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We still don't know all the facts aboutwhy 18-year-old white maleperpetrated a horrific hate crime at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York last Saturday. What appears irrefutable, however, is that his violent act was fueled by racist and xenophobic misinformation online.

As I discussed the shootingwith my husband, an immigrant, person of color, fellow psychiatrist and the bravest person I know he spoke with uncharacteristic vulnerability: Im afraid. Grappling with our fear and anger, we begana heated discussion about what should and canbe doneabout digital extremism in a society that has become tragically passive aboutletting people of color fear for their lives on a daily basis.

In public health, primary prevention solutions are considered the most effective toavoidillness, because they eliminate the source of the hazardsono one is exposed. But what do you do when the illness is white supremacy woven into the framework of a nation?

Primary prevention requires government mobilization and national policies. WriterEileen Riverspoints out,for example, how this shooting highlights the need for national education reform that addresses Americas racist and violent past. But if white supremacist theories are becoming increasingly mainstreamwithin the government, primary prevention measures seem infuriatingly improbable. (Although as I wrote this, Congress did narrowly pass a bill to fight domestic terrorism.)

[W]hat do you do when the illness is white supremacy woven into the framework of a nation?

We could try to crack down on extremist content online, butremovingone problematic forum,like cutting off the head of the Hydra,spawns two new ones in its place. Case in point: TikTok is the latest platform caught in the never-ending pro-ana promoting anorexia problem.

Then there are gun control measures, but again, a lack of bipartisan support makes this fix repeatedly a non-starter.

We're left with a call for individualsto confront online extremism. Because young, white males make up the majority of those committing hate crimes in the name of white supremacy, the individuals who may be able to make the most difference are teachers, mental health professionals and especially, parents. As a child psychiatrist and researcher in problematic digital media use, I have some advice on what we (including myself!) might do better:

*Ask what your child/patient/student does online. Let me be clear: The internet does not cause someone to become racist or violent. But the ways social media platforms uniquely facilitate terrorist group recruitment are well-established. Fringe groups use the internet to lure in new recruits with support and camaraderie, all the while stoking in them a sense of moral outrage, feeding them misinformation, and convincing them that unless they commit to their cause, their very lives are at stake. (This isknown as mortality salience.) A young person's devotion to a single forum or website should, at the very least, prompt additional questioning.

*Monitor closely for behavioral changes, especially now. Much like the internet, pandemics dont cause violence or racism, but they may foster an environment where teens with racist views become radicalized. Troubled youth are especially easy targets for online extremist groups and the COVID-19 pandemic created troubled youth in droves. Grappling with sudden, dramatic shifts in their everyday lives, the teenagers of 2020 flocked to the one remaining source of consistent connection: the internet.

[A]nger is a feeling that extremist groups are masterful at taking advantage of online.

While teens increased their chances of encountering extremism as they spent more time online, the pandemic also slashed healthier opportunities for teenagers to build a sense of identity, community and self-esteem. No more hanging out with friends after school, football games or clubs.

The media may have focused predominantly on the rise in teen suicides during the pandemic, but teenanger has also exploded. I worked on an inpatient psychiatric unit during the early days of the pandemic and pediatric admissions for aggression were sometimes more frequent than those for depression.Unfortunately, anger is a feeling that extremist groups are masterful at taking advantage of online. These groups tell youthlike the Buffalo shooterwhere to direct their anger:

There isnt a problem with you, but with Blacks, Hispanics and immigrants. Youre being replaced. Its up to you to do something.

*Watchfor sudden changes in beliefs. While adolescence is normally a stage where teenagers try on new ideologies, if a teen suddenly starts espousing beliefs entirely inconsistent with previously held worldviews, it is time to investigate further. Los Angeles-based writer Joanna Schroeder described this well when she documented her own experiencewatching her sons' online behavior. The red flags started going up for us when, a year or so ago, [our kids] started asking questions that felt like they came directly from alt-right talking points,she said.

*If a teen is exploring online extremism sites, focus on maintaining an in. While yourfirst instinct may be to forbid or admonish, the fastest way to lose access to a troubled teen is to shame them. Extremist forums make recruits feel empowered, and then work to isolate them from opposing (read: true) viewpoints. Adults must remain curious and invested, correct misinformation, and stay in it for the long haul. This is not to condone racist behaviors, but rather to watchfor potential violence. Increase mental health supports when needed and provide alternative screen-free activities that offer connection and validation. Any suspicion of violent intent should be met with an emergent mental health evaluation.

