On Saturday, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and wounding three, most of whom were Black. Authorities called it a “straight-up racially-motivated hate crime,” and no wonder: The assailant had posted an 180-page manifesto, in which he parroted what’s become known as “Great Replacement,” a conspiracy theory claiming immigrants are trying to “replace” white people in America — a belief spread by a number of prominent GOP members.
Among them is, of course, Tucker Carlson. But another is Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking member of the GOP, who has dropped ads leaning hard on the conspiracy theory on Facebook. The New York representative’s name came up a lot after the gun massacre, enough that someone noticed that she’d failed to nab a certain url for her 2022 campaign. So he took it himself.
Hey @EliseStefanik – You failed to secure https://t.co/Vmos9hnnPI so I got it and created your new website. Enjoy!
— Toby Morton (@tobymorton) May 16, 2022
When Canadian comic Toby Morton snatched up the unused url www.elisestefanik2022.com, he quickly filled it with the kind of satire that’s what she might say if she had no filters. On the parody site, the slogan for Stefanik’s campaign is “Let’s Keep It White.” It also features a damning bio:
“I, Elise Stefanik, am a monster. I am a vile and disgusting politician who is responsible for the Buffalo NY shooting spree. How? What is in his manifesto is what I placed into his head. Why? Because I want power. I want votes. I don’t want to lead. I want to rule. People will lose lives, but that’s not my concern. I’m here for the exposure, the power, the control. I will continue to do everything in my power to raise White Supremacy higher than it’s ever been.”
If you click on the “about section, you get this: “I come from Whites. White people, Mmk?” it reads. “Let’s be clear where I come from because sure, Stefanik doesn’t exactly sound white, but I’m totally white. White White White!”
The Buffalo massacre — which came a mere day before another, also seemingly racially-motivated shooting at a church populated largely by Taiwanese people in Laguna Woods, California — earned a lot of responses…from the left. Everyone from CNN’s Jim Acosta to The View’s Ana Navarro pointed fingers at rightwing figures peddling the controversial conspiracy theory. Meanwhile, Patton Oswalt offered some gallows humor by pointing out that all Americans have to do to stay safe is, well, never go places.
You can see the full parody website here.
(Via Raw Story)