This is the hate that hate produced.
White supremacy and white racism in their many forms are inherently violent, anti-human and evil.
Last Saturday, a 33-year-old man named Mauricio Garcia attacked a mall in Allen, Texas, killing at least 8 people and wounding 7 others. Children were among the victims. As is common to America's mass shootings, Garcia used an AR-15 assault-style rifle. He also wore body armor and carried a pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Other guns and ammunition were found in his vehicle outside. A police officer who happened to be at the mall for an unrelated matter was able to shoot and kill Garcia. If a police officer had not been present the death toll would have been much higher.
Social scientists and other experts have repeatedly shown that the number of guns in a community are directly correlated with the rate of gun violence and gun deaths. Texas has some of the weakest gun laws in the United States. The lack of effective gun laws in Texas allowed the shooter to amass the arsenal that he used to commit an act of massive killing.
Garcia's intent and motivations can be readily determined by his online presence.
Federal and other law enforcement are now focusing on how Garcia appeared to be a right-wing domestic terrorist who was motivated by neo-Nazism.
The suspected mass shooter who killed at least eight people at an Allen, Texas mall on Saturday frequently posted pro-white supremacist and neo-Nazi materials on social media, according to an FBI bulletin reviewed by Rolling Stone.
The FBI's "review and triage of the subject's social media accounts revealed hundreds of postings and images to include writings with racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist rhetoric, including neo-Nazi materials and material espousing the supremacy of the white race," the bulletin reads.
The document also says the alleged shooter was discharged from the military in 2008 amid "mental health concerns."
"Mauricio Garcia entered the regular Army in June 2008; he was terminated three months later without completing initial entry training. He was not awarded a military occupational specialty. He had no deployments or awards. We do not provide characterization of discharge for any soldier," an Army spokesperson said in a statement.
Investigators believe the shooter was a neo-Nazi and an "incel," according to an internal email circulated by Texas law enforcement.
Garcia self-identified in some posts as an "incel," a term that the Anti-Defamation League defines as "heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success." Some posts were sexist and expressed anger toward women.
Another post expressed anger toward family members who "mocked any attempt I made to be masculine…" and "told me I was disturbed…" Yet another described people making jokes or awkward comments about the poster's likelihood of committing mass murder.
Other photos posted on Garcia's account include various firearms, some of which, the user wrote, he acquired in recent months. There are also photos of a body armor vest with an RWDS patch – an abbreviation for Right-Wing Death Squad -- that authorities have said Garcia wore during the shooting.
In an April 24 post, Garcia praised the shooter in the Nashville school massacre that killed six people, including three children, the month before, referring to the number of people murdered.
Other posts espoused antisemitism and echoed the "replacement theory," the false notion that a conspiracy is underway to make the US population less White. Some gunmen motivated by racism said they were inspired by the theory.
The mainstream news media and other observers are trying to find granular details of direct and clear cause and effect between Garcia's alleged act of terrorism and killing and his white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs when in fact the explanation(s) and reality are macro level and obvious. To that point, the New York Times uses language such as, "The motive for the attack remains unclear" and features a headline that reads, "After Texas Mall Shooting, Searching for Motive..."
There is no mystery: an avowed white supremacist and neo Nazi who wears patches and insignia about being a member of a "Right Wing Death Squad" went into a mall and shot at least 8 people to death. That Garcia's decision to shoot and kill and maim other human beings is somehow peripheral to or coincidental to his hateful beliefs strains all credulity and reason.
The Times' own reporting points to the obvious violent intent and motivations that are signaled to by wearing a "Right-Wing Death Squad" patch:
The phrase harks back to Gen. Augusto Pinochet's violent right-wing regime in Chile in the 1970s and 1980s. The Pinochet government was notorious for assembling death squads that murdered their leftist enemies.
More recently, neo-Nazi groups in the United States and members of other far-right organizations like the Proud Boys have claimed the phrase, and often wear the abbreviation on clothing or patches. The Proud Boys in particular often combine RWDS labels with shirts reading, "Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong."
The online profile being investigated also includes several pictures showing a black tactical vest with an RWDS patch. The patch has the shape of a shield with a notch in its upper right corner — an echo, experts say, of similar patches worn by Nazi SS units.
Aric Toler, who is a researcher for Bellingcat, also highlighted how Garcia's intent and motivations can be readily determined by his online presence, which included links to neo Nazi and white supremacist sites, images of Nazi and other fascist tattoos, pictures of guns and ammunition, a manifesto, language praising Hitler, images purporting to "explain" why Latinos should become white supremacists in order to "earn" their full Whiteness, photos of Chilean strongman leader Pinochet (who deployed death squads and other extrajudicial means during his reign of terror), and repeated use of white supremacist and misogynistic language.
On Twitter, Toler summarizes:
He also posted his handwritten personal diary. Everything I've seen shows that this is about the most textbook mass shooter you'll ever find, and he tells you about it every step of the way. He'll be a reference point for decades on mass shooters because he shared so much….
He literally posted multiple identification cards with his name and face, pictures of receipts with his name and city, and photos of the mall where he carried out his mass shooting a few weeks before he did it. He also posted a manifesto/suicide note right before the shooting…..The Allen shooter was obviously a white supremacist / neo-Nazi. He was basically announcing that he was going to do a mass shooting for months beforehand and planned his target weeks in advance.
Predictably, the Republicans, "conservatives", gun fetishists, and too many among the mainstream news media are somehow treating the massacre in Allen, Texas as though it is like the weather, something spontaneous, and more or less outside of human control.
