By David Futrelle
Every day, another atrocity. Today, as you know, a viciously hateful neo-Nazi shooter murdered eleven and wounded several others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Three days ago, a white supremacist killed two black shoppers at a grocery store in a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky, after first trying and failing to get into a nearby black church, which was his real target. And we are still waiting to find out if there are still any mail bombs left to be found after the largest mass political assassination attempt in US history.
So there’s a lot to discuss. Here are some relevant tweets about today’s tragedy as well as the shooting on Wednesday.
I’ll start with a useful short thread featuring the shooter’s posts on Gab. Yes, he “got on Gab,” as they say.
Posts from the suspected Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers. He hated Trump and thought Trump was controlled by Jews. This monster is an unhinged anti-Semitic terrorist. pic.twitter.com/sjb2k6ucwb
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 27, 2018
He regularly posted virulently anti Semitic things on Gab. Before the shooting, he wrote about the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, saying it “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.” https://t.co/mAbJNaiOPq
— Tess Owen (@misstessowen) October 27, 2018
Conservative media is making a lot of the shooter’s criticism of Trump. But, minus the overt anti-Semitism, a lot of what he posted about wouldn’t be out of place in Fox prime time: a conspiracy behind the caravan, or immigrants bent on replacing white Americans.
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 27, 2018
The shooter posted on Gab, which is ostensibly a "free speech" version of Twitter but which is functionally a haven for hate speech, a platform overrun by Nazis and the Nazi-adjacent who are banned elsewhere. Gab is a huge resource for them, provided for free. Gab enables hate.
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) October 27, 2018
This week there was a white supremacist attack at a Kroger, assassination attempts against 2 Presidents and a dozen others, now an active shooter at a major Synagogue.
The DHS secretary has spent the week at the border, fear-mongering about unarmed starving kids 1000 miles away.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) October 27, 2018
This could have very well become another Charleston massacre. As it is, it was an act of domestic racial terrorism, committed by a white man who refused to fire at another because, per a witness who told a local TV station: “Whites don’t shoot whites.” https://t.co/tyquFAvobx
— Jamil Smith جميل كريم (@JamilSmith) October 27, 2018
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We moved to Squirrel Hill when I was 15 and ever since, I’ve considered it my home town because I loved it so much. The Tree of Life synagogue is less than half a mile from where we used to live. That this could happen in my beautiful close-knit neighborhood is absolutely shocking. My heart goes out to the congregation, to Squirrel Hill, to the whole city, and to the worldwide community of Jews who must now feel even less safe than before.
I hope that these awful murders will inspire those who have supported Trump to reconsider whether low taxes, etc., are worth this increasingly poisonous atmosphere of white nationalism.
I’m crying now:
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2018/10/29/jeff-sessions-boston-bible-verse/
My late father was a United Methodist pastor. If he were alive today, I know he would stand in support of this young pastor standing up to Sessions. If Sessions feels “attacked” by Holy Scripture, then he needs to stop acting so self-righteous.
The one bit of good news: apparently the NRA is so tight for cash that they’ve only spent $1.6 million on ads this campaign season. At the same point in 2014, they’d spent ten times as much. And those in favor of gun control are outspending them.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/10/2018-gun-control-outspends-nra-rights/