Conspiracy Theories of the ‘White Genocide’
While much remains to be learned about the terrorist attack targeting worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the 17,000-word manifesto posted online by the gunman makes it clear that far-right internet culture and white supremacist propaganda played an integral role in radicalising the 28 year-old attacker.
In his manifesto, the terrorist made frequent reference to the white genocide conspiracy theory, which claims – falsely – that white people are being replaced by non-whites through changes in birth rates, mass immigration and “forced assimilation”. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the belief system surrounding so-called ‘white genocide’ represents “one of the most deeply held white supremacist convictions”.
More than $200 million was pumped into the anti-Muslim propaganda industry between 2008 and 2013.
The manifesto is riddled with anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Throughout the document, the terrorist repeatedly referred to Muslims as “invaders” who are trying to take over “the West” and lamented the “high fertility” rates among Muslim populations.
The gunman frequently returned to the conspiratorial idea that whites are facing an existential threat due to increasing numbers of Muslims and other immigrants coming to predominantly white countries and “destroying” the culture. The word “destroy” appears 25 times in the document, while references to “birth rate” and “fertility” appear 43 times, alongside 47 references to Western or European “culture”.
Such extremist views are common in the modern white supremacist movement. The terrorist’s manifesto mirrors the rhetoric found on forums and message boards such as 4chan and Stormfront, as well as websites like the Daily Stormer, VDARE, and Vanguard News Network.
But, the gunman’s Islamophobic rhetoric isn’t confined to the dark corners of the web. Far from it, actually.
Inciting hatred towards Muslims is part of a multi-million dollar propaganda business funded by some of the most prominent right-wing donors and organisations in the United States – including many that have direct ties to the Trump administration.
Mainstreaming Hate
According to a June 2016 report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and University of California Berkeley’s Centre on Race and Gender, more than $200 million was pumped into the anti-Muslim propaganda industry between 2008 and 2013.
That money funded the activities of several dozen groups whose primary purpose is to “promote prejudice against, or hatred of, Islams and Muslims” and to push their Islamophobic rhetoric from the fringes into the mainstream.
They achieve that goal, in part, by working hand-in-hand with media and tech companies to disseminate their propaganda via right-wing “scholars”, media personalities, grassroots organisations and other associated entities.
“This enables them to mutually reference each other’s highly inaccurate or purposefully deceptive material as facts and then subsequently disseminate it to other grassroots groups and politicians through right-wing media outlets,” the Centre for American Progress (CAP) explained in a 2011 report.
Among the most prominent donors backing America’s anti-Muslim propaganda industry is Robert Mercer, whom the Washington Post named as one of the “top 10 most influential billionaires in politics”.
Mercer – the top contributor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign – is affiliated with a slew of right-wing organisations, but he is perhaps most notorious for launching the now-defunct, scandal-plagued data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica and funding the far-right Breitbart News network, run by Steve Bannon.
Mercer, his daughter Rebekah, and the vehicles they use to influence policy and society, are a case study in for-profit hate, showcasing the inner workings of an anti-Muslim propaganda industry, the tentacles of which stretch from the fringes of the internet to establishment think tanks – and all the way into the White House.
The Mercer-Funded Anti-Muslim Propaganda Business
Between 2014 and 2016, the Mercer Family Foundation donated $250,000 to the New York-based Gatestone Institute, an anti-Muslim think tank that warns of a looming Muslim takeover of Europe leading to a “Great White Death”.
The organisation is also notable for its close ties to the Trump administration. Rebekah Mercer sits on its board of governors, former Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon has been a speaker at Gatestone events, and Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton became the group’s chairman in 2013.