TheQuartering [5/10/2023]
Social media posts by the man who killed eight people at a mall in Texas show he was deep into neo-Nazi and far-right imagery and propaganda.
But some activists have tried to cast doubt on the authenticity of the posts.
They’re claiming – without evidence – that the material is somehow part of a “psychological operation” or that the social media account is “fake”.
It may seem fringe, but the doubts have spread to millions via Elon Musk and others with popular Twitter accounts.
Six people, including children, were pronounced dead at the scene in the north Dallas suburbs on Saturday, while two died later in hospital.
The suspect, named by police as Mauricio Garcia, used an AR-15 style rifle and wore combat tactical gear during the shooting.
Garcia, police say, wore a patch reading “RWDS”, short for “Right Wing Death Squad” – a phrase commonly referenced by hate groups.
Hank Sibley, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a press conference on Tuesday that the motivation for the shootings was still under investigation, and that the victims appear to have been chosen at random.
“We do know he had neo-Nazi ideation,” he said. “We’re trying to find what he looked at [online] and trying to find any information we can.”
Mr Sibley said investigators were continuing to examine Garcia’s electronic devices and social media posts.
Garcia posted a huge variety of material on a lightly-moderated, Russia-based site named Odnoklassniki. The account was mentioned in news reports and uncovered by the investigative outlet Bellingcat.
His posts included pictures of a swastika tattoo, long violent screeds, and pictures of the mall taken as recently as last month – interspersed with other pictures of boxes of ammunition and guns.
Other posts praised Nazis and the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who is often feted by people who use the “Right Wing Death Squad” phrase.
He directly addressed his ethnic background in one meme he posted which mentioned “Latino children” and the phrase “become white supremacist”.