By David Futrelle
We don’t know much about Mark Anthony Conditt, the man allegedly responsible for a string of bombings in the Austin area that killed two African-Americans, injured numerous others, and terrorized a city. But what we do know is certainly suggestive: Conditt, who seemed to have been targeting prominent African-Americans, was a conservative homeschooled Christian who blogged about his opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and sex offender registries.
So naturally more than a few on the right have decided that Conditt must have been some sort of AntiFa supersoldier.
Mark Anthony Conditt’s social media was immediately scrubbed off the face of the internet. It’s safe to say he was a radical leftist ANTIFA looking to terrorize the conservative community of Austin.
More blood on liberal hands…
— The Trump Train 🚂🇺🇸 (@The_Trump_Train) March 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/DrJaneRuby/status/976471387761205248
This is a picture from his student ID at Austin Community College. Either way probably Antifa or Bernie Sanders supporter, one not excluding the other. https://t.co/YjsfwJakqY pic.twitter.com/7GrG1crYpJ
— Niteangel (@I_am_Niteangel) March 21, 2018
IMAGINE DIS?
BREAKING NEWS… The Texas Bomber was a Democrat / Leftist /Liberal "ANTIFA" supporter….
The serial bomber who terrorized Austin identified; left ‘treasure trove’ of info before blowing… https://t.co/kK1JDLL8uV
— Cynthia Johnson (@CynthiaDustin) March 21, 2018
.@FoxNews @DRUDGE @BreitbartNews @RealAlexJones @newsmax @realDennisLynch DHS insider confirms #AustinSerialBomber Mark Anthony Conditt attended Antifa meetings
— Campaign4America2016 (@Campain4America) March 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/saneplanet/status/976541790743404544
https://twitter.com/kraig4u/status/976498041619271681
If the bomber in Austin Texas was a Donald Trump voter it would have been all over the news by now what do you want to bet he's an antifa member or Bernie bro or he's a Hillary Clinton voter?
— Oligarch Kabuki (@HouseCracka) March 21, 2018
Mark Anthony Conditt.
-How much info on this guy did the FBI take in and then mismanage?
-Is he a
1. Bernie Bro?
2. Antifa Anarchist?
3. Recent convert to a well-known peaceful religion?If he was a 'Right Winger' then CNN would have a 30-member panel on 24/7 until November
— Texas Peanut (@marklindesr) March 21, 2018
ANTIFA members are vicious. And they don't use guns.
So the Austin bomber was a member of ANTIFA. Surprised?— @CountryJazz4 (@CountryJazz4) March 21, 2018
While the “Rex Tillerson” in the above tweet isn’t the real Rex Tillerson, those pushing this particular conspiracy theory aren’t all anonymous nobodies. The Trump Train twitter account has more than 200,000 followers; General Deplorable has more than 60,000. @DrJaneRuby is a self-described “American Health Economist, New Right Journalist, TV Host” who is working with alt lite conspiracy theorist/former Bumble user Jack Posobiec and others to organize a right-wing networking conference in DC later this year.
Speaking of conspiracy theorists, one ingenious Twitterer managed to blame a prominent Parkland survivor-turned gun control advocate for somehow inspiring the bombings … by talking about package delivery services.
https://twitter.com/orlandowan1/status/976548266644049921
While some cried “antifa,” other right-wing conspiracy theorists thought they saw the hand of some nefarious “deep state” cabal at work.
https://twitter.com/TerranomaLead/status/976521436733952000
Mark Conditt was a pawn in the oligarchy’s game to create a media smokescreen for the federal authorities who failed in #Florida, Americans should know that Deep State agents loyal to Andy McCabe were involved in sending those packages just as they let proles die in Parkland #USA
— PRC SC Princeling (@PRCSCPrinceling) March 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/HaleyItalee/status/976521911503998976
Here Igou Again IMHO: The Austin bomber fits the bill as another Mk Ultra killer in that his father's next-door neighbor said the young Conditt was friendly and quiet, and he never got the sense that anything was amiss…. https://t.co/QRAY7bVR9p
— RedneckUpdate.com (@RickHisself) March 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/FrankSemperFi/status/976554461098381312
https://twitter.com/TerranomaLead/status/976524781615923200
https://twitter.com/Omerta_15/status/976574256132886534
On Infowars’ Facebook page the commenters mixed and matched comspiracy theories with wild abandon:
Even before the suspect’s name was announced, some glommed onto comments made on Reddit by someone claiming to be the bomber as “proof” of some sneaky conspiracy that could not possibly involve anyone with right-wing leanings.
