(PatriotWise.com)- Ben Collins, who works for NBC News and writes about fake news, disinformation, and the internet, got a lot of flak for a series of tweets that said a persistent toothache was a big reason for the racist mass shooting in Buffalo.
Collins posted a lengthy Twitter thread regarding last Saturday’s horrifying racial assault, in which ten people were killed, and three more were injured. In an online manifesto, the shooting suspect, Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old white guy, stated that he was motivated by a racist philosophy known as “replacement theory,” which has been openly endorsed by Tucker Carlson and a slew of other Republican personalities, political officials, and candidates.
Collins’ thread, on the other hand, began with the remark that “the Buffalo gunman had a toothache.”
Collins wrote about the gunman’s conversion via white nationalist misinformation and the chronic toothache, which the murderer blamed on “the Jews” throughout a dozen tweets.
Collins’ conclusion:
It’s become fashionable recently to claim that “disinformation” doesn’t exist, that it’s a “liberal” concept, or that it hides actual issues. However, misinformation serves as a catalyst. It offers quick, ineffective, and violent answers to real-world issues in our society. Disinformation exists primarily to shift blame for infrastructural degradation and resource scarcity from the dominant to the downtrodden.
It may be referred to as “information warfare” or “information operations,” but it is genuine.
People are dead because of it.
The Buffalo gunman was suffering from a toothache.
According to his online group, he blamed Jews because they were the source of all evil.
He targeted a store not only for vengeance but also for access to healthcare while incarcerated.
Misinformation indeed exists. The problems that make it enticing are the same.
The post sparked outrage among media personalities and other verified Twitter users who weren’t convinced of Collins’ point of view.
Collins was not without his defenders. In a now-deleted tweet, MSNBC journalist Nicolle Wallace declared the thread a “must-read.” At the same time, gun control campaigner Cameron Kasky – himself a Parkland shooting survivor — pushed back at the backlash, defending the odd Twitter thread.