In reality, right-wing terrorism, including mass shootings, is in fact the opposite: They are almost wholly predictable because they are the intended and designed outcome of a larger political and social climate that encourages such acts of violence through both "stochastic terrorism" as well as direct incitements and commands. To that point, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and other law enforcement have continued to warn that right-wing domestic terrorists are the single greatest threat to the country's domestic safety.
The permission structure for right-wing violence and terrorism begins at the top with the Republican Party's and "conservative" movement's leaders, spokespeople, news media, and other influentials.
As Media Matters, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other watchdog organizations and experts have extensively documented, through a process known as "narrative laundering" Fox "News" and the larger right-wing echo chamber have mainstreamed what were once fringe white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs about non-existent "anti-white" conspiracies such as the "great replacement" and "demographic winter" where "white people" are being "replaced" by non-whites who are being secretly commanded and financed by "elites" and "globalists" (meaning Jewish people). The right's "Black Lives Matter" and "woke" and LGBTQ people bogeyman moral panics are a key part of a strategy to encourage violence and societal discord by scaring "good white Christians" and other "real Americans" that their children, families, and very lives, prosperity, and freedom are under siege by diversity and multiculturalism.
Former Fox "News" personality Tucker Carlson mainstreamed white supremacist and racial authoritarian hatred and lies, where on a near daily basis he radicalized the millions of white people who watched his show(s) into believing even more in the necessity and virtues of right-wing violence, bigotry, and hatred.
Donald Trump and the MAGA movement rode such white supremacy and anti-black and anti-brown animus to the White House in 2016 as part of a plan to end multiracial pluralistic democracy. Trump's regime further empowered and attempted to normalize overt white supremacy – including fascist violence. Trump and his propagandists (and imitators such as Gov. Ron DeSantis) are continuing with that strategy.
One of the defining themes of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign is a threat and a promise to get "revenge" on his and the MAGA movement's "enemies" in a Hitler-like "Final Battle." Other Republican fascist leaders such as Rep. Paul Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have repeatedly shown themselves to be white supremacists who support right-wing political violence and terrorism.
Close and militarize our border.
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) May 8, 2023
Now. pic.twitter.com/OuawTH1Y0d
It is now part of the Republican Party's "branding" for its elected officials and candidates to show themselves using guns such as the AR-15 to shoot their "enemies." This is not symbolic; such images and actions are threats of violence and the harm that will come to Democrats, liberals, progressives, black and brown people, and anyone else who dares to oppose the Republican fascists, "conservatives" and their forces. Black Flags (which signal no quarter or mercy is to be given to one's "enemies") outside of homes, on vehicles, and as insignia on clothing are a common feature across red state America and Trumplandia.
The Republican-fascists and larger right-wing propaganda machine have been extremely effective. For example, a majority of Republicans believe that "white people" are "oppressed" and are being "replaced" by non-whites in America. Violence is a predictable response to perceived existential threats; creating the false belief that one's group is under existential threat is one of the primary ways that malign actors incite genocidal and eliminationist violence as seen in Rwanda and Nazi Germany.
Other polling and research show that a plurality if not majority of Republicans and right-leaning independents support Trump's coup attempt and the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, believe that such events were justified, and that the insurrectionists are patriots or are otherwise not guilty of a serious crime.
Political scientists at the University of Chicago have shown that there are likely millions of Republicans and Trumpists who support and will participate in a second Civil War or other armed insurgency to remove Joe Biden and the Democrats from office, and by doing so end multiracial democracy in America.
Unfortunately, because of bad habits, laziness, obsolete institutional and cultural norms, wish-casting, denial, naivete, or some other maladaptive behavior(s), America's political class and news media insist on describing the Republican fascists and the larger white right's attempts to end multiracial pluralistic America as being some type of "culture war."
As seen in Allen, Texas, and many other examples of right-wing political violence and terrorism and thuggery across the country, this is no culture war: it is a fascist war against democracy and a humane and normal society. The language of "culture war" may make liberals and progressives and other Americans feel like they are superior and safe from the denizens and rubes and other backward folks of Trumplandia and red state America who are "tricked" into "false consciousness" about the primacy of their "Guns, God, and the Flag" – and now cult-like love of Trump and the MAGA movement – but such smugness and a false sense of superiority and accompanying mocking laughter offers no safety, insight, or correct analysis and conclusions about how to counter and defeat the Republican fascists and their forces.
As seen in Allen, Texas on Saturday, America is actually in a slow civil war. In a recent conversation here at Salon, journalist and author Jeff Sharlet offered this intervention and warning:
I think what we understand is that these neofascists are not going to stop, because why would they stop? The pleasure is in transgression. The pleasure is in going further. There is no ideological position to which they are loyal. There is no policy to which they're loyal. They're going to keep going. There is no movement per se but transgression. And as soon as something becomes normal, they'll go further. The folks who imagine "Handmaid's Tale" as the end zone, no, whatever it is, you have to go further. Now, this is the good news too, because a movement of ultimate transgression is going to burn out. As a society and country, America is going to experience and have to go through fascism. We're not in it now. There's a fascist movement now. It drives me crazy. People say, "Well, it's not like the Hitler regime." No, it's not. That was a regime. We don't have a fascist regime. We could with a fascist movement. It's worse post-Trump than it was during Trump's presidency.
Just as Jan. 6 was a trial run, and that Donald Trump is just the prototype, there will be many more acts of white supremacist terrorism and violence as seen in Allen, Texas.
There will be much more blood. America's slow civil war continues, and it may likely soon speed up and explode with Donald Trump's second run for the White House. To this point, they've been largely undeterred and in no way stopped.
You have been warned – again.
