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On the False Narratives Around the Attack in Boulder, Colorado
Despite the attacker legally entering the country and overstaying a visa, many are now equating a “terrorist attack” with “the border.”
Just a few months ago, a U.S. citizen committed a terrorist attack in New Orleans by driving a truck into a crowd, killing several people and injuring dozens. Within hours, Trump officials were perpetrating a false narrative that the vehicle entered the country via the U.S.-Mexico border, a story quickly picked up by Fox News and far-right social media influencers who began equating the attack with Latino immigrants, the border, and the false narrative about “criminal” migrants.
Like the New Orleans attack, we once again find ourselves in an environment succumbing to believing speculative false narratives and disinformation about misunderstood issues. While one side of the political spectrum speculates about things that cause harm, like civilians possibly being deputized by ICE, the other side actively promotes ideas that it knows are harmful, like equating an attack related to the Palestine conflict with Latinos and nonwhite immigrants.
“For four years, the Biden Administration allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens — including terrorists, gang members, and…
