You’ve probably hear by now about the Buffalo shooting fueled by the killer’s belief in the great replacement theory, that Democrats are deliberately important non-white immigrants to destroy the white race. As explained at the link, it’s a protean paranoia that can attach its rage to multiple targets: Jews (they’re behind it), immigrants, environmental destruction (but blaming it on immigrants) and white women who don’t have enough babies. It can therefore justify anti-immigrant policies, anti-abortion policies and opposition to feminism. Among the reasons college is bad for women is that educated women have fewer kids — though to be clear, misogynists hate women’s education for lots of reasons.
It was popular with racists in the last century but it hasn’t vanished in this one. As the Washington Post says, Tucker Carlson and a number of other of prominent right-wing pundits believe it or claim they do. Elise Stefanik is one of multiple congresspeople who claim to agree. Stefanik’s pseudo-outraged response was that pointing out her statements was the same as saying the shooting was her fault waaaah, why are liberals so mean?
Forgive me for stating the obvious but this is a racist theory. It’s based on the idea that the U.S. is a white nation and that nonwhite immigrants are going to take “our” country away from us. Guess what, if nonwhite citizens outnumber white citizens they’re perfectly entitled to elect the officials of their choice. That’s how democracy works. And it’s unlikely a Latino-run government would do any worse than Republican WASPS.
A number of conservatives, such as Laura Ingraham, claim they’re only concerned about illegal immigration but their words show they’re lying. Ingraham we should put the blame for Buffalo on the media, presumably exempting her own channel, Fox. A network that, coincidentally, is avoiding any mention of replacement theory as the killer’s motive.
Some conservatives, such as the Wall Street Journal editorial page, have condemned the theory. I will give them credit for that. But the bulk of them? Not so much. Arizona State Senator and raving anti-semite Wendy Rogers blames it on the feds. Franklin Graham says only Jesus can stop mass shootings (funny how our deeply Christian nation has more than many nations with fewer believers).
But then there are people such as right-wing Christian Matt Walsh. While I blogged about Matt Walsh’s misogynistic writing almost a year ago, I had no particular reason to think he was racist as well as misogynist. My bad: he’s now claiming Democrats “want to minimize what they call whiteness in America … this isn’t a conspiracy theory. There’s nothing wild or speculative about it. It’s just a fact. And one of the ways you know that it’s a fact is the left and the media — The New York Times, CNN — they’ve been very open about it, many times. So if it is a theory — if the great replacement theory is a theory, then it’s a theory propagated by the left. They’re the ones who go around talking about this supposed scourge of whiteness.”
Much as I despise Walsh, I doubt he’s idiot enough to think criticizing whiteness (whether he means CRT, the 1619 project or merely pointing out racism is widespread) translates into “we must take power away from white people.” So I assume he’s lying, even though in Christianity, bearing false witness against your neighbor is a big no-no. Whether he’s lying because it’s good for his bottom line or he’s racist and wants nonwhites to stay out, I cannot say.
I cover more misogynists and more on misogynist lies about women’s education, in Undead Sexist Cliches, available as a Amazon paperback, an ebook and from several other retailers.
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