It is critical now more than ever that white allies do all that they can to fight digital extremism. Even if our country is slow to make systematic changes to confront white nationalism, our Black, Hispanic and Asian neighbors deserve far more from us than passivity during these turbulent times. Diverting just one youth away from these forums could quite literally save Black and brown lives.

Correction: A previous version of this piece mischaracterized Joanna Schroeder's descriptions of her children's online activity.

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We cant control guns or the internet. But we can watch kids for signs of extremism - WBUR News

The Buffalo area is home to a small but growing cadre of right wing extremists who are making inroads at both the grassroots and electoral level

Some people here are taking solace in the fact that the white supremacist who killed 10 people in Saturdays supermarket massacre is from out of town.

As if Western New York doesnt have its own growing cadre of right-wing extremists.

Ill start with a reminder of a story we did last June in which Investigative Post reported only one county in the entire country had more of its citizens arrested on charges related to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol than Erie County.

Among those charged was an Amherst man who assaulted a Capitol Police officer, stealing his badge and radio, and a Cheektowaga man who damaged CNN camera equipment and invaded the Capitol building. They were among the 100 or so Western New Yorkers who traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the rally headlined by Donald Trump that precipitated the attempted insurrection.

At the time, Heidi Jones, a Buffalo attorney who researches local right-wing activity, told Investigative Post: Theres intertwined networks that have been recruiting and been active for many years. The COVID pandemic has given such an opportunity to recruit more people into it with the strongly divisive political environment that were in.

Cloee Cooper, a research analyst with Political Research Associates, told Investigative Post: Erie County is kind of a hotspot for militia and far-right groups and local elected officials have been privy to some of that, or endorsed it in the past.

Which brings us to the politicians. Lets start with Tim Howard.

Some 30 people died in the Erie County Holding Center during his tenure. That didnt stop Howard from getting elected no fewer than four times, the third time just months after he spoke at a political rally featuring Confederate flags and attended by avowed white supremacists. One attendee, frequent local political candidate Ricky Donovan, carried a sign that stylized the first letters of Senator Schumer as in U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish in the font of the Nazi SS.

In that 2017 election cycle, Howard joined fellow Republicans Mickey Kearns (county clerk) and Stefan Mychajliw (county comptroller) in waging a campaign that used overtly racist flyers. The mailers featured images of Black football players kneeling and dark-skinned immigrants scaling walls, presumably at the southern border, along with pro-police and anti-immigrant wording that told voters they better vote Republican.

Howard, Kearns and Mychajliw all won election.

When he decided to step down last year, Howard won election as supervisor of the Town of Wales.

Then theres the guy who didnt get elected governor, Carl Paladino.

His track record for racist rhetoric is unsurpassed in recent Western New York history. He won the Republican nomination for governor in 2010 before being trounced by Andrew Cuomo. While Cuomo won statewide by a 2-to-1 margin, Paladino carried all eight counties of Western New York.

He retreated to Buffalo, won election twice to the Buffalo Board of Education in 2013 and 2016 and served until he was removed by the state education commissioner in 2017 for publicly disclosing confidential information obtained in executive session.

In 2016, while still serving on the School Board, Paladino hit rock bottom, telling the alternative weekly Artvoice that in the coming year hed like to see Barack Obama die of mad cow disease contacted after having sex with a young cow. As for Michelle Obama, Paladino said: Id like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

Did all this make Paladino a pariah?

No.

He remains part of the citys power structure.

For example, he continues to serve on the board of Buffalo Place, which promotes downtown and manages the Main Street pedestrian mall.

His campaign donations have long been accepted by Democrats and Republicans alike, including Byron Brown, the citys Black mayor.

His company continues to do business with various levels of government, including the City of Buffalo, as well as the Buffalo Bills, which has had a sponsorship deal with hotels his company owns since 2013.

Repeat: the Buffalo Bills do business with Carl Paladino.

