‘Replacement theory’ still Republican orthodoxy despite Buffalo shooting

GOP leaders seem unlikely to abandon nods to the conspiracy theory even though it was cited by the alleged perpetrator of a racist mass murder

When a white man used a semi-automatic assault-style rifle to kill 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, last weekend, attention quickly turned to the likely motive.

The great replacement" theory describes a supposed elite conspiracy to change the demographics of America, replacing and disempowering white people - and their influence - with people of color, immigrants and Muslims. In recent years the lie has gone from far-right fringe to Republican party mainstream.