Alex Jones’ Infowars pushed this angle hard, with Infowars TV host David Knight relying on the Reddit postings to suggest that the bomber was an AntiFa “nihilist.”
BREAKING: #AustinBombings Stopped, Suspect Dead,
Was he a nihilist #Antifa?WATCH: https://t.co/Qzm8jGtf4o
— David Knight Show LIVE 9am EST, M-F (@libertytarian) March 21, 2018
While Knight presented his theories in the form of questions, his colleague Paul Joseph Watson treated the unverified Reddit postings as Revealed Truth, declaring that they proved the bombings were “not political.”
Austin Bomber Said Attacks Not Political: Left Screams “White Terrorism” Anyway https://t.co/rq70ZSE2xW
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) March 21, 2018
Meanwhile, some cited the Reddit posts as proof that Alex Jones — whose alternate reality “news” empire is based in Austin — was the bomber’s real target.
https://twitter.com/1984VISION/status/976437040593162241
Mark Anthony Conditt allegedly said on Redditt under a fake name that he was sending a bomb to a radio host in Austin. That means he was out to kill Alex Jones. Doesn't sound like a Trump supporter.
— Dave's Spirit (@dave_spirit2001) March 21, 2018
Possible target of Alex Jones is a hit at the alt media truth. And the fact the terrorist enemies want to take Out Q is desperation of being found out. #Qanon #TheStormIsHere https://t.co/mVd3mYzc1j
— M🇺🇸 MAGA (@MKWPatriot) March 21, 2018
He tried to kill Alex Jones.
He was a leftist Antifa, just like many other domestic terrorists in the US. https://t.co/RfSpZtVkaj
— Poke Badger (@poke_badger) March 21, 2018
It would all be a lot funnier if this weren’t how an increasing number of Americans get their “news.” From Donald Trump to Alex Jones and down all the way to @MKWPatriot, the right in America has chosen to live in an alternate reality of their own making. And the rest of us have to deal with the consequences.
Are you sure that he was targeting African-Americans? His third would-be victim was of another race (Latina I think?). The next two people he seriously injured were white, and his bomb was planted in a neighborhood that virtually guaranteed that. I have a feeling he may have picked his first few addresses at random, then corrected with a bomb that was aimed at deliberately-random-but-probably-white targets, after he realized he was creating a false impression. I strongly suspect him of being one of these hard to explain killers who just want to take some people out with him – like that pilot who committed suicide by flying his passenger plane into the ground, for example.
Or the first three were deliberate and the fourth one was random.
To clarify the song whiter than snow is about his sins being washed away until he is white as snow, not white supremacy, now I read the lyrics. Still think it’s a bit 1488.
Did anyone else want that to continue with :
“Sew — a needle pulling thread?”
@Pen: I’m not going to give self-professed Christian Conservative Terrorists the benefit of the doubt, not now, not ever. They have a record of ideologically informed, targeted violence stretching back as far as recorded history.
And as we turned this slightly musical, here’s a proper response to almost all religiously motivated fightin’ music:
https://youtu.be/XdsOuvLMDgc
When he was targeting people of color, the bombings weren’t creating such a big media firestorm. Once he started endangering white lives, it got the 24/7 news coverage. So there’s that.
Speaking of Carman, here’s the one and only Cinema Snob reviewing his music video for Satan Bite The Dust, where Carman literally shoots Alcoholism to death.
This article succeeded in making me feel sorry for a race terrorist. I had to write about it over on my blog.
I can’t really engage the comments here – moderating my own tiny amount is sometimes draining. To the cool people, good luck with le battle.
–
Two victims were not only white, but from the posher side of the IH-35 divide. That doesn’t necessarily mean they were rich, but Westlake is in general a posher neighborhood than Southeast Austin.
And yes, one of his victims was a Latina.
https://marchforourlives.com/
Very amusing Great American Satan, I took much shamefuljoy/sadfunny from your post.
