Analysis: The Manifesto Posted On 8chan By Alleged El Paso Shooter Minutes Before Attack

A white supremacist manifesto was posted on 8chan shortly before the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas on August 3, 2019. It is believed to have been posted by the alleged shooter, although this has not been officially confirmed. What follows is a review and analysis of the manifesto.

Introduction

On August 3, 2019, in a Walmart store in the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas, a lone gunman opened fire, killing 22 and injuring 24. The suspect, Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, was arrested and charged with capital murder. The crime is being investigated by the FBI as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime.

Approximately 19 minutes before the attack, an anonymous user, believed to be Crusius, made a post on 8chan alluding to the planned attack.[1] His post stated: "Fuck this is going to be so shit but I can't wait any longer. Do your part and spread this brothers! Of course, only spread it if the attack is successful. I know that the media is going to frame my [me] incorrectly, but y'all will know the truth! I'm probably going to die today. Keep up the good fight." A follow-up post stated: "Hello FBI."[2] Attached to the post was a PDF file named "P. Crusius – Notification Letter," which contained a four-page manifesto titled "The Inconvenient Truth." The manifesto expresses support for Christchurch, New Zealand shooter Brenton Tarrant,[3] and cites Tarrant's own online manifesto as inspiration for it. The writer lists his reasons for targeting the Hispanic community, stating his belief that Hispanics pose a threat to American racial and cultural identity. He also describes the weapons he has chosen for the attack.

Connection To Recent White Supremacist Attacks

The El Paso shooter's methods and ideology has notable, and often explicitly stated, similarities to other white supremacist attacks of recent years. Crusius, like Tarrant, mentioned a belief in the imminent danger of "white geocide," also known as the "great replacement."[4] Tarrant, like the Norwegian shooter Andres Breivik,[5] viewed Muslims as invaders threatening white civilization. Meanwhile, Robert Bowers, who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh,[6] and John Earnest, the shooter targeting Jews in Poway, California,[7] viewed Jews as the greatest threat.

All these shooters stated that they acted from a sense of urgency and in self-defense. They viewed themselves as some of the few defenders of an endangered white race. Driven by this certainty, all four sought to publish manifestos presenting what they believed to be the rational arguments informing their choice to attack. Moreover, Crusius, Earnest, and Tarrant explicitly cited other white supremacists as their inspiration, expressed a sense of comradery with an online community who shared their ideology, and called on it to continue in the struggle. They also provided operational advice to be used by others in future attacks.

The many links between these attackers suggest that while they may initially seem like "lone wolf" extremists, they are in fact part of an active community, which views itself as the vanguard in a critical struggle seeking to spread its ideas and encourage further attacks.[8]

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What form of mental illness is it that attracts these individuals to this extreme ideology? This "active community" news is scary as hell.

Please keep in mind it is not proven the manifesto was actually posted by the shooter. 

UPDATE

Owner of 8chan Says the Manifesto Was NOT Uploaded By the El Paso Walmart Shooter 

The owner of the anonymous message board 8Chan, Jim Watkins, has unequivocally stated that the manifesto which was said to have been posted by the El Paso Walmart shooter on his website was not actually posted by the killer. Just moments before the deadly shooting in El Paso on Saturday, a sinister four page long manifesto was posted to 8Chan by someone who claimed to be the shooter. However, Watkins, an Army veteran, asserted that the shooter actually posted on Instagram prior to the attack — and whoever uploaded the manifesto to 8Chan was not the person who committed the heinous act. “First of all, the El Paso shooter posted on Instagram, not 8Chan. Later, someone uploaded a manifesto. However, that manifesto was not uploaded by the Walmart shooter,” Watkins asserted in his video statement. “I don’t know if he wrote it or not, but it was not uploaded by the murderer. That is clear, and law enforcement was made aware of this before most people had even heard the horrific news.”...