The Christchurch massacre and the rise of DIY genocide

Lacking the power to achieve their aims on a large scale, the alt-right opts to carry out extermination in miniature

A few of the 50 Muslims slain in the Christchurch massacre. The youngest, Mucad Ibrahim (bottom right), was only 3 years old.

Much of the commentary about the horrific massacre of Muslims in Christchurch has focused on the killers’s manifesto. While it’s understandable that those struggling to make sense of the senseless might look to the shooter’s own words for answers, there’s no need to plow through 74 pages of exposition to figure out why he did it. Brenton Tarrant’s actions are self-explanatory.

Generally speaking, white nationalist terror can be distinguished from other types of political terrorism in that it tends to take the form of “lone wolf” attacks and lack a concrete political objective. Unlike the bombing campaigns of paramilitary organizations like Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Irish Republican Army, the mass murders done by white nationalists like Tarrant, Dylann Roof and Robert Bowers aren’t part of a larger strategy meant to extract concessions. Terrorism is not a means to an end but an end in itself. The goal is simply to murder as many non-whites as possible.

Thin on tangible demands, the manifestos Roof and Tarrant published prior to their killing sprees merely expressed an intent to inspire other attacks. Shut out…