Lone Wolf Race Warriors and White Genocide

This Element discusses the question: what makes a man randomly kill unarmed people, and why do some consider him a hero who should be emulated? Based on a unique collection of interviews and a close reading of lone wolf, fascist, and radical nationalist material and communication.

When Brenton Tarrant live-streamed his massacre of fifty-one Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019, he was but one in a series of lone-acting white men committing violent crime to further the radical white nationalist aim to save the white race from extinction and establish a white ethnostate. From where did white nationalists get the notion of an ongoing white genocide? Why should ''resistance'' against a perceived invasion of ''white'' territory be launched by individual ''lone wolves'' massacring noncombatants they have no prior relation to? How could slaughtering children be construed as a heroic act that a perpetrator wants to broadcast to the world? Based on a unique collection of interviews with lone wolves, their victims, and their supporters, and a close reading of lone wolf, fascist, and radical nationalist material and communication, this Element provides solid answers to these and adjacent questions of importance.