Paranoia, racism: German killer drew on conspiracy tropes

A killer or a white supremacist terrorist?

QAnon, a right-wing conspiracy theory that President Donald Trump is fighting “deep state” enemies and a child sex trafficking ring,

Sounds like Alex Jones

Just another case of right-wing terrorism.

QAnon, a right-wing conspiracy theory that President Donald Trump is fighting “deep state” enemies and a child sex trafficking ring,

Sounds like Alex Jones

Jones is among those who use the term 'deep state', but so do Trump himself and other far right DC politicians. And then there are media personalities like Tucker Carlson, Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bannon, plus 'foreign' outlets like RT among others. It's a term like orangemanbad hoax hillaryworshippers witch hunt side libs/dems/socialists free market capitalism' (tee hee) and so many others parroted by the far right as a filler when they're unable to connect dots, i.e. present a reasoned argument to defend their Trump. And other 'global' far right kleptocrats.

It's horrible, absolutely gut wrenching but at the same time it's a chilling and "logical" conclusion of what happens when you buy into the conspiracy theories and alt-right trash that is promoted online.

News outlets and comments section the world over should be concerned over just what is being posted on their sites.

FizzBit,

*potentially** killing just as many?*

Key word: potentially. Actual number killed or injured: 0. And that story was reported in the media. Just not here.

News outlets and comments section the world over should be concerned over just what is being posted on their sites.

Are you talking about censorship here? Calls to violence should be banned but banning conspiracy theorists in particular from certain sites sends their already excitable minds into overdrive and serves as a recruitment tool - the deep state/MSM/Illuminati/globalists/banksters etc are trying to suppress the truth.

I think the desire of some to meme the killer into a far-right ideologue is a bit disingenuous and could backfire. Having read his manifesto, he was clearly far more mentally ill than an adherent to any coherent ideology. Had he survived, I have no doubt that he would have been committed to a mental institution rather than put on trial. There are certainly more than enough ideologically motivated right-wing shooters out there that we probably don't need to grasp at straws just to add another one to the list.

When Nasim Aghdam shot up Youtube headquarters in 2018, there was fairly unanimous agreement on all sides of the political spectrum that the cause of the attack was mental illness. The fact that her deluded conspiracy theories revolved around feminism in the middle east, animal rights and veganism did not earn her the label of a radical left-wing extremist terrorist.

Weaponising mentally ill people for a political agenda has a long and dark history and it's something we should take steps to avoid. People want someone to blame but they need to accept the fact that most people who are prepared to actually murder innocent people are also likely to be severely mentally ill.

I think the desire of some to meme the killer into a far-right ideologue is a bit disingenuous and could backfire.

Kind of like the right-wingers desire to meme non-white killers into far-left ideologues is disingenuous, and has already backfired by creating a playing field where we can point out fact that this guy was a nut powered by right-wing ideology.

this guy was a nut powered by right-wing ideology.

If he had said that Karl Marx was communicating with him through a silver spoon and telling him to kill people in order to unite the workers of the world, would you seriously call him a nut powered by left-wing ideology? Or would he just be another paranoid schizophrenic who may have picked something off the history channel and incorporated it into his conspiratorial world view? Not everything needs to be viewed through the lens of internet politics.

If he had said that Karl Marx was communicating with him through a silver spoon and telling him to kill people in order to unite the workers of the world, would you seriously call him a nut powered by left-wing ideology? 

Yes.

I think the desire of some to meme the killer into a far-right ideologue is a bit disingenuous and could backfire. Having read his manifesto, he was clearly far more mentally ill than an adherent to any coherent ideology. 

To actually be far right, and believe in racial superiority, race wars, global Jewish cabals and all the other trash that adherents follow and promote - I'd say that's a sign of some kind of mental illness, whether diagnosed or not.

Clearly such ugly and irrational thinking is not conducive to mental well-being. It's hardly surprising that some are sent off the deep end by such poisonous ideologies.

He mixed extreme paranoia about secret state surveillance with far-right conspiracy tropes, misogyny and racist vitriol.

The media will have a field day with this. Unlike the almost regular violence involving migrant gangs, this will not be swept under the table, but trumpeted by the media for end and used by politicians as an excuse to propose more speech control laws. Almost made to order for the globalist propaganda machine.

Almost made to order for the globalist propaganda machine.

Yawn

Unlike the almost regular violence involving migrant gangs, this will not be swept under the table, but trumpeted by the media for end and used by politicians as an excuse to propose more speech control laws.

I don't see migrant gang violence being swept under the table where I live. It's treated in the same way as domestic gang violence is treated. It has nothing to with politics and everything to do with thugs seeking money.

About "speech controls", do you think people should be allowed to speak freely of their hatred for people not like themselves, and to the extent that they advocate violence? I'm interested to hear your answer.

Identified as Tobias Rathjen, the gunman made no direct references to QAnon, far-right memes or other deadly attacks and their notorious perpetrators such as the killer in Christchurch or the gunman in the German city of Halle who killed two people outside a synagogue on Yom Kippur in October.

This is journalism? Why would the author of this article go about making a direct connection between specific groups and events when there isn’t any evidence of one? The guy can still be a racist nut job without attempting to tie him to things without evidence.

The guy only wanted people around exactly like himself. How boring.

Weird how our righties are abandoning one of their own.