Minutes before the El Paso shooter started massacring people he uploaded his manifesto to the internet. It offers nothing new in terms of an insight into the far right or the mindset of its foot soldiers. But it does display the linguistic patterns that have become so commonplace over the last few years. And these same patterns are present in the language used by the far right in Ireland.
Justifying the unjustifiable
He argued in his manifesto that he is “defending” his country from “an invasion”. This “invasion” consists of a “cultural and ethnic replacement” of Americans such as himself. Democrats and Republicans are either “complacent or involved” in what he calls “one of the biggest betrayals of the American public”. However, the Democrats are particularly noteworthy for their apparent treachery. He accuses them of planning a “political coup” by “importing” people to vote for them.
Corporations are also complicit. In his view they benefit from new arrivals to the country, using them as a way of “replenishing the labor pool for both skilled and unskilled jobs to keep wages down”. But corporations don’t have to be eviscerated to rectify this. Instead, they merely have to be “shown” the error of their ways. And they’ll also be shown,
That if they don’t bend, they will break.
Lamenting the lack of gun rights in Europe, he notes that Europeans don’t have the means to “repel the millions of invaders”. In the US though, he has the means and the will to act. Those who don’t act choose not to. The destruction of the US, he insists, will in the end be because of traitors. His actions, he writes, are therefore “faultless” and “an act of preservation”.
A pattern of hate
These same linguistic patterns could be found in the manifesto of the Christchurch shooter. He wrote that Europe is “experiencing an invasion” which will “replace the White people” there. This must be “combatted”. Otherwise Europe will face “the complete racial and cultural replacement” of its people.
He argued that “a violent revolutionary solution” is the only way forwards. And during a so-called “invasion” there “are no innocents”. Therefore, in his eyes, the murder of children is justified.
Politicians and political parties are also to blame. Referencing the election of Emmanuel Macron in France, he declared that a “democratic solution” was now no longer possible. Macron, he wrote, is “globalist, [and] anti-white”. Macron and Angela Merkel are “traitors”. And “Traitors deserve a traitors [sic] death”.
Corporations also come in for criticism. They have “Invited” immigrants into the countries they are based in order “to replace the White people”. These new arrivals will be “the cheap labour new consumers and tax base that the corporations and states need to thrive”. Given this, corporations are also traitors that “must be destroyed”.
The Irish variant
To the best of anyone’s knowledge these two men never met and they never personally knew each other. The El Paso shooter stated he supported the Christchurch shooter’s actions. This was the extent of their relationship.
Yet, their language is similar. Both men spoke of an “invasion” and the “replacement” of white people. “Traitors” lived amongst them who had to be “combated” or forced to “bend”. Their language comes from the bowels of the internet where racism and conspiracy theories thrive.
And the far right in Ireland is no different. Across social media and other parts of the internet the Irish far right uses the same language. Anyone who suggests that diversity is positive is labelled a “traitor”. The country is suffering an “invasion” of migrants due to plans to “replace” the white population. On internet forums where users are not limited by word count and the potential of having their accounts shut down due to hate speech, they can be more frank about their racism.
On one such forum a user can write, with approval from other users, that “Ireland has fallen”. This is because of “corrupt politicians who want to destroy the country, remove our heritage and culture”. A statement such as this could belong to either of the manifestos mentioned above. And this is just one example of countless others.
So, then, we are not immune to far-right fanaticism and conspiracy theories about the “replacement” of the Irish. Such language and views are thriving here. It remains to be seen what it’ll turn into going forward. But history has shown us that nothing good awaits us.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons – Natecull
