‘The Great Replacement’ is a fundamentally destructive concept

Was the twisted and murderous mind of the Buffalo mass shooter warped solely by contact with the heinous anti-American conspiracy theory known as “the great replacement”?

No. But for an impressionable, depressed teenager on the loose in the darkest corners of the web, the contact certainly didn’t help.

And that contact was extensive, leading him to post a 180-page “manifesto” online that specifically cited the theory as the reason he sought out a Buffalo supermarket frequented by black Americans in his neighborhood, killed 10 people and he injured three others.

The great replacement, whether in its full form (that “the elites” deliberately seek to replace white Americans with non-whites dedicated to the Democratic Party and uprooting American culture) or in other variants (that immigration and other forms of diversification necessarily implies threats to American society) is fundamentally xenophobic and racist nonsense that should be confronted as such by everyone who cares about the future of our nation.

It’s dangerous fringe thinking, promoted not so much by people who really believe it, but by those who are so upset by the reality of a pluralistic America that they apparently think resistance to change must come by any means necessary, including instilling in the people who could take ideas to extremes.

That is why one of the saddest aspects of its enactment is seeing the great replacement theory adopted by nominally patriotic established organizations.

As The New York Times reports published before the shooting shows, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson in more than 400 episodes of his television show has supported the idea that American “elites” want to replace white voters with immigrants. or “Third World” people. .”

And, after purporting to distance itself from any racially hateful aspect of the prevarication that is GRT, the conservative Claremont Institute here in Southern California published an editorial in February: “And so, as powerful corporate media band together to ban discussion on an issue of concern to the American people, and to criticize anyone who broaches such a discussion for association with racists and anti-Semites, it is our duty to challenge fear-mongering.”

An “issue of concern to the American people” like… how supposedly terrible is immigration, for example? When does anyone with any sense know that immigration throughout the centuries is one of the fundamental pillars of our nation’s greatness?

The apology for embracing this radical theory in the editorial of the institute’s publication The American Mind then goes all-in: “That’s because the Great Replacement is not fundamentally about race: it’s about overturning equality and meritocracy.” Americans in favor of a radically new one. Set of values.”

So the Claremont Institute supports the conspiracy theory that was also cited by a mass shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, who killed 51 people; the Buffalo shooter looked up the article posted online by that killer and quoted it directly, cutting and pasting parts that refer to “white genocide” and show a concern about white birth rates in the West. And there was the El Paso, Texas, shooter who, inspired by the Christchurch shooter, murdered Hispanics out of anger at the “invasion” of the United States.