Thread by @BenjaminNorton

The manifesto from the terrorist behind the El Paso shooting shows he's clearly an ideological fascist and white supremacist who carried out the massacre to start a race war

As fascists always do, he scapegoats immigrants for problems caused by CAPITALISM latinorebels.com/2019/08/03/man…

In his manifesto the fascist white supremacist terrorist in El Paso spends the most time talking about "economic reasons": unemployment, automation, environmental destruction. He blames this not on its true causes -- CAPITALISM -- but rather on immigrants, specifically on Latin@s

The El Paso terrorist talks about the horrible effects of corporations destroying the world, but as fascists always do, he tries to separate them from capitalism. Instead of blaming capitalists and the system as a whole (which he wants to keep), he misdirects anger at immigrants.

At the core of the El Paso terrorist's fascist ideology is settler-colonialism. He wrote: "This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas." But Texas was Mexico's territory until the US illegally annexed it in 1845, then stole it in 48 in a colonial war of expansion!

This is the most grotesque colonial irony of all: settler-colonialists declared "independence" from Mexico; then the US took over this land through war. And 170 years later white supremacist fascists claim Mexicans are "invading" this stolen land, so they're massacring civilians!

Also in his manifesto the El Paso fascist terrorist specifically says people will blame Trump. But he harshly criticizes the bipartisan CAPITALIST policies pursued by both corporate parties, including Republicans - but instead of blaming bipartisan capitalism he blames immigrants

The El Paso terrorist acknowledges corporations don't actually care about immigrants; they just want cheap labor to exploit. But he scapegoats exploited immigrant workers anyway, yearning to return to a white colonialist life of luxury built on capitalist-imperialist exploitation

As the crisis of capitalism grows, as the US empire declines, as bipartisan neoliberals keep imposing crippling austerity, these attacks will continue. Fascists want to return to a false golden age of colonialism.

The only way to stop them is to resist capitalism and imperialism

As Arundhati Roy put it, "The danger with [this] kind of obsession with a single person is you don’t see the system that produced him." This capitalist, colonialist, imperialist system is what produces leaders like Trump and fascist terrorists like in El Paso. We have to stop it.

In a textbook example of the most WRONG response to a pro-colonial fascist massacring Latin@s in El Paso, Democratic @RepCohen wrote "You want to shoot an assault weapon? Go to Afghanistan or Iraq. Enlist!"

Neoliberals support killing people of color too—just abroad, not at home