When Paladino ran for governor, he tapped Michael Caputo, a protege of Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone, to run his campaign. The East Aurora native, who recently moved to Florida, worked on Donald Trumps presidential campaign and later took a job in his administration. He has advised numerous local right-wing candidates, including Mychajliw, the former county comptroller, and Assembly Member David DiPietro.

In 2020, Caputo brought alt-right idol Steve Bannon to an Elma fire hall to rally support for then U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, who was running for reelection while under indictment for insider trading. Collins won.

Paladino, Caputo, Mychajliw and DiPietro all maintain at least informal ties with the New York Watchmen, a quasi-militia group that frequently attends protests is support of right-wing causes. Caputo, in a September 2020 Facebook post, wore a Watchmen shirt as he warned of violence should Trump lose his reelection bid. He describes the groups founder, Charles Pellien, as an old friend.

Some Watchmen favor combat gear at protests. Members were in D.C. during the assault on the U.S. Capitol and a pro-Trump rally two months earlier. Locally, their encounters with other protesters sometimes have turned violent.

Pellien, the groups founder, responded to news of Saturdays massacre by tweeting, Black neighborhood, white suspect in custody. Buckle your chin straps.

The local right-wing scene includes other players, including anti-vaxxers whose activities included picketing the home of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz when he acted to curb the spread of Covid-19.

A small but growing number of elected officials align with this rag-tag collection of right-wing extremists.

DiPietro, the East Aurora Republican who represents much of the Southtowns and Wyoming County, comes immediately to mind. He rarely gets any legislation passed: his failed proposals include making English the official state language, requiring recipients of public assistance to submit to drug testing, dividing New York into three autonomous regions, and exempting private and parochial schools and day care centers from immunization requirements.

On Twitter, DiPietro followed accounts of right-wing militias and their members. He followed an account with the display name Caucasian Spring, whose bio read I love my whiteness. And yours. Another account he followed tweeted frequently about #WhiteGenocide and decried the de facto genocide of Western Man by immivasion.

DiPietro and Paladino were co-sponsors, along with Howard, of the 2017 rally that drew neo-Nazis and Confederate flags.

Not to be overlooked is Congressman Chris Jacobs, a one-time moderate who has gone full Trump. The last thing I read on him he was pushing to punish the Walt Disney Co. for opposing Floridas Dont Say Gay bill. Because, you know, thats a burning issue to his constituents in Upstate New York.

You can find a small but growing number of right-wing extremists in local government.

For example, theres Williamsville Mayor Deb Rogers and two of her colleagues on the village board, who have equated state measures to limit the spread of Covid to the abuses of Nazi Germany and Communist China.

The far right this month lent its support to at least 26 candidates running in 13 school districts in Erie and Niagara counties. Eleven of them won, in districts that include Williamsville, Akron and Grand Island.

The Constitutional Coalition, which along with WNY Students First assisted right-leaning candidates, said another 11 of their candidates won election in other counties in western and central New York.

These candidates ran on platforms that opposed the teaching of sex education, critical race theory and mask and vaccine mandates to address Covid.

Our base is energized. These school board victories are a strong foundation for future success. The mission is far from done, Nancie Orticelli, founder of The Constitutional Coalition, said in a joint statement with WNY Students First posted on Facebook.

If her words arent a wake-up call for progressives, moderates and other thinking people, I dont know what is.

True, last Saturdays shooter wasnt from here. But remember who was: Timothy McVeigh.

Geoff Kelly and Layne Dowdall contributed to this column.

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The rise of the radical right in WNY - Investigative Post

When I was a teenager, after reading the Diary of Anne Frank, I always asked myself if I had lived in Germany in the 1930s, would I have spoken up and done the right thing. Right now is my 1930s.

On May 14, 10 innocent lives were taken by a white supremacist and domestic terrorist in a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. On the very same day in the state of Vermont, the VTGrassRoots organization and the states Republican Party were hosting two men who further racist and hateful ideology and alt-right propaganda. If you go to VTGrassRoots website, you will see a video repeating the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. In that video, you will see people of color putting ballots in a ballot box. This is accompanied by very dark and dramatic music. If you are easily fooled, it might lead one to assume that they are stuffing ballot boxes. It only furthers the narrative that our country is being stolen or replaced by people of color.

