Thread by @elisethoma5

In Wieambilla, QLD, two brothers launched a horrific attack killing two police officers and a neighbour.

While there's a lot we don't know, one brother appears to have been deep into conspiracy theories. Here's my initial analysis for @ISDglobal #auspol isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

@ISDglobal The comments left by one of the alleged perpetrators, Gareth Train, across several fringe and conspiracy blogs appear to point to a cocktail of conspiratorial beliefs ranging from anti-vaccine, anti-5G, New World Order, Illuminati, climate change, MK Ultra... you get the picture.

This trend towards totalising conspiratorial worldviews, in which people believe not just one but many conspiracy theories and subsume every aspect of their world into those conspiratorial beliefs, is something we've seen a lot since 2020.

Train's conspiratorial beliefs may have begun long before 2020, but it is clear that the pandemic had a radicalising impact on him. In 2021, for example, he posted that "there is no political or legal way out of what is upon us."

Train appears to have had a particular fixation on anti-government conspiracy theories, including believing that the Port Arthur massacre (a 1996 mass shooting which catalysed strict gun control in Australia) was a false flag intended to disarm the population.

I want to emphasise that it is still very very early in the investigation, and there is so much that we don't know yet.

If, however, Train's conspiracy theory beliefs did play a role in what happened yesterday in Wieambilla, this would underscore that Australia needs to be doing more to respond to the radicalisation of people across the country through conspiracy theories.

Little update, Twitter is also running paid ads from accounts spreading conspiracy theories about police officers. This is... not great. #auspol #QueenslandPolice

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1602813927448252416