It's hard to miss today's conspiracy
Quote:Conspiracy theories about Minnesota shooter aren't just deflection. They're dangerous
According to the New York Times, Boelter's roommate and longtime friend says the suspected shooter voted for Donald Trump. Boelter's online activities show he is a right-wing Christian who opposes abortion and denies that LGBTQ identities are real. While we don't yet have the text of the manifesto Boelter left behind, it's fairly obvious what's likely to be in it.
Despite these facts, it didn't take long for MAGA forces online to snap into action with a false counter-narrative: that Boelter is a left-winger and Republicans are the real victims. Trump's traveling companion Laura Loomer falsely claimed Boelter "was friends with Walz" and was associated with the "No Kings" protests. "The organizers of NO KINGS and @GovTimWalz need to be detained by the FBI and interrogated," she demanded.
Dating "guru"-turned-MAGA influencer Mike Cernovich also blamed Walz, claiming the governor had Hortman — who was actually Walz's friend — "executed" for voting one time with Republicans on a bill. "MORE DEMOCRAT TERR0RISM!" screamed Nick Sortor, a far right influencer with over a million followers on X. Glenn Beck, Breitbart and other far-right outlets went to work on Facebook, suggesting to their audiences that Walz was responsible for the shooting, even though he was on the list of Boelter's targets. Charlie Kirk of Turning Points USA blamed the shooting of Democratic lawmakers and their family members on anyone who objects to rising fascism.
The first purpose of these disinformation efforts is, of course, to muddy the waters so that people with conservative inclinations, who may still abhor political violence, have a rationale to keep supporting Trump. On Facebook, liberals posting about the shooting are already seeing confused friends and relatives show up in their comments, asserting a connection between Boelter and Walz that isn't there. But the other potential effect of these conspiracy theories, whether intended or not, is to encourage more political violence from the right.
The Boelter conspiracy theory is pure DARVO: Deny he was a Trump supporter, call Democrats liars and say that actually, it's Democrats who are killing Republicans. Even though the victims of this attack are very much Democrats, the pretzel logic of DARVO leads to outlandish efforts to find a stray vote or two not on the Democratic party line to recast the offenders as "Republicans."
The same strategy was used by MAGA thought leaders to justify the violence of Jan. 6, as well as the attempted kidnapping and murder of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. in Oct. 2022. Conspiracy theories blaming the "deep state" for the Capitol riot, and not the MAGA rioters, gave Trump the cover he needed to recast the insurrectionists as "warriors" and heroes, granting them all pardons. Pelosi was not home when her would-be attacker invaded, but he nearly killed her husband, Paul Pelosi. Rather than admit the assailant was motivated by MAGA conspiracy theories, much of the right went straight to DARVO, falsely claiming that Paul Pelosi brought the attack on himself. Trump used that conspiracy theory for "jokes," unsubtly signaling to his base that he would enjoy seeing more attacks like this. Which is what appears to have happened in Minnesota over the weekend.
https://www.salon.com/2025/06/16/conspir...on-theyre/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
