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In the last decade, a conspiracy theory called the Great Replacement has been gaining popularity. Often its adherents commit racist-motivated terrorist attacks. Understanding what they believe
Racist attack
On May 14, 2022, 18-year-old white American Peyton Gendron, armed with an automatic rifle, entered a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and opened fire. 10 people were killed and three more were injured. At the same time, 11 of the 13 victims were African Americans. During the attack, Gendron shouted racist slurs. Expletives were also written on his weapons.
BNO News reported that the shooter released a manifesto prior to the attack. In it, he called himself a white extremist and wrote about the “attack on the Europeans.” It, they say, lies in the crisis of mass migration against the backdrop of a low birth rate, which does not ensure the reproduction of the population. As a result, he is sure, we are talking about “racial and cultural replacement of Europeans.” These words coincide with the main provisions of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
What is the “Great Replacement”
The “Great Replacement” is a nationalist far-right conspiracy theory according to which, with the help of certain “elites”, the white population of Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is gradually being replaced by people of other races. First of all, dark-skinned people from Africa and Muslims of Arab origin.
Experts note that the roots of the concept lie in the French nationalism of the early twentieth century. It received a modern design in the works of the French nationalist author Renaud Camus. The theory arose in his mind in the mid-1990s, when he traveled through the French villages and saw how “Muslim women in hijabs and men in djellabas were walking next to Gothic windows and fountains.” Nearly 15 years later, he presented a book on The Great Replacement.
Theory and terrorist attacks
Despite the fact that Renaud Camus’s work was not particularly translated into other languages, his ideas received support in the nationalist environment of Western Europe and North America. In the United States, far-right ideologists have turned their anger on the Jews in the old fashioned way. For example, in 2017, during the protests in Charlottesville, the phrase “The Jews will not replace us!” became a popular slogan. Often the theory has led to racially motivated attacks. In addition to the Buffalo incident described above, these include the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the 2019 El Paso mall shooting, and the XNUMX Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand. Researchers of extremist ideologies directly link these attacks to the Great Replacement.
What are the theorists wrong about?
Experts often point to logical inconsistencies and direct errors in the argumentation of the theory’s proponents. On the one hand, it is simply impossible to prove a plan for the deliberate importation of people to Western countries, because it does not exist: each migrant comes to the USA, France and other states on his own. Moreover, often representatives of political elites directly oppose the influx of migrants. For example, the administration of US President Joe Biden, which followers of the Great Replacement call “anti-white”, is responsible for the detention and deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants at the border with Mexico.
On the other hand, the theory is refuted by statistics. In 2020, the US population increased by 3,6 million due to children born in the country, and only by 625 thousand due to naturalized migrants. This ratio (5,8 to 1) destroys the main argument of the Great Replacement. In addition, out of 3,6 million children born per year, only 20% are children of migrants.