This is violent and harmful and we will continue to see domestic terrorist acts committed in this country due to white supremacy. There is no proof presented in the video that anything was stolen, just snippets of dark and grainy pictures that promote lies.

I am sure there are those who feel that they are expressing their right to free speech. But because your free speech is hate speech, your rights end where the dignity of others begins. Please take a stand against racism and hate in this beautiful state. Please vote for candidates that will continue and build on values that allow everyone to live with dignity and respect in our country.

Patricia New

North Ferrisburgh

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Letter to the editor: Let's take a stand against racism - Addison County Independent

Washington

In a 180-page missive posted online before the May 14 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, alleged gunman Payton Gendron wrote that he wanted "to spread awareness to my fellow whites about the real problems the West is facing."

The problems, according to the alleged shooter? Mass immigration and white people not having enough babies.

"This crisis of mass immigration and sub-replacement fertility," the 18-year-old white man wrote, "is an assault on the European people that, if not combated, will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people."

Though he did not call it by its name, Gendron was referring to a far-right conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement, which says Western elites, Jews in particular, are bringing in immigrants to replace whites.

In addition to the Buffalo shooting that killed 10 Black people and wounded three others, extremism experts say the racist theory has inspired attacks on ethnic and religious minorities as far away as Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas.

French origins

The idea that nonwhite immigrants could eventually displace native-born white Europeans has roots in 20th century French ethnic nationalism. But the term itself was coined and popularized by French white nationalist author Renaud Camus (no relation to Albert Camus).

As he recently told the right-wing outlet Konflikt Magazin, he first came up with the expression in the 1990s in a small, medieval village in the south of France.

There, near "Gothic windows and Gothic fountains," were Muslim women in veils and men in djellaba robes, he recalled. "I was, of course, accustomed like everybody else to seeing the change of people in [the predominantly Arab and Black] suburbs, but there it was especially striking."

Camus said he later gave a speech titled "The Great Replacement" in a nearby town, and in 2011, self-published a book of the same title in French.

Though never translated into English, the book helped spur the launch of a trans-European far-right network with connections to extremists in the United States, according to Wendy Via, co-founder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

"The ideas were picked up almost immediately, and they comported with other white supremacist ideas here in the U.S. and other places," Via said.

Describing it as a "plain fact" and not a "theory," Camus said the great replacement is simply "a change of people with a change of culture and civilization."

Extremism experts say it's more than that.

"The great replacement theory is a conspiracy theory that says that white people are purposely being replaced with immigrants, migrants, Muslims, refugees across the world, primarily affecting the Western European countries and the United States," Via said.

American proponents

The white replacement idea gained traction in the United States among white supremacists who adopted it as a substitute for their theory about "white genocide" as they sought to rebrand themselves as white nationalists in recent years.

"The idea of replacing is somewhat easier to understand than genocide for people to accept," said Michael Edison Hayden, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Though Camus did not blame Jews, American white supremacists have adopted his phrase as an anti-Jewish slogan.

Many Americans first became familiar with the term in 2017 when alt-right activists organized a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where activists chanted, "You will not replace us," and "Jews will not replace us."

The rally turned deadly when a neo-Nazi sympathizer drove his truck into counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

Link to violence

Camus denies his words have inspired violence. But extremism experts say the replacement idea has helped propel a string of deadly attacks by white supremacists on Jews, Muslims, Hispanics and Blacks in recent years.

Those include the massacre of 13 worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018; the slaughter in 2019 of 51 Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand; and the mass killing of 23 people, most of whom were Hispanic, at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, in 2019.

"It is a substantial influence on these types of attacks," Hayden said.

Hayden noted that before the replacement idea gained currency in recent years, most mass shootings in the country did not appear to be ideologically motivated. For example, the gunman in the 2012 massacre at a movie theater in Colorado suffered from severe mental illness and had no known extremist beliefs.

Now, shooters have found an ideology to justify violence, Hayden said.

"This functions in almost the same way that terrorists of all kinds are able to find sociopathic people or unstable people and fill them with a sense of purpose," he said.

In his manifesto, Gendron wrote that the person who "radicalized" him the most was Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch mosques shooter whose 2019 massacre manifesto was titled "The Great Replacement."

