The killer is a terrorist by all our definitions. The media went berserk when Trump answered their loaded question “do you see a rise in White Nationalism?” Let’s unpack that question
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if there is a statistical rise in White Nationalism then the correct answer is yes
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if not, the answer is no.
Trump knows no matter how he answers the media will do whatever it takes to make it sound horrible. If he answered “yes” then the headlines would read “Trump admits rise in White Nationalism, does nothing.”
If he said “yes, and we’ll devote all our resources to wiping it out” then the SPLC would be given free reign to label any group associated with anything right of Nicky Maduro as ‘White Nationalist”- and they would do so with relish.
Perhaps it would be better to examine the mindset of the shooter and those like him.
In the shooter’s mind, White people are at the very least under siege, and at worst, being prepared for extermination. How did he get to such a point?
Pretty much anyone can see that hatred for White people- especially White males, has become fashionable, especially in the news media. This hatred ranges from “White Privilege” and all it’s trappings, to ‘critical race theory’, in which all White people are racist simply because they are… White. But that really will not a violent felon make; you need religiosity to make one that irrational.
There is now, and was before, a religious component to White supremacy. By this I mean a belief system with strict parameters, and rebuke or even destruction of excessive dissent or even apostacy. It is also thus with Islam in most of the world, and it is thus with progressivism/leftism/Marxism.
Ironically, each of these believes that:
“Our side is doing the right thing”
“The ends justify the means”
“The other side is a threat to humanity – and to me”
“To fight the other side, is to be heroic”
“Those on the other side will adopt our side’s beliefs if we overthrow them”
“We are doing right if we silence the other side”
“Those who leave our side are traitors who must be destroyed”
“To disagree with our side, you must be a bad person”
The shooter murdered 49 human beings, including small children. He sees himself as a hero, as did the Norway shooter. A suicide bomber on a bus in Tel Aviv sees him (or her) self as a martyr, the others on the bus are like mannequins to him. The Antifa goonchild who swings a bike lock at another person’s head imagines himself some hero stopping a resurgent Third Reich; Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity see themselves as heroes helping the world see the horrors the other side represents.