After The El Paso Shooting, White Supremacists Promote The ‘Replacement’ Conspiracy That Motivated It

In the aftermath of yet another spasm of white supremacist violence — this time a mass shooting in El Paso, TX that left 22 dead — white supremacists are predictably promoting the racist conspiracy that motivated it. According to the gunman’s manifesto, he was outraged by the “Hispanic invasion” of Texas, and wanted to combat the “replacement” of white Americans.

This so-called “great replacement” theory, that liberals and Jews are purposefully bringing in non-white immigrants in order to demographically “replace” white, non-Jewish citizens, has sparked similar terrorist acts in Pittsburgh, Poway, and New Zealand.

Naturally, white supremacists who distanced themselves from the shooter’s actions have nonetheless claimed that he was right insofar as he believed in the “great replacement” conspiracy. In an August 4, 2019 video, white supremacists Richard Spencer and Jefferson Lee — alongside their guest, Jim Goad — openly sympathized with the young man’s beliefs.

To give an idea of how seriously they took the racist bloodletting in El Paso shortly after it occurred, the episode was originally mockingly titled “Ebil White Supreeemist T*rrorism w/Jim Goad & Jefferson Lee.” Due to technical difficulties they quit the livestream and uploaded a new video called “The R Word.”

Jim Goad, a columnist for Taki’s Magazine who refuses to identify as a white nationalist despite his constant parroting of their talking points, told Spencer and Lee that it’s a “crazy world we live in” because they can’t openly discuss racial replacement without scrutiny.

“But in 1960, [the] overall population of Texas was 9.5 million,” Goad said. “Fewer than a million, about 10% — so [like] 950,000 — were Hispanic. Now there are 11.1 million Hispanics in Texas. More than total people in Texas in 1960, and they’re about 40% of the population.”

It should go without saying that the reasons for this shift could be as simple as white people choosing to relocate or have fewer children. The “great replacement” hinges on a conspiracy of purposeful replacement of whites by groups hostile to them — something that is entirely absent in reality.

Yet Goad continues to assert this belief is true. In fact, Goad claimed that “they” are cheering on this replacement, while Lee remarked that “They literally rub it in your face and then tell you you’re crazy for noticing.”

Richard Spencer then complained that white supremacists were being blamed for this act of white supremacist terrorism. “A lot of the narrative that I’ve seen on Twitter from — again, most every Democratic politician and tons of blue check marks on Twitter — is that Trump is inspiring this or even Richard Spencer is inspiring this,” he said, referring to himself in the third person.

“It really is the opposite of that,” he incorrectly insisted.

“A lot of this has to do with the failure of Trump and the suppression of voices like ours. If Trump were winning in the sense that people like this young man could say, ‘Oh, well, Trump is reducing immigration, he’s building the wall, things are actually getting better… actually I think I can become a computer programmer and make something of myself,’ he would not lash out like this.”

Spencer insisted that the suspect murdered 22 people in cold blood because “we are losing” and that there is no political solution to his grievances. He added that he personally believes there is a political solution, but added fuel to the fire by saying “one can forgive someone for thinking that there isn’t.”

Spencer and the rest of his ilk have spent months if not years giving oxygen to the most violent voices in the modern white supremacist movement. Shortly after the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in which a counterprotester was murdered, Spencer’s website published an article that endorsed so-called “leaderless resistance.”

Spencer himself has appeared on the program Goy Talk, which promotes the violent strategy known as “accelerationism.” Jim Goad has made two appearances on The Gas Station, another violent, accelerationist podcast whose hosts praise mass shooters as “saints” and compare non-whites to cockroaches.

By promoting the “great replacement” myth and sympathizing with the shooter, Spencer is assuring that violence is inevitable.