Truisms

It was an attack by a lone wolf; nothing at all to do with race/domestic terrorism/guns...

Pay no mind to the NYT's side-by-side headlines—

Suspect Wore Symbols of White Supremacy/
A Church Long at the Fore of the Fight for Equality

If it's unlikely the murderer knew the history of this particular church, there's no mistaking his choice of target: Southern Black Church, the institution where the previously voiceless have been heard and have built their political strength. And an institution so often targeted.

If he didn't know history, Dylann Roof did "know" other things; as the Times reported—

Law enforcement officials identified Mr. Roof, 21, as the suspect in the mass shooting at an African-American church in Charleston on Wednesday night that left nine dead, including the pastor, Clementa C. Pinckney. Mr. Roof was arrested Thursday in North Carolina.

A cousin of Mr. Pinckney who had spoken to a witness, Sylvia Johnson, told NBC that the gunman entered the church, asked for the pastor and sat next to him during Bible study before opening fire. "I have to do it," he said, according to Ms. Johnson. "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." The shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.
...

Heidi Beirich, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's intelligence project, which tracks the activity of American hate groups, said the gunman's reported comments reflected a major topic on white supremacist Internet forums, which are preoccupied with the idea that whites are being hugely victimized by blacks and no one is paying attention. The specter of white women being sexually assaulted by black men has a long history as well, she said: "It's probably the oldest racist trope we have in the U.S."

After observing Fox's viewership explain the massacre, Steve M. findings—

So, to sum up, the real villains here are Al Sharpton, Al Sharpton, Al Sharpton, Rachel Dolezal, the racist (and anti-Semitic) president and liberal media, legislators who turn churches into gun-free zones, and, of course, gay people.

Soon enough, that post needing updated, for Steve M. to add "War on Christianity"—

... on Fox & Friends, commentator E.W. Jackson (who got 45% of the vote as the GOP's candidate for [Virginia] lieutenant governor in 2013) said precisely that. He also called on church members (but only the men) to carry firearms in church...

JACKSON ... I am deeply concerned that this gunman chose to go into a church, because there does seem to be a rising hostility against Christians across this country because of our biblical views. And I just think it's something that we have to be aware of, and not create an atmosphere in which people take out their violent intentions against Christians.

And I would mention one other thing very quickly, and that is, I would urge pastors and men in these churches to prepare to defend themselves. It's sad, but I think we've got to arm ourselves -- at least have some people in the church who are prepared to defend the church when women and children are attacked.

It didn't take the NRA long. The murdered pastor was responsible for his own death and that of eight others; when he was alive and a state senator, he voted against concealed carry.

Charles Pierce—

... This was not an unthinkable act. A man may have had a rat's nest for a mind, but it was well thought out. It was a cool, considered crime, as well planned as any bank robbery or any computer fraud. If people do not want to speak of it, or think about it, it's because they do not want to follow the story where it inevitably leads. It's because they do not want to follow this crime all the way back to the mother of all American crimes, the one that Denmark Vesey gave his life to avenge. What happened on Wednesday night was a lot of things. A massacre was only one of them.

Driftglass—

Even after a day of tragedy and slaughter, the American Swastika continues to fly proudly and at full-mast in front of the South Carolina statehouse.

But maybe that's the point.