Editing Renaud Camus

{{Villain Infobox
|Image = Renaud Camus 2013 (cropped).jpg
|fullname = Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus
|origin = Chamalières, France
|occupation = Author
|skills = Writing
|goals = Prevent the Great Replacement from occurring <small>(failed due to it not existing)</small>
|crimes = [[Islamophobia]]<br>[[Racism]]<br>White nationalism
|type of villain = Far-Right Philosopher}}
{{Quote|You are asking me if I support [[Anti-Semitism|that]]?! I think it’s absolutely horrible, awful. I can very well understand why people in America would think “we won’t be replaced,” and I approve of that. But if [[Alt-Right|they]] are Nazis or if they [[James Alex Fields Jr.|ram cars into people]], I am appalled by the attitude...On the other hand, I totally sympathize with the slogan: “We will not be replaced.” And I think Americans have every good reason to be worried about their country, one of the two main elements that make up Western civilization, being changed into just another poor, derelict, hyperviolent, and stupefied quarter of the global village.}}

'''Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus''', commonly known as '''Renaud Camus''', (born August 10 1946) is a French conspiracy theorist best known for creating the "[[Great Replacement / White Genocide|Great Replacement]]", a racist conspiracy that claims a global elite (typically Muslims or the European Union) is attempting an [[ethnic cleansing]] against the white population of Europe to replace them with other races.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/17/renaud-camus-great-replacement-history/ The father of ‘great replacement’: An ex-socialist French writer], ''The Washington Post''</ref> This theory is also the origin of the common [[Alt-Right]] slogan "Jews will not replace us"<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/04/the-french-origins-of-you-will-not-replace-us The French Origins of "You Will Not Replace Us"], ''The New Yorker''</ref> (although Camus claims to be opposed to the [[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]] elements of the movement), and has motivated a number of far-right terrorists, including [[Patrick Crusius]] and [[Brenton Tarrant]].<ref>[https://www.counterextremism.com/content/great-replacement-theory Great Replacement Theory], ''Counter Extremism Project''</ref> His works and their influence on the Alt-Right is similar to the works and influence of [[Alain de Benoist]].

==Political activism==
Camus began his activism in the late 1970s as an openly homosexual writer, campaigning for what has been characterised as white gay separatism. Dr. Musab Younis, an expert in international political thought, has described the views promoted by his works at the time as "above all, same-race, same-sex intercourse and the extinction of difference". Despite this, his works were promoted heavily by the LGBT community at the time and he has been labelled as a "gay icon" by the American press. However, by 1982 Camus had rejected the title of "homosexual writer". Around that time, he was also a member of the Socialist Party of France.

Camus claims that he came up with the idea of the Great Replacement in 1996 while editing a guidebook about the French region of Herault. In his words, "I suddenly realised that in very old villages (...) the population had totally changed too,". He based his ideas on a 1972 book entitled ''The Camp of the Saints'' that describes the fall of Western civilisation being caused by mass immigration from Arabia, publishing them in 2011 in his book ''Le Grand Replacement''. He has since been accused of becoming "the ideologue of white supremacy" and "the acceptable face of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim politics".<ref>[https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/renaud-camus-great-replacement-brenton-tarrant/ How Gay Icon Renaud Camus Became the Ideologue of White Supremacy], ''The Nation''</ref>

In 2012, Camus launched a white supremacist political party called the Parti de l’In-nocence (Party of No Harm) and stood as a candidate in the French presidential election. His policies included deporting all foreign nationals convicted of crimes, recognising Israel and Palestine as countries and banning wind farms. He gained a minimal amount of support and eventually dropped out, voting for the far-right [[National Rally]] instead. Camus has since stopped voting, claiming that foreign invaders control the system.

After the disastrous [[Unite the Right rally]] took place in America in 2017, Camus was interviewed by ''Vox'' about his influence on the marchers, who were heard shouting slogans like "You will not replace us" and the more overtly racist "Jews will not replace us". Camus condemned all forms of violence and anti-Semitism, but expressed support for the sentiment of not wanting to be replaced and said that "Americans have every good reason to be worried".<ref>[https://www.vox.com/world/2017/8/15/16141456/renaud-camus-the-great-replacement-you-will-not-replace-us-charlottesville-white “You will not replace us”: a French philosopher explains the Charlottesville chant], ''Vox''</ref>

In May 2019, Camus ran for the European parliament elections along with [[Karim Ouchikh]]: "we shall not leave Europe, we shall make Africa leave Europe," they wrote to define their agenda. However, Camus withdrew after discovering that members of his party had expressed anti-Semitic sentiment and drawn swastikas on public beaches.<ref>[https://apnews.com/article/elections-france-international-news-social-media-immigration-f55b5bed3da04586b2136e6aa1c13351 Taboos fall away as far-right EU candidates breach red line], ''AP News''</ref>
==References==
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