From Gamergate to 4chan, it is clear that video game culture and obscure memes run through the veins of far-right discourse and organizing. And finally, it sarcastically claims that the 1999 kid-friendly platformer video game Spyro the Dragon informed the shooter’s violent ethnonationalism. It calls for the extermination of Muslims and Turks across Europe. It argues that immigration is an unarmed invasion and thus the violence of the shooting was justified as self-defense. Titled “The Great Replacement,” a reference to a conspiracy theory that non-white immigration is part of a plot to “replace” white people with people of color, the shooter’s manifesto cites decreasing white birth rates, the prevalence of queer people, and Jewish influence as responsible for western collapse. A simple look at the shooter’s manifesto reveals a collection of ironic statements, tongue-in-cheek in-jokes and other internet memes, a foreign language for some, but classic staples of any internet dialogue. There is more to the shooting, however, than just the reactionary and racist. But it is clear that the shooting is a part of a broader rising tide of white nationalist violence and terrorism.

The Christchurch massacre on March 15 utterly shocked the world with its brutality, devastating a Muslim community which thought itself safe from the forces of Islamophobia.

Deus vult alt right