Denver shooter retweeted, liked alt-right influencer Cernovich at least 170 times
Lyndon McLeod who shot and killed at least 6 people liked Cernovich tweets 129 times and retweeted or quoted another 41 times.
Last updated December 30, 2021.
The following is a record from Hoaxlines Lab. Roman McClay and McClay_Roman are believed to be pseudonyms of Lyndon McLeod, a suspect in a shooting that has killed six people. The Twitter account “Roman_McClay” and “McClay_Roman” promoted a book written by McLeod under the pseudonym Roman McClay.
According to Account Analysis, the Roman_McClay account joined Twitter on November 22, 2019. Hoaxlines cannot confirm whether the account belongs to Lyndon McLeod, but available reporting indicates this. Additionally, the decline in tweet counts and interactions with these two accounts further supports the idea that these accounts belonged to McLeod.
Although follower change appears minimal, dozens of followers unfollowed and were replaced by new followers.
Cernovich received considerable attention from McLeod
Roman_McClay retweeted Cernovich 29 times, with 7 of those retweets being quotes.1
Two accounts (Roman_McClay and McClay_Roman) attributed to McLeod liked 127 unique Cernovich tweets at least 129 times.2
Although we were not able to get screen captures before Twitter removed the account, Hoaxlines data collection indicates that the McClay_Roman account retweeted Cernovich an additional 12 times.3
Combining the 129 likes (127 unique tweets from Cernovich) + 29 retweets/quotes (from Roman_McClay) + 12 retweets (from McClay_Roman) = 170 engagements with Cernovich by McLeod alias accounts.4
Quote tweets from McClay_Roman have yet to be added due to complications from Twitter’s removal of the account.
Cernovich promoted the Denver shooter’s book via retweet. The dialogue can be seen in an archived thread.
Cernovich, a prominent conservative influencer, was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Mike Cernovich rose to prominence on the back of his male supremacist rhetoric before latching on to the racist and misogynistic so-called “alt-right.”
SPCL states that Cernovich frequently accused people of pedophilia or child sex trafficking with no supporting evidence and promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy, culminating in a man arriving at a pizza parlor with a firearm to free children he believed were being sex trafficked. Media Matters reported in 2016:
An armed shooter opened fire at a Washington, D.C., pizzeria in order to “self-investigate” a false conspiracy about the restaurant pushed by fake news websites and spread by fringe right-wing media outlets.
The conspiracy theory emerged in the aftermath of a hacking believed to have been carried out by Russian agents. Cernovich saw his star rise following a Twitter endorsement from former Trump National Security adviser and campaign associate Michael Flynn who resigned and pled guilty to lying about interactions with Russian Ambassador Kislyak.5
Influencers in tweets liked and retweeted by McLeod
Influencers appearing in the McLeod pseudonym accounts include Cernovich, JackPosobiec, TimCast, JordanBPeterson, GenFlynn (now-deleted account of Michael Flynn), and other far-right figures.
Roman quoted a tweet from Cernovich in 2020 that espoused a belief in a liberal conspiracy—a war on beauty or Christianity—against Christianity.
The two accounts retweeted references to political violence. In one tweet, Cernovich says, “I can’t help you people if you’re not ready to upend this political system.”
McClay_Roman retweeted another Cernovich tweet that read, “Great figures are also often tragic ones.”6
Between the Roman_McClay and McClay_Roman accounts, Hoaxlines found ten interactions with tweets from JackPosobiec. The content included discussion of “Waco” and “4D Warfare.”
Roman_McClay retweeted a tweet from JackPosobiec of a Tim Pool (TimCast) video.
Another retweet included TimCast and JoeRogan.
The hashtag “horseshoesandhandgrenades” accompanies mentions of JackMurphyLive and TimCast.
In one tweet, the author JordanBPeterson was tagged, suggesting possible attendance at a public appearance.
Roman_McClay retweeted a tweet that quoted Jordan B Peterson.
One obscure but concerning comparison likened McClay to a proponent of extremist ideology. The article, linked in a tweet, groups McClay with Aleksandr Dugin, a Russian philosopher who has had some sway over thought leaders and political elites — the degree to which he influenced them sees some debate.
On a WordPress website called Autistic Mercury, two excerpts make the comparison to Dugin:
A bold exploration of the warrior impulse in contemporary literature, which gives vivid illustrations of themes Nietzsche, Evola, Dugin and Fernandez outline, in figures like the Übermensch, the Absolute Individual, the Radical Subject, and the Solar Warrior, is Roman McClay’s Sanction …
Harsh as it may be, Sanction is the kind of literature Novalis would have had to write had he lived today. It is what Roberto Calasso would term absolute literature, Harold Bloom literary theurgy, Joséphin Péladan simply magic. It’s also a renewal and celebration of the Word in English, the Lingua Latina of the contemporary Occident, from the belly of Leviathan. In the beginning was not Nietzsche, Evola, Dugin, or any other thinker, but the Word. To the extent we master the word we can master the chaos by taking control of our own story. Roman McClay’s Sanction is a great reminder of this. And there are certain words and people not content with being confined by literature.
Matthew Sharpe writes in “Alexander Dugin, Eurasianism, and the American election” about Dugin’s ideology, which posed a threat to the United States:
“Dugin was advising Russian elites as early as the 1990s, laying out what looks like a blueprint for the kinds of activities presently under CIA investigation:
encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the US. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics …”
Dugin advocated for “genuine, true, radically revolutionary and consistent, fascist fascism.”
Themes in tweets
Misogyny appears across McLeod’s pseudonymous accounts. Hatred or violence toward women has become a common find in the aftermath of mass shootings.
Heritage and genetic lineage are mentioned regularly, directly and indirectly.
Mistrust of the media and the justice system appear in tweets from McCleod.
Paranoia and mistrust of science can be seen in tweets related to coronavirus.
Beliefs that flow from this fear of corruption and unseen conspiracy seem to play a role in the justification for violence.
A tweet — pictured via an archive saved on the day McClay_Roman posted it — included an image that read, “War is coming. It’s in the math.”
Another image in the same tweet reads, “You don’t reconcile a country this divided without it.” Later in the same thread, a profile picture shows McClay_Roman liked a comment that reads, “Time to buy more guns.”
One word overwhelmingly describes the message and mission of these two accounts: violence.
Footnotes and citations
Cernovich quote tweets:
Cernovich retweets by Roman McClay.
Cernovich tweet IDs liked by Roman_McClay or McClay_Roman
We pulled data on December 29, 2021, at 9:30 am using the Twlets tool.
1. 1260335185356193794
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127. 1256342397534928896
Readers can find retweets and quote tweets from Cernovich under citation No. 1. Retweets of Cernovich from McClay_Roman in the table below:
We counted 129 likes of 127 unique tweets from Cernovich between McLeod’s two accounts (r_m and m_r), plus the 29 retweets (which includes seven quote retweets) from Roman_McClay, embedded in the report above (citation No. 3). Additionally, there are 12 retweets we were unable to capture before they were removed, along with the account mcclay_roman. 127 likes + 29 retweets/quotes + 12 quotes = 168 engagements with Cernovich by McLeod alias accounts.
Cernovich retweets by McClay_Roman, pulled December 29 via Twlets.
