Gamer Culture and Guns
The other thread on the Charlie Kirk killing has gotten really long, so I thought I’d post another.
The investigation into Tyler Robinson’s ideology is still quite early. What’s clear is he was raised in conservative Republican culture, around guns.
What’s unclear is whether the cultural references that AFT initially misrepresented as “trans ideology” is sincerely, or only ironically, tied to further right culture than Kirk himself.
Here’s a good explanation of the known gamer references in the things he scratched onto bullet casings (though the song Bella Ciao has been appropriated by Groypers).
But the full arrow sequence was quickly recognized as something else: a combo from Helldivers 2 for calling the Eagle 500kg Bomb stratagem. The world of Helldivers — which evokes Robert Heinlein’s book Starship Troopers and the subsequent movie — concerns fascism thematically; developer Arrowhead has characterized it as a satire where players fight for a fascist state.
[snip]
Fans of the game immediately noticed. Shortly after the press conference on Friday morning, the Helldivers subreddit was flooded with players who had picked up on what may be references to the game. A thread, now deleted, was titled: “Hey Facist Catch!” with the poster asking, “Did anyone else hear/notice?!” A commenter, responding to the thread, said, “The moment I heard [the arrows] my eyes widened.”
Another thread, also apparently deleted by moderators, referenced the arrows that authorities say were on one of the unfired bullet casings recovered at the scene. “It sickens me having people like this playing this game and using it to real violence to tarnish this awesome game and community,” the poster wrote. Other posts implored the subreddit moderators to lock down the forum. Moderators for the subreddit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A thread in the separate r/Helldivers2 subreddit remains active, with people discussing the apparent parallels.
And this is a worthwhile reflection — originally written about the suspect in the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting — about how muddled this online ideology can be.
As incoherent, unhinged, or even cringey as the Minneapolis shooter’s videos might seem, they are part of a familiar template of terroristic behavior—one that continues to spread in online communities dedicated to mass shootings and other forms of brutality. In these morbid spaces, killers are viewed as martyrs, and they’re dubbed “saints.” Really, they’re influencers.
These disaffected communities live on social networks, message boards, and private Discords. They are populated by trolls, gore addicts, and, of course, aspiring shooters, who study, debate, and praise mass-shooting tactics and manifestos. Frequently, these groups adopt the aesthetics of neo-Nazis and white supremacists—sometimes because they are earnestly neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and sometimes because it’s the look and language that they’re cribbing from elsewhere. It’s always blurry, but it usually amounts to the same thing. In an article published by this magazine last year, Dave Cullen, author of the book Columbine, summed it all up: “As you read this, a distraught, lonely kid somewhere is contemplating an attack—and the one community they trust is screaming, Do it!”
There’s no reason to rush to pin this down. What matters is the right wing launched a cultural war against the left…
… Only to discover that the culprit was one of theirs.
H/T Alejandra Caraballo for the Nancy Mace screengrabs.
The closest Nancy Mace gets to praying is being on her knees before Trump.
There’s no hate like MAGA Christian love.
More on Mace today, from the Guardian liveblog:
Her Jeebus uses an AR-15, and preaches violence and hate.
One of my family members noted that the Kirk killer was a 22 year old young man and then asked what was the motive. I wanted to respond that 22 year old young men often rely more on emotion than the reasoning sufficient to constitute a motive.
Add to that being immersed in the gamer world and community. It is a recipe for tragedy.
But what excuse can Trump and his media allies give for using Kirk’s murder to stir up their supporters before evidence was gathered.
Biden and Dems are responsible.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
– Voltaire
There’s more to the Groyper connection from what I see online. Trump’s one-time dinner guest, Fuentes and his fans hated Kirk. I don’t know if Kirk’s assassin is a Groyper, but I have seen a couple of Tweets where people posted screenshots from 8chan indicating the shooter was one of them. I don’t know enough about that crowd or their feuds with others. But I knew there was little chance the shooter was Antifa (the Right’s favorite boogeyman). I worry the shooter’s family scrubbed all social media since he was apprehended last night, and it was announced this morning (perhaps with Republican help?). I’m trying not to fall into conspiratorial rabbit holes, but very curious.
So what were the stated causes of Fuentes hatred of Kirk.
Screams Volumes!
“Less than 48 hours after Kirk was shot in broad daylight at the campus of Utah Valley University, Trump replied: “I tell you something that is going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less.””
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/trump-fox-friends-charlie-kirk-shooting
He quite a lot says I won’t tell you…, but in next breath does tell you….
Righties judge people based on who they are not what they do. Tell them what identity group someone is in and they’ll tell you the motive because we’re all just think-alike stereotypes and not individuals. Only they are freethinking individuals, while we’re all responsible for what the worst anyone in our group says or does.
And if a shooter fits their preferred identity group and ideology, it lessens the crime especially if the victims are in the wrong group. Just hearing that white cis conservative men are capable of bad behavior offends them because they know that’s the default setting and not an identity. So those killers are only responsible for their own actions as individuals and it’s wrong to even mention their traits because that’s a smear against the group.
‘Radicalized’ Evergreen High School shooter appeared to hold antisemitic, violent views in online accounts
Officials say suspect, who fatally shot himself, was Desmond Holly. Two students remain in critical condition.
The 16-year-old boy who shot two students and then himself at Evergreen High School this week appeared to espouse white supremacist views online and showed an interest in mass shooters in …
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/09/11/evergreen-high-school-shooting-colorado-updates/
A pattern with radicalization of young men.
Since you bring up Mace, she had screaming match with Jackson over trans https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/u-reps-nancy-mace-sara-003852735.html