A memorial outside the Islamic Center of San Diego on Wednesday. There are too many people who uncritically believe hate-filled misinformation online, writes Marsha Lederman.Mike Blake/Reuters
If ever there was a single event that illustrates just how drastically wrong things have gone in society, Monday’s shooting at a San Diego mosque would be a prime contender.
Three men murdered, some 140 children hiding in their school just a few metres from the danger, terrified by the sound of gunshots. Two armed teenagers who had met on the internet, which introduced them not just to one another but fuelled the hatred that led to their killing spree – and was also used to livestream it.
Racism, gun violence, disaffected teens, mental health struggles, nihilism, misinformation, hate on the internet and in the halls of power, the targeting of Muslims, the rage – and age – of the incels. This tragedy has it all. Welcome to life on Earth in 2026.
From what authorities have said and media reporting has pieced together, the two teens, widely identified as Cain Clark and Caleb Vazquez, were radicalized and met online. When they realized they both lived in the San Diego area, they met in person. Online hatred turned into an IRL tragedy.
‘I saw bad stuff,’ says nine-year-old who hid in closet during San Diego mosque shooting
Their writings, obtained by the Associated Press, called for Muslims to be “exterminated.” They were indiscriminate in their discrimination, with words of hate against not just Muslims but also Jews, Black people, women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants and the political left and right.
But it was the Islamic Center of San Diego they targeted, killing three men. On Monday morning, security guard Amin Abdullah spotted the two teens and radioed an alert, prompting a lockdown, which no doubt saved many lives. He then shot at the two teens, who returned fire, ultimately killing him. The manager of the mosque store, Mansour Kaziha, and congregant Nadir Awad were found dead in the parking lot. Mr. Awad had rushed there from his nearby home to help. These men acted heroically.
It could have been so much worse. The two teens went from room to room, according to police, but with the place in lockdown, found nobody. In homes connected to them, investigators recovered more than 30 guns, ammunition and a crossbow.
The teens were found dead by their own hands in a car, along with a gas can with Nazi S.S. insignia. Nazi and white-supremacist symbols were also found on their manifesto and the clothing they wore to carry out their deadly spree. This included a patch with the Sonnenrad, or “black sun” – the Nazi symbol also worn in the killing of 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 – and used in the writings of the Black-targeted massacre at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo in 2022. That attack was carried out by an 18-year-old who had also been radicalized online.
What drives a 17- and 18-year-old to this kind of hatred? To end people’s lives, and then their own? Mr. Clark was about to graduate from high school.
Consider everything we’re learning about the manosphere – misogynistic, hateful, homophobic, antisemitic, and somehow very attractive to many young men.
A spark – caused by a bad day, a fateful encounter, who knows what – sends these kids to dark corners of the internet. Their hateful curiosity is reinforced by algorithms that continue to serve up vile ideas. These algorithms are designed to maximize engagement – and, for the social-media companies, profits. It’s all happening in the combustible environment of the divisive politics of the day, where hateful rhetoric has become the norm, not just from blabbermouth commentators, but politicians, all the way up to the U.S. President.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer posted: “The shooting in California took place at a jihadi mosque known for its hate preachers.” She wrote that it was “likely planned by Muslims” and the U.S. Islamic lobby. There are too many people who will believe her own hate-filled misinformation, uncritically.
Beyond the grief of this incident, there is an urgent need to address this emergency. We are in a confirmation-biased, hate-fuelled misinformation crisis. Wherever these two young men – boys, really – have been taught to hate like this, others are there too, lurking, reading, learning at the knees of influencers, extremist pundits, hateful politicians. The consequences, as we have seen too many times, can be deadly.