Days after an 18-year-old alleged supporter of the "great replacement" theory opened fire in a Buffalo grocery store located in a Black neighborhood, killing ten people and injuring three more on Saturday, right-wing pundits are attempting to downplay the mass shooting by baselessly claiming that the perpetrator was motivated by left-wing ideology.
Conservative commentators appear to be pushing back against the notion that the accused shooter, Payton S. Gendron, who is now in custody, was acting on his belief in the "great replacement," an unsubstantiated theory – now widely shared amongst the far-right, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson – that Democrats are deliberately loosening border restrictions in order to offset the electoral power of white Americans. Gendron's apparent belief in the theory was first reported after outlets obtained the shooter's 180-page manifesto, written before the shooting took place, that contains explicit references to the "great replacement" in addition to a medley of hateful and racist rants.