"Brenton started my real research into the problems with immigration and foreigners in our white lands," Gendron wrote.

Gendron added that he decided to take matters into his own hands after "learning the truth" on the right-wing message board 4chan that the "white race is dying out, that Blacks are disproportionately killing whites and that the Jews and elites were behind this."

A Media Matters search of the message board found that users have mentioned the terms "great replacement," "white replacement," or "white genocide" more than 90,000 times since July 2018.

Camus has sought to distance himself from the shooting in Buffalo and other attacks allegedly inspired by the great replacement theory.

A Twitter account apparently linked to Camus said Sunday that neither the Buffalo shooter nor the New Zealand mosques attacker had referenced Camus or his book, rejecting the suggestion that his book was a call to hatred or a call to violence.

Going mainstream

The replacement idea is no longer confined to the outer edges of the far right. Increasingly, prominent conservative television hosts and politicians have faced accusations of using it as a trope to condemn "mass immigration."

One prominent personality accused of promoting the conspiracy is conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Media Matters, said Carlson started regularly discussing the idea in 2019.

"It was a core white supremacist conspiracy theory that suddenly he was talking about on his Fox News show, and then suddenly, other Fox News hosts were doing the same thing. And then Republican politicians," Gertz said.

During a segment last year, Carlson said that Biden's policy of "mass immigration" is designed "to change the racial mix of the country."

"In political terms, this policy is called the great replacement the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far away countries," Carlson said.

In comments on Monday night, Carlson said the Buffalo shooter was mentally ill and not politically motivated and that "the great replacement theory is coming from the left" where activists and politicians push a demographic shift for political advantage.

During a visit to Buffalo to pay tribute to victims of the shooting, President Biden said he condemned "those who spread the lie" about white replacement. The White House has previously dismissed suggestions that it is promoting an "open borders" policy.

Other Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have charged that Democrats are seeking to bring in immigrants to replace Americans for political gain, according to Gertz.

In the wake of the Buffalo shooting, Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for promoting the racist theory. She has denied the charge.

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What is the Great Replacement Theory? - Voice of America - VOA News

BURLINGTON Two rocks were thrown through the front door of the Pride Center of Vermonts community center on South Champlain Street on Tuesday morning, the Center reported.

Video footage shows that at around midnight, an unknown person walked up to the Center's doorway and threw two rocks through the door before running on foot towards Pine Street.

The Centers physical space closed following the vandalism, but will reopen next week once the safety of the space can be more thoroughly assessed. Property management has responded and has boarded the front door and will be replacing the glass pane in the coming weeks. The door is also being covered by a pride flag.

All virtual events will still occur, and the SafeSpace Anti-Violence support line will remain open as scheduled, unless otherwise noted.

Pride Center of Vermont was established to advance community and the health and safety of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) Vermonters.

Burlington acting Police Chief Jon Murad says officers are investigating the vandalism with an eye toward the very real possibility that it was motivated by malice related to the Pride Center.

Burlington Police say they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.Police say that when a crime in Vermont is determined to have been maliciously motivated it may be enhanced as a hate crime, the perpetrator can be given additional penalties at sentencing.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said he was troubled to learn about the vandalism.

Our city is using its full resources to investigate who committed this crime and why," Weinberger said in a statement. Acts of hate have no place in Burlington."

This targeted act of intimidation and vandalism is not new to the organization. In 2007, the Pride Center, then located on Elmwood Avenue, experienced several instances of vandalism, including a brick thrown through a front window and graffiti displaying the words Burn in Hell.

In February 2019, the front door was plastered with alt-right propaganda. Since then, the Center has reported a rise in the amount of hateful letters and messages delivered to it's mailbox, increasing in the level of harmful rhetoric and threats. This attack on the Center comes on the heels of an escalated climate of anti-trans violence, including the murder of a community member, Fern Feather.

The Center said it is grateful for and strengthened by the solidarity of the neighborhood, where people informed the Center of the incident, showed up to help sweep broken glass, dropped off flowers and offered their support.

The community is invited to come together in "joy, celebration and resiliency" on Saturday, May 7, for the annual TransPlants Sale & Block Party from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 255 South Champlain Street.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Pride Center vandalized, it's not the first time - Bennington Banner