Was Dayton Domestic Terrorism?

Update: Shortly after posting, I realized that the above title does not correctly characterize Ngo's theory. That is captured better by the article title, "Dayton Shooter May Be Antifa’s First Mass Killer." I apologize for this error.

Writing for the New York Post, Andy Ngo, notes a double standard among leftist politicians regarding two recent mass shootings:

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders succinctly condemned white nationalism -- the ideology espoused by the El Paso shooter in his purported 2,300-word manifesto.

However, when it comes to condemning the Dayton shooter's militant far-left views, all remain mum. Others, such as anti-police activist Shaun King, even claimed the Dayton shooter targeted blacks in a hate crime, though racism doesn't appear to have been a component of his twisted worldview.

That's old news: Generally the first thing that happens after a mass shooting are wall-to-wall insinuations that the shooter was a right-wing nut job, followed by calls for gun control. The news, Ngo argues, is what a look at the Dayton shooter's social media presence reveals, despite his not leaving behind a manifesto:

Image by Becker1999, via Wikipedia, license.

"Kill every fascist," the shooter declared in 2018 on twitter, echoing a rallying cry of antifa ideologues. Over the next year, his tweets became increasingly violent. "Nazis deserve death and nothing else," he tweeted last October. Betts frequently flung the label "Nazi" at those with whom he disagreed online.

By December, he reached out on Twitter to the Socialist Rifle Association, an antifa gun group, to comment about bump stocks, and the SRA responded to him. (A bump stock is an attachment for semiautomatic rifles that allow them to fire much faster.)

In the months leading to his rampage, Betts expressed a longing for climactic confrontation. In response to an essay by Intercept writer Mehdi Hassan titled, "Yes, Let's Defeat or Impeach Trump -- but What If He Doesn't Leave the White House?" the shooter wrote: "Arm, train, prepare."

By June he tweeted: "I want socialism, and I'll not wait for the idiots to finally come round understanding." Last week, he promoted posts that demonized Sens. Ted Cruz and Bill Cassidy's resolution against antifa extremism. [bold added, format edits]

This is deeply disturbing for many reasons, but Ngo spells it out just to be sure: "As anyone familiar with 20th-century history knows, apocalyptic ideas of this kind won't stop with street thuggery."

Ngo hypothesizes that the Dayton shooter may have been Antifa's first mass murderer, but he is absolutely correct to connect the dots between the "anti-law-enforcement rhetoric" emanating from the "punch a 'Nazi'" left and the actions of Antifa.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Added clarification on bad post title.