ABC News in Australia is pushing the 'lone wolf' narrative. Here's an opinion piece from an academic (chair in global Islamic politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University) that they republished:
..Explaining how 50 people came to be killed, and almost as many badly injured, in Christchurch's double massacre of Muslims at prayer is heartbreaking but relatively straightforward.
As with so many mass murders in recent years, the use of an assault rifle, the ubiquitous AR15, oxymoronically referred to as "the civilian M-16", explains how one cowardly killer could be so lethal.
It was much the same in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando three years ago, when one gunman shot dead 49 people in a crowded space and, though the motive appears very different, the same sort of military instrument of death lies behind the 58 deaths in Las Vegas a year later.
So it looks like the main narrative elements are: AR-15, one gunman, although the descriptor "the same sort of military instrument of death" may be truer than the author realises.
It is a credit to the peaceful nature of New Zealand society that, despite the open availability of weapons like the AR15, the last time there was a mass shooting was in 1997. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern rightly identified reform of gun laws as one of the immediate outcomes required in response to this tragedy..
This makes no sense. After framing the AR-15 as some horrific doomsday weapon, the author then unintentionally points out that, despite its open availability, New Zealand hasn't had a mass shooting in 20+ years! Rather than the absence of AR-15s, this is credited to the "peaceful nature of New Zealand society". Yet reform of gun laws is "rightly" one of the "immediate outcomes required"!
State and federal police in Australia have long warned that, next to the immediate threat posed by Salafi jihadi terrorism, they are most concerned about the steady rise of right-wing extremism. There has been some comfort in the recognition that the most active right-wing extremist groups, and there are many, are disorganised, poorly led, and attract but small crowds.
On the face of it, then, right-wing extremism in Australia is nowhere near as serious as the neo-Nazi movements of Europe..
More contradictions. "Police have long warned about right-wing extremism that is disorganised, poorly led and that people mostly ignore." Wha..?
.. lone-actor attacks.. are notoriously difficult to predict.
One of the main reasons authorities struggle with identifying right-wing extremist "nobodies" who post online, before they turn to violence, is that it's difficult to pick up a clear signal in the noise of a national discourse increasingly dominated by exactly the same narrative elements of mistrust, anxiety, and a blaming of the other..
No-one put it better than The Project host Waleed Aly in saying that Friday's terrorist attacks, although profoundly disturbing, did not come as a shocking surprise.
Perhaps because Australia is so identified with US 'culture' that they can't step back and realise that it's actually
very, very abnormal for something like the Christchurch shootings to occur in Australia or New Zealand?
I'll spare you the rest. To summarise:
- Lone wolf attack.
- Gun control good.
- Islamic terror bad.
- Right-wing terror bad.
- Everyone is yelling at each other over racism and refugees, therefore terrorism.
- Massive counter-terrorist spy government didn't notice the terrorists because of all the yelling.
- Therefore government needs more powers to watch everyone much more closely.
It would actually be funny if 50 people weren't dead.