@weirwood: This wry and vicious quote came up in another forum’s discussion regarding the Austin police chief’s description of the bomber:
“the police are sad about this outcome only insofar as they could not get from him the secret to how he was able to murder black people without it making the national news”
Any American calling themselves the Great American Satan gets extra streetcred from me, considering it’s a turn of phrase I conflate with the Iranian Revolution. Is that on purpose?
You know, I thought Patricia was being extremely sarcastic until I got to the end of her comment.
“I was a lifelong Democrat, but you people are disgusting. I can’t bear to see what hatefulness you are selling and yet it never stops.”
What we’re doing is questioning the veracity of the stories you seem to want to believe, to the extent that every once in a while we even try to find out whether they’re true or not — is all. If you can’t stand for that much, you ought to jump ship. Bon voyage.
misophist-
Thanks! I’m not the most thoughtful blogler, but I try.
(A)utonomous –
I started using this handle when the atheist movement post 9-11 was riding a high wave of islamophobia, and have considered changing it. I mean, as far as Iran is concerned, pretty legit to consider us as satanic. I used to assume the quote was just disapproval of stuff like legalized gay and women’s rights and drinkin’, when I heard some mangled version in like Hot Shots Part Deux.
So I’ve considered changing my handle over the last few years but I’m kinda invested / branded to where that could be an issue, and I still identify with some kind of america, still feel like some kind of satan.
–
@Great American Satan
How about ” the poster formerly known as Great American Satan”?
@Treeperson
How about not.
@Dalillama
Your probably right,
even ignoring possibly problematic connotations its just way too long.
@wwth wrote:
True. Plus, I was watching a news segment about the last bombing, and people were saying, “Well, I heard about bad things happening over somewhere else, but I never expected it to happen it in MY neighbourhood.” That’s a common reaction when faced with something shocking, but there was also an undercurrent of “our neighbourhood is a good, rich, white neighbourhood” – and one of the cops they quoted was pretty blatant about it. Ugh.
@Great American Satan: No need to change it, it’s a red rag to the Right, so please keep it.
Re. media, reporting and pampering white, male murderers and murderously inclined white men, that seems to be the unspoken agreement in the western world, I can name too many white supremacists in a European context who’ve gotten off far lighter than black and brown peeps for similar offences judicially and in the media, including to having it downplayed in the media. Even Anders Breivik was taken alive and labeled mentally ill, for fucks sake…
@Alan
Learning about DARVO was a life-changing event for me. It explained a lot. And as I so often do, I wondered where, when, and how jerks got together to trade these kinds of tips for dealing with their unsuspecting acquaintances.
Actually, I know it’s just that jerks keep their antennae out for these kinds of tips. They probably pick them up pretty much everywhere.
@Cheerful Warthog
I still wonder if that was all sarcasm.
If she was a troll, she was picking one accusation from column A, two smears from column B, and so on, and jamming them all into one comment.
Of course, trolls are not known for their elegance.
Say, where is Patricia?
@Alan
This question first occurred to me decades ago, before the Interwebz facilitated the exchange of ideas (some of which are pretty dodgy).
OT: Business Insider, tell me more!
Mueller just scored a massive win in the Russia investigation
http://www.businessinsider.com/john-dowd-departure-means-mueller-will-likely-get-trump-interview-2018-3
@Katamount:
That’s certainly something that some people do, and you provide a very succinct summation of it. However, in the case of the Pepe Brigade, I think it’s something else.
Put simply, I think a lot of the alt-Right have forgotten how to interact with human society. One of the things that’s so hilarious about alt-Right sock-puppetry attempts, for example Antifa Official, is how poorly they understand how other people talk and interact. It ends up being like a “how do you do, fellow kids” except with *chan-style keywords constantly slipping out.
As such, I don’t think this sort of slippery, semantically-nihilistic behaviour is a defence mechanism they use when talking to us “normies”; if that were the case then they’d fuck it up constantly. I think this is just how they talk, whether to us or themselves, whether about politics or something else.
Jay Allen (@amaninblack) suggested that *chan culture has infected the linguistic norms of the alt-Right, which in turn changed its social and philosophical norms. If that’s the case here, and this sort of semantic nihilism and doublespeak has become a social norm, then that’s fascinating from an anthropological perspective and I lack the academic background to properly discuss it further.