Right-wingers are getting desperate after another shooting by a far-right extremist

Faced with the likely possibility that another mass shooter was inspired to kill by his far-right beliefs, right-wing con men and media personalities coalesce around conspiracy theories to explain the massacre that took place at a downtown commercial in Allen, Texas, over the weekend.

The shooting, which left eight dead ― including three children, ages 11, 8, and 3 ― was allegedly perpetrated by Mauricio Garcia, who was shot dead by police during the attack. Garcia reportedly maintained a social media presence riddled with neo-Nazi, misogynistic, and far-right beliefs.

All available evidence suggests that the shooting was yet another in the seemingly endless wave of shootings by right-wing extremists in recent years.

But rather than confront that evidence head-on, prominent right-wing voices, notably Elon Musk, the world’s second-richest man and owner of one of the world’s largest social media platforms, have buttressed an alternate reality about a government. . conspiracy. As Musk, the government-subsidized tech billionaire, told his millions of followers on Twitter on Monday: “Assume you’re always being manipulated.”

Garcia supposedly dressed a patch during the firefight with the text “RWDS”, short for “Right Wing Death Squad”. And multiple news outlets reported on a hate-filled social media profile that they say investigators believe belonged to Garcia.

While the suspect’s precise motive for the attack is still unknown, “we know he had neo-Nazi ideas. He had patches. He had tattoos. Even his signature verified that,” Hank Sibley, North Texas regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference Tuesday.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the details of a Rolling Stone report which said that an FBI review of Garcia’s social media footprint had “revealed hundreds of posts and images that included racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist rhetoric, including neo-Nazi materials and material advocating white supremacy.” ”.

“The bulletin being mentioned is a leaked confidential police report,” Melinda Urbina, a public affairs officer with the FBI’s Dallas field office, told HuffPost in an email Monday. “I will not share that document with anyone, as it was not intended for public release.”

Nonetheless, Garcia’s social media presence was reported independently: Investigators are investigating a Russian social media account “full of hate-filled rants against women and black people” believed to belong to the shooter, according to The New York Times. Later Monday, Aric Toler, a researcher at the open source investigative outlet Bellingcat, claimed to have found the profile in question, a newspaper-like presence on the Russian site OK.ru.

in a long Twitter thread and article Showing his work, Toler documented the details he used to show that “all available evidence points to his being linked to the shooter,” including numerous photographs, identification documents, a speeding ticket, and evidence that the suspected shooter watched the car. mall days before the incident. stroke. A photo of a tattoo on the suspect’s body also matched photos and videos from months ago on the account. Another photo on the account featured a swastika tattoo with a caption that read: “This is what I think about your diversity you fucking loser.”

Toler also shared an image from the account of a tactical vest with an “RWDS” patch, which matches descriptions taken from anonymous law enforcement sources for other reporters. The patch appeared to match one previously on sale at the neo-Nazi clothing web store. anime tobacco firearms. The store saying on its Facebook, Twitter and Gab pages on Monday that “as a result of certain events,” it is closing “for the time being.”

It is not unusual – absolutely ― for people of color to participate in far-right politics, including endorsing the views of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The social media page reported by Toler addresses this numerous times. In a meme Posted on the account, a cartoon boy labeled “Latino kids” finds himself faced with two paths: one labeled “act black” and another, “become a white supremacist.” “It’s funny because it’s true,” commented the account under the meme. “I think I’ll take a chance on the white supremacist.”

tolerant noted that the account included clips of Tim Pool, the prominent conservative YouTuber, and that a publication on the page it began: “This post was inspired by Libs of TikTok,” referring to a prominent anti-LGBTQ hate account.

musk, who he’s not shy about his own ultra-conservative politicshas job for months make Twitter a welcoming place for scammers and far-right ideologues. And after the shooting in Allen, he enthusiastically promoted a question-only credulity to insane claims that, in reality, the suspect’s well-documented history of neo-Nazi beliefs was in fact a front for some kind of Deep State false flag operation.

“This is either the weirdest story ever or a very bad psyop!” Musk wrote Tuesday, after falsely saying that Bellingcat “specializes in psychological operations.”

That phrase, “psychological operations” or “psyops,” is rich among conspiracy theorists, in part because governments throughout history have involved in the tactic in the past. But applied to today’s mass shootings, the theories are not based on any evidence. Just ask Alex Joneswho owes more than $1 billion to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting for claiming it was a hoax.

Nonetheless, Musk’s thinking was representative of the extreme right on Twitter.

“The two biggest priorities of the regimes are to disarm law-abiding Americans and silence people who speak the truth,” wrote Mike Cernovich, a career conspiracy theorist and far-right activist. “Coincidentally, a Mexican with a swastika on his chest committed a mass shooting and said that he was inspired by LibsOfTikTok, and posted all of this on Reddit.”

“Absolutely nothing suspicious about the fact that we know everything about this guy’s alleged motivations a day later, and yet, over a month after the murder of the trans terrorist in Nashville, we still haven’t been told anything about his motives.” wrote Matt Walshthe broadcaster who jokingly refers to himself as a “theocratic fascist” on Twitter.

For conspiracy theorists, the value of sarcastic rhetoric with “absolutely nothing suspicious about…” and “coincidentally…” is its ambiguity: the observations require neither evidence nor any alternative explanation of events.

Greg Price, a political operative and the Substack writer, offered a pristine example of that kind of response to a mass shooting. “You are telling a Mexican guy who just happened to have Nazi tattoos and, by complete coincidence, posted about Nazis, along with prominent conservatives, on a Russian social media account with zero followers and this discovery was made by a guy who works for a CIA-funded organization? he commented sarcastically.

Ian Miles Cheong, an online culture warrior who, years ago, reportedly praised hitlerwas a bit more blunt, calling the shooter’s reported biographical details “suspicious,” apparently because the suspect’s Internet habits included hanging out with Cheong’s peers.

“The alleged profile of the alleged shooter claims that he was inspired by Libs of TikTok. Between this and the Tim Pool references, this is suspect. Where is his Twitter account? Why was he using a Russian social networking site to write (what) was essentially a diary for zero followers? Cheong wrote.

“To make this clear, a Jewish woman and a babysitter radicalized a Mexican neo-Nazi from a Russian website into massacring white Texans according to the CIA agent who broke the story.” growled Josie Taitwho calls himself The Redheaded Libertarian on Twitter.

The new owner of Twitter further pushed the conspiracy theory.

“Very strange,” Musk wrote in response to Tait, whose Twitter account he apparently subscribes to.. musk separately commented, “This is getting weirder by the minute” after Tait expanded on Cheong’s post.

Some journalists tried to push back the campaign “just by asking questions.”

So @elonmusk tell us your theory. Did the feds do this shooting to spark outrage against white nationalists and launch an anti-gun offensive? Is that what you’re hinting at? incited Ryan Grim, DC’s bureau chief at The Intercept, in response to Musk’s comment “This is getting weirder by the minute.”

Musk did not respond, but Grim noted that right-wing activists often claim that mass shootings are actually government creations, though none have led to serious changes to gun laws, one of the purported justifications invoked in conspiracy theories. . “To get serious for a second: why would that work for the feds this time? There have been endless mass shootings. Why would the FBI think one more would do the trick? grim wrote.

Anna Merlan, who follows conspiracy theories at Motherboard and is the author of the book “Republic of Lies,” commented in even more conspiracy theories on the alleged shooter’s tattoos by invoking an illegal experiment the CIA conducted decades ago: “Is the idea that someone forcibly tattooed him and then MKUltra turned him into God, I’m going to give ideas to this people”.