Redefining The ”Great Replacement” To Take Down Tucker Carlson

What is the ”Great Replacement” theory, and how is it being used by the Democratic Party to shut down conservatives?

After the tragic mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, the mainstream media and the Democratic Party (but I repeat myself) honed in on one particular element of the domestic terrorist’s 180-page manifesto: the “Great Replacement” theory.

Specifically, that the shooter promoted precisely the same white supremacist conspiracy theory that has supposedly become “mainstream” among American conservatives, fueled by Republican politicians and media figures, such as Ben Shapiro or — the worst of the worst — Tucker Carlson.

But what is the Great Replacement, and is it fair to blame the entire Right for its spread?

What is the Great Replacement?

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Great Replacement theory “has its roots in early 20th century French nationalism and books by French nationalist and author Maurice Barres.” But it was French author, Renaud Camus, who “popularized the phrase for today’s audiences” in his 2011 book, Le Grand Remplacement. The central premise is the view that white European populations are being replaced — both demographically and culturally — by non-white populations. 

In his book, “Europe: Continent of Conspiracies,” Icelandic academic and writer Eirikur Bergmann described the conspiracy theory’s resurgence as follows:

The term ‘The Great Replacement’ rose to new prominence when a deeply controversial French philosopher, Renaud Camus, used it for the title of his book published in 2011. Camus mainly focused on France, but he argued that European civilization and identity was at risk of being subsumed by mass migration, especially from Muslim countries, and because of low birth rates among the native French people.

What did the Buffalo shooter say about the “Great Replacement”?

With a foundation of white nationalism and/or white supremacy, the Great Replacement theory is also promulgated outside of France, including the United States, where the conspiracy theory involves Democrats and Jewish elites working to “replace” the population of European descent with non-white populations.

In the Buffalo shooter’s 180-page manifesto, the same conspiracy theory was described, with black Americans and immigrants seen as “replacers,” who “invade our lands, live on our soil, attack and replace our people.”

In December 2021, the shooter also posted, “The Great Replacement theory is real, at the current rate whites will be the minority. This is white genocide.”

How are Democrats and the media reacting?

One common theme throughout the Left’s response to the mass shooting was that mainstream conservatives — most notably, Tucker Carlson — were responsible for promoting the “Great Replacement.”

In fact, most coverage made the hugely consequential assumption that figures like Carlson had indeed parroted this ideology, based on one single source — The New York Times.