In a recent tragic shooting, according to USA Today,
A neighbor has found a family dead inside their home in an apparent murder-suicide that may have happened weeks ago
The three dead in Apple Valley, Minnesota, include the father, David Crowley, his wife, and their 5-year-old daughter.
USA Today notes that
David Crowley was a filmmaker, who wrote and directed a recent film about the militarization of the U.S. called Gray State, which has not been released.
It has also been reported
that
Crowley, an Apple Valley filmmaker and screenwriter, also showed concern over the project -- "Gray State,"
....
Crowley reached out to Jason Allen in the Dec. 17 email, asking if he wanted to be an executive producer and help out with the logistics of the film project, which he started about four years ago and revolves around a plot of government conspiracy.
A film on "militarization" and "government conspiracy"? What might that mean exactly?
As it turns out, a rough cut of the film has been posted to YouTube.
The film basically consists of interviews with white men about a socialist government conspiracy to destroy the "free market" and enslave America, quotes by Libertarian thinkers including Ayn Rand, FEMA signs, images of Tea Party Rallies, and several campaign speeches by, who else, Ron Paul.
One of the film's main "stars" is Adam Kokesh. Sound familiar? He's the guy who organized the Open Carry March on Washington, DC last summer, and praised the rightwing libertarians who killed two Las Vegas cops last summer as well.
The film also contains extensive lecturing by Mike Vanderboegh. This Mike Vanderboegh:
Mike Vanderboegh, a longtime leader and propagandist in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement, specializes in fiery rhetoric urging violent “self-defense” against a tyrannical, Constitution-flouting U.S. government determined to impose the Communist principles of gun control and universal health care. And it’s rhetoric that has apparently inspired a number of people to act
And also
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the loathsome Oath Keepers, and former staffer for Congressman Ron Paul.
And Kurt Bills who ran as the Republican candidate for Senate against Amy Klobuchar.
And Jake Duesenberg, of the MN Tea Party Alliance
The Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch blog describes how the deaths of the family are being received by rightwing conspiracists:
in the conspiracy theory industry in which Crowley operated his home-based filmmaking business, the deaths were immediately assumed to be assassinations carried out by nefarious “New World Order” agents.
....
....
Commenters at the Gray State Facebook page were far more certain that the family had been “suicided” – a term popular with conspiracy theorists who believe that nefarious New World Order assassins frequently kill the people who try to expose them by staging their deaths and making it appear to be suicide.
A rightwing conspiracy theorist kills his family and himself with a gun, and rightwing conspiracy theorists blame the government.
Terrible and sad, really.