In the wake of this weekend’s deadly shooting in Buffalo, we witnessed yet another mad rush to use one monster’s horrific act to impugn millions of people over their political leanings.
And you thought it was just Rolling Stone and Dalia Lavin? pic.twitter.com/xyd6JHkmHj
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) May 16, 2022
This happens every time, without fail, and only tends to come to an abrupt halt when the perpetrator’s political views (if politics are even a factor) undermine the preferred narrative. We saw it in Waukesha, for example.
As far as we can tell, conservatives and Republicans as a whole have quite rightfully categorically denounced the beliefs and actions of Payton S. Gendron, not that they would ever have claimed him as one of their own. Indeed, Gendron’s views aren’t nearly as easy to pin down as many on the Left have been hoping.
While public access to his manifesto has been considerably limited, Grabien’s Tom Elliott has pulled some passages that make the efforts to align Gendron’s views with conservatism or the Republican Party a lot more difficult.
Buffalo killer says he specifically chose NY because their gun-control laws meant legally armed civilians would be limited to 10 round magazines. pic.twitter.com/JC41aVFegB
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Buffalo killer says he’s a fascist, racist, and proud anti-Semite pic.twitter.com/YE8aEGqI1G
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Buffalo killer says he “wants no part” of political conservatism and is open to being called socialist pic.twitter.com/ZQrDHIA4TQ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Buffalo killer says his views evolved from “communist ideology” and says he now "falls in the mild-moderate authoritarian left
category, and I would prefer to be called a populist” pic.twitter.com/r6rjTeUrl2— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Like the New Zealand killer, the Buffalo killer aligns himself with “eco fascism” pic.twitter.com/QkcbH2JciY
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
"Who knows maybe it’s the two shots of covid vaccine juice going
through my bloodstream that’s really making me do this." pic.twitter.com/LmAg82zufw— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
"Before I begin I will say that I was not born racist nor grew up to be racist. I simply became racist after I learned the truth. I started browsing 4chan in May 2020 after extreme boredom, remember this was during
the outbreak of covid.” pic.twitter.com/VQEx2CDCqo— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Buffalo killer: I am a lone wolf pic.twitter.com/S6Ly1uhFOP
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Buffalo killer hates libertarians, falsely claims it’s “largerly pioneered by Jews” pic.twitter.com/Xx6jonVGGV
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Buffalo killer again emphasizes NY´s gun laws in explaining how he chose his location (also note his choice of gun was meant to elicit a media freakout) pic.twitter.com/x7hRmBJjLc
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Buffalo killer addresses a section of his manifesto to attacking conservatives, ending with "CONSERVATISM IS DEAD. THANK GOD" pic.twitter.com/nQsQ3Bs9DV
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Echoing again his idol, the New Zealand mass murderer, the Buffalo killer writes of support for "green nationalism" pic.twitter.com/CixECWUCrL
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
The Buffalo killer on "anti-white" capitalists pic.twitter.com/OXlK9lPPmE
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
The Buffalo killer: Anti-free markets, pro-"fair trade," eco activist, race-obsessed. pic.twitter.com/Hb7dbVn5RZ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Those things aren’t exactly hallmarks of conservatism, are they?
Examples of the Buffalo killer plagiarizing the New Zealand killer.
NZ: "Rampant urbanization and industrialization, ever expanding cities and shrinking forests, a complete removal of man from nature, with the obvious results.” pic.twitter.com/nsdgBTmlIJ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
We’re not here to suggest that Gendron speaks for all environmentalists or socialists or communists or anti-capitalists when he decides to go on murderous rampages, but rather to present a portrait of a deeply disturbed and profoundly broken young man whose hate and bigotry led him to perpetrate the unthinkable.
We’ll leave you with Tom Elliott’s attempt to make sense of Gendron’s warped mentality and of how horrible events like this still happen:
My takeaway: This 180-page manifesto was profoundly depressing to read. By his own accounts, the killer was a loner with no meaningful social connections.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
While in forced social isolation during Covid, he began reading 4chan and increasingly became attached to racist and anti-Semitic explanations for the modern world's various problems.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Devoid of the kind of religious, family, or community bonds that normally guide young people still navigating their place in the world, people like him end up discovering some little kernel of information the mainstream media covers up …
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
… and when that turns out to be true, they become convinced this is validation of a larger conspiracy.
That leads down the usual rabbit holes, where everything ends up pointing to some sinister cabal secretly engineering the deconstruction of civilization.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Wanting to finally feel important, he vows action.
It's certainly true governments and the media often frame narratives through their Marxian lens that always sees a division between the good guys & bad guys, "oppressor" and "oppressed."
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
This kind of broad oversimplification reliably sows division and anger. In reprising Nazi-era racial dogmas, the killer is (apparently unwittingly) amplifying the very divisions he's supposedly come to hate.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Randomly targeting black people at a grocery store will inevitably spark renewed interest in radical racial-separatist movements like the Black Hebrew Israelites and, to a lesser extent, BLM.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
It's embarrassingly stupid, and it's unfortunately exactly the kind of intra-culture conflict that empowers the system as a whole. As long as the people keep busy fighting themselves, the state itself can continue consolidating power.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
Ultimately this is a story about lost souls in the modern world. This person needed parents, needed mentors, needed a local parish, needed a purpose for his life.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
More than anyone I blame his parents for not ensuring they were raising a functioning member of society. The answer here is more family, more church, more community.
The actual response will inevitably be more division, more distrust, more disruption & ultimately more violence.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2022
***
Related:
Glenn Greenwald exposes MSM’s egregiously dishonest, demented campaign to link Buffalo murderer to GOP and conservatism https://t.co/2LUbFzwqF9
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 16, 2022
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