On the Terrorist Attack in Buffalo, NY
An American flag on half-mast - Photo by Bjørn Ihler
Amidst all the punditry and analysis that will take place today and in the days to come it is key that we do not forget the human impact of the attack in Buffalo.
Ten lives were lost, families torn apart, and community members terrorised. My heart and thoughts are with them.
A preliminary analysis of the manifesto by the Khalifa Ihler Institute team has revealed that as much as 57% of the ideological sections (that is excluding the discourse on equipment, and the pages that simply were memes & images from the internet, 28% with these included) are plagiarized from other sources - predominantly the manifesto shared by the Christchurch terrorist.
Key recurring narratives between this manifesto, and previous manifestos, that also have entered relatively mainstream political discourse are those of the great replacement theory, the focus on "cultural marxism" and white genocide.
The sections on "European supremacy" the direct citation of the 14 words, and the outright racist sections are driven by antisemitism and anti-black sentiment as well as the paragraphs on "Green nationalism" are also interesting, and increasingly common within these communities. The focus on "virtual sex workers" echoes themes from the incel and manosphere community, which might be a new-ish reappearance of a common gendered theme among white supremacists.
A key element to highlight is that the terrorist outright states that he went to the chans as a direct result of the boredom experienced during covid - this is one thing to keep an eye on - there were many warnings about what the loneliness of prolonged lockdowns might lead to, and I fear this is not going to be the last we hear of it in terms of online radicalization.
We are still reviewing the content and discourse surrounding the attack. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism has issued a Content Incident Protocol across the member community and is working to remove the video of the live stream and other related content produced to promote terrorism and the terrorist's agenda.
We encourage the community to not share the video or content directly related to the attack. Further, in discussing the attack we encourage everyone to be cautious and mindful of the victims, survivors and community affected.
These attacks fill my heart with sadness and underline why we must keep on working against all forms of hatred - for a world in which diversity is celebrated, and we all can live with a sense of safety from terror.
Bjørn Ihler