The Twisted Science of Great Replacement Theory

On May 14, 2022, a shooter opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Ten people were killed, an additional three injured.

The suspect in the Buffalo shooting had a manifesto, as mass shooters often do. However, this one was different. It was littered with references to peer-reviewed scientific research that, he purports, supports his white supremacist beliefs. It’s part of a broader far right subculture, with ‘journal clubs’ and the like, in which research is read closely and appropriated, says population geneticist Jed Carlson. What are scientists to make of it?

Plus, there’s a much wider intellectual history of race science and the right. Mitch Thompson of Press Progress details this ‘scholarly’ work, much of it CanCon, and how it undergirds conservative austerity politics.

On this episode of Darts and Letters, our producer Marc Apollonio takes over the mic to speak to Jed and Mitch about great replacement theory, race science, and right-wing thought.

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