A Florida man accused of posting online threats to carry out mass violence has been arrested and charged with making an interstate threat and a weapon violation, federal court records show.

Alexander Lightner, 26, of Venice, Florida, allegedly posted comments online that were “intended to convey the message that he was planning to conduct a racially or ethnically motivated mass casualty event,” according to an affidavit.

He was interviewed by FBI agents from the bureau’s Tampa Field Office a week later on January 5, and law enforcement executed a search warrant at Lightner’s home before he was arrested.

While searching Lightner’s home, FBI agents found an unlawful firearm suppressor in a laundry hamper of a bedroom he shared with his brother and “propaganda regarding white supremacist and accelerationist ideology in Lightner’s bedroom,” according to court records.

  • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    62
    ·
    1 year ago

    A Florida man accused of posting online threats to carry out mass violence.

    Trump is a “Florida man” who posts threats online to incite mass violence, when is he going to get arrested for it?

  • Nougat@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    1 year ago

    Am I the only one who’s relieved that the guy made an “interstate threat,” so that federal authorities were involved, instead of only Florida law enforcement?

  • maynarkh@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    a racially or ethnically motivated mass casualty event

    How nice of a way to avoid saying “white supremacist terror attack”.

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 year ago

    propaganda regarding white supremacist and accelerationist ideology

    For those like me who had to look up “accelerationist ideology” because the mountain of hate-filled right-wing “make it up as you go along” bullshit is too deep for me to keep up with anymore, here it is. From Wikipedia:

    Accelerationism is a range of revolutionary and reactionary ideas in left-wing and right-wing ideologies that call for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, infrastructure sabotage and other processes of social change to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformations, otherwise referred to as “acceleration”.

    That’s bad enough (speed up entropy until everything goes boom faster than expected) but apparently it’s also really popular with the fascists as well.

    I guess no one told these evolutionary wonders that historically, when you blow shit up, you do NOT get shiny new utopias, clean fields and places to start anew. You get huge mountains of waste no one is going to cart off for you, people even more exploited and needy than they ever were before, and the kind of “radical social transformation” no one ever wants for themselves.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      People who subscribe to accelerationist ideology are usually ok with blowing up the entire thing if it means we no longer live in a multicultural society or whatever. They’d like (their bullshit concept of) a “utopia,” but would settle for complete destruction.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Sounds like a philosophy created to suit the crowd who is cheering on the next civil war.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Combined with a lot of defeatist cope. “I don’t need to stay politically active, I’m just going to let it all burn down and build back from the ashes! I’m smart, not broken and lazy!”

        • stoly@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Definitely a lot of the rugged individualism as if they could recreate an electrical generator after the fall.

    • rafadavidc@ttrpg.network
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I gueeeeeeesssssssssssssss I can say yay cops here…

      BUT ONLY THIS ONCE YOU UNDERSTAND

    • FireTower@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Basically it’s someone that believes there is an up coming conflict (here seemingly a race war in his mind) and that by taking actions (here mass murder) they can cause the conflict to occur sooner, so they will sooner achieve their desired outcome of the conflict (here presumably some kind of ethno-state).

      It’s not always racially tied but seems to be in the particular case.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        E.g. sometimes it’s religiously driven, like the evangelical nutjobs who believe that by behaving like shitheads in whatever capacity is their sect’s particular hobby-horse can somehow hasten the coming of the End Times. Whereupon they expect that they’ll totally be the special ones to be raptured up to heaven and not all those other sods just like them who aren’t “True Christians.”

    • theprogressivist @lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It’s a bunch of losers who sabotage the current system to show how broken it is so they can burn it all down and create a new system. So, they accelerate the problems to overwhelm the system.

      • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        So, “Crash the old order and creat a new society!” Sounds like Elevator Action II without the fun parts.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Accelerationist like effective-altruist is just another name for those who only know how to create problems, but not solve them. People with ideals and goals so heinously bad. The only way they can get people to go along with them. Is to ruin all other options. All while having the maturity of a toddler. Though in the case of actual toddlers that can be forgiven.

    • Tedesche@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know if you want to know, but they define it in the article if you care to read it…

  • MagicShel@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    1 year ago

    Dude is 26 and still sharing a bedroom with his brother? I know living at home longer is a common thing these days, but like that? I picture it as living in a spare room or in the basement or maybe a camper parked in the driveway. This guy isn’t going places. Literally. Except to prison.

    • Bipta@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      1 year ago

      So many things to shame the guy over and you choose economic situation, which is not shameful, however unfortunate.

          • MagicShel@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Because a 26 year old isn’t going to live in the same bedroom as another non-romantic partner unless there is something beyond economic concerns at play. I get people who can’t afford to move out, but they aren’t going to sleep in the same room as another person with zero privacy, zero ability to set their own schedule, etc.

            • prole@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Why would there need to be something “beyond” economic concerns? If it’s between living outside in the winter, or sharing a room with another adult, I think most people would choose the latter.

              • MagicShel@programming.dev
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                That is a completely artificial choice because there are a million other options. We are human beings with the power of thought and the need for privacy and agency. Those are needs. Needs that were going unmet and he was somehow incapable of finding any other solution.

                There is something going on there besides the economic because that alone doesn’t force someone into this situation. Mental or psychological impairment can, though.

                • prole@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  It is a very real choice that countless people are forced to make on a daily basis.

                  Check your privilege.