The Stair Party's Response to the Buffalo Tragedy
On May 14, a deranged 18-year-old named Payton S. Gendron committed a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York due to his racist ideology and buying into the Great Replacement Theory. By all accounts, this massacre was yet another stain on our union and the result of the increasing radicalization of our nation due to echo chambers and polarization.
Let’s clarify something, the Stair Party is absolutely against Payton’s rhetoric and destructive actions. Great Replacement Theory is a completely false talking point that does nothing but divide us even further. Let’s not forget that America was founded on immigration. People of different cultures, backgrounds, and languages consistently come to this nation searching for opportunity and bring their food, language, history, ideas, and innovations. This cycle dates back to the founding of our nation and unsurprisingly this nation hasn’t collapsed because of it. There is no difference between the motives of the immigrants of now and the immigrants of then. The only reason Payton and people who share his ideology are raising the alarms is simply because the majority of new immigrants in this nation aren’t white.
Payton would go on to state in his 180 page document,
“We must ensure the existence of our people and a future for white children” (pg. 4)
The idea of attributing the color of one’s skin to culture is a point which derives from ignorance. The color of your skin is determined by the amount of melanin in your skin. Melanin helps protect your skin from the sun — that is it. At the end of the day, everyone is human and trying to create better lives and opportunity for themselves and their family. There is no hidden evil intent from new migrants coming into America. Will new migrants bring their culture with them? Yes. Will it cause the downfall of society as we know it? Absolutely not. Difference is not dangerous. Diversity makes us stronger.
Payton would go on to also state in his document:
“The origins of my language are European, my culture is European, my political beliefs are European, my philosophical beliefs are European, my identity is European and most importantly, my blood is European” (pg. 9)
Why this statement is important to note is because it blatantly shows Payton doesn’t even know what he’s defending. “My culture is European” can mean many things as well as nothing at all. There’s a lot of cultural differences between a French individual and a Russian individual.
Something that also must be pointed out is that Payton’s talking points of Great Replacement Theory are being actively promoted by prominent news figures such as Tucker Carlson. What’s even worse is that after the Buffalo tragedy, Fox News decided to even toy with the question of if the Buffalo massacre was a hate crime. Once again, this is a result of political elites attempting to divide fellow Americans in order to achieve political ambitions.
While we referred to Payton’s document to dismantle his talking points, we will not be giving access to the full document as we believe it is best to not publicly spread something that that Payton wanted so desperately to reach mainstream eyes and ears.
Payton S. Gendron was a man who justified his horrific actions with delusional talking points. However, what we must realize is that individuals who have been deceived by white supremacist talking points are the main people we must face and direct to deradicalization. Every person you convince to leave the extreme right is possibly one less person to commit what Payton did. He found himself in an echo chamber in which racist rhetoric and misinformation was the only information he would decide to eat up. Never deciding to look beyond his skewed sources would be a catalyst resulting in him committing a disgusting hate crime.
It is up to the individual and fellow Americans to help break these echo chambers and reveal the truth. Listen first to understand, strengthen your local communities, and you are stepping in the right direction to fighting white supremacy.