The mass shooting in Buffalo has placed a spotlight on the racist conspiracy theory embraced by the suspect. Prior to the attack, the suspect allegedly wrote a 180-page manifesto making reference to the "Great Replacement", even using the same language as other convicted mass shooters. Molly Jong-Fast, contributing writer at The Atlantic and author of the Wait, What? newsletter, explains the conspiracy theory, why it's so dangerous, and what can be done to stop it from spreading even further. 


Opening Bell

The "Great Replacement" Theory & Why It's So Dangerous

here to discuss more molly jong fast, contributing writer at the atlantic and author of the wait, what newsletter molly. Thanks for joining us first. What is this so called great replacement theory and how is it tied to the Buffalo shooting suspect? So it's an anti Semitic and anti immigrant, uh, far right nationalist theory that's been batting around for a long time. It was used by the, the new Zealand shooter or two. It's very popular. It used to be very fringe until tucker Carlson started talking about it on his show, which as you know, gets four million viewers and is quite popular. And that was sort of the more sort of mainstreaming of this very fringe theory. Yeah, Well, you talk more about that mainstream development. It's happened, I believe over the course of the pandemic. And we've heard reports that this particular suspect the shooter, um, was bored during the pandemic. And that's how he sort of got indoctrinated into some of this theory. Yeah, I mean, I hesitate to think that a theory makes a person kill 10 people. I think that probably there's more to this situation, certainly, it's a very destructive theory. And the idea here is that, uh, jews and other people who are in this sort of, you know, kind of the professional groups are bringing over immigrants to replace white people. Uh, it's completely preposterous. I mean, for any number of reasons, you know, America itself as a country of immigrants. So it makes absolutely no sense. But it's become very popular in white nationalist circles. Look, I don't think that a, you know, it's very destructive and it's terrible, it's anti Semitic and it's racist and it's also just ridiculous and false. And it's get a you know, the polling says that, you know, like about a third or a little less than a third of republicans sort of believe this. So it's it's quite worrying. But I don't necessarily think that These kinds, you know, I think there's more to it right? Like the proliferation of a are, you know, 45s and these automated um weapons of mass destruction. These you know, guns that are clearly not for hunting are certainly part of the problem too. Yeah, I appreciate you giving the context and that involving yourself in this theory or any theory of that matter doesn't create a murderer at the same time. I think this has been a really big focus since the elections, really, the focus on social media and the different echo echo chambers that you can find yourself in online to support your worldview or your biases. Um how does one become involved in accessing this information? Where are they finding these theories? So a lot of this is on four chan and then later a chan um but, you know, even the facebook papers, right, showed that facebook has a radicalizing algorithm until there's more transparency around the algorithms. We're not gonna know quite how this happens as much as we could. So I think that's really important and and look, you know, it's it's I mean, it's very bad that there's a Republican party where the mainstream of it is getting involved in these radicalizing theories and getting involved in this racism and this preposterous idea that white people are being replaced. I mean, it's bad. There's no other way to look at this. I mean the question is like how you would even, I mean in my mind it seems easier to go after the guns than it is to go after the theories unless, you know, I think it's definitely worth wondering why the, uh, you know, what is happening with the algorithm and if there are ways to prevent, you know, you from getting more and more radicalizing content and for sure that's something that needs to be looked at. But you know, I think it's much easier, You know, this guy was able to get a gun, he was able to get a magazine, he was able to put this all together quite easily. He had body armor. I mean, there are many countries where people don't have, you know, can't get guns quite as easily. And they have less mass shootings. So I think that makes a little more sense than trying to go after a theory, which is just going to be much more complicated. Yeah, On the same side of that token though, you did mention the new Zealand shooter being informed by a theory as dangerous as this one. Um, I'm glad that you noted of course transparency on some of these platforms. Also regulations around weapons. But um, what do you think the damage is when it comes to this particular conspiracy theory? And is there anything really that can be done moving forward? What would you expect to see um, from the public or from lawmakers to kind of tamp this down? Well, look, the best thing would be if republicans could say, you know, something as simple as racism is wrong. You're, we're not, you know, people are not being replaced in America. I mean if you had leaders of the Republican Party be brave and do the right thing that would do that would move a lot of, you know, hearts and minds. I mean, you know, it all it would take would be, you know, a couple of these republican leaders to say there is no great replacement theory, It's not a real thing. It's a, you know, kind of fever dream of racist and then to have them say, you know that there were radicalizing our base in a bad way, that's going to lead to something really bad. But the problem is there are no grownups in the room and if anything we've seen that trump has radicalized the Republican party. And so, you know, I mean what was good yesterday was that Liz Cheney spoke out against this And I think Adam Kinzinger did too. So that is really good and the more you can have republicans speak out against this. I mean democrats were quick to speak out against it. I mean, we need our elected officials to do the right thing and take the moral high ground and look yes, what Fox News is doing is really I mean it's really destructive, but you know, I'm not sure there's an easy answer to that. Okay. And molly really quickly. You know, I kind of struggled with this interview and giving more of a platform to a topic like this. But at the end of the day, do you think that people knowing that this is out there is helpful or hurtful? Yeah. I mean, I think it's important to know. I don't think anyone who watches this interview is like going to believe in the great replacement theory because it's ridiculous and it's preposterous. And you know, I mean, I think it has to be couched, you know, when you talk about things like this where they're so destructive, what you do is you need to have truth on both sides, right? A truth sandwich. So you say the truth and then you explain what the lie is this great replacement theory. And then you explain more truth on the other side of it. So, I don't think ignoring things like the far right makes any sense. I think that what you have to do when you write about it, you just have to be or when you interview about it, you just have to be really careful about it. Yeah, I'm gonna keep that truth sandwich in mind. Thank you so much for joining us. That's molly jong fast, contributing writer at the atlantic and author of the Wait what newsletter?