isolationist in nature. He’s also claimed that he was inspired by Serbian nationalists, not Nazis, even though Serbian nationalists were inspired by Nazi ideas of ethnic nationalism, racial purity, and unabashed brutality.

Ultimately, his views were inspired by hate and fear of the other - people who didn’t look or act in a manner that he considered to be traditionally Norwegian. They practice different religions - Muslims, or spoke or came from different countries.

Breivik differs from other white supremacists and right wingers only by degree - in acting on his hate and fear, he went beyond what other white supremacists and right wingers have thus far engaged in by murdering dozens of people in the process all because they subscribed to a different political agenda than his own.

His is an outcome resulting from an ideology whose goals are ultimately achieved not through politics, but by violent confrontation and eliminating the political regimes that encourage and protect multiculturalism.