Tyler Robinson's motive for murdering Kirk might be that he was "black pilled"

[j brown's body]

...the reporting of the assassination of Charlie (is)...hugely missing the point about the strange and deeply complex online world that 22-year-old Robinson, and many youngsters like him, was immersed in. Online subculture shot into the global conversation...when the Netflix hit show Adolescence brought the term “red-pilling” into the mainstream. In the broadest terms, red-pilling means having your eyes opened to a hidden or uncomfortable truth, often about politics, society, or gender. The term is frequently used in far-right or conspiracy theory communities to describe someone being “liberated” from notions of equality, feminism, and “wokeness”. But what this conversation missed was how “black-pilling”, the darker and stranger cousin of red-pilling, is an even bigger threat – and is present in both far-right and far-left online culture.

...black-pilling tends to take two forms: nihilistic and anarchist. The first is the belief that absolutely nothing matters at all... The second is a desire to disrupt and destroy the world through chaos. The writer Ryan Broderick ...said it means “wanting to cause chaos and hurt people to speed up what they see as the downfall of society, because they don’t like it, or think it’s not helping them and is broken already”.

...So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming...they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them. If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.” He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Link

If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned.

 

[Allan]

Thanks for the glimpse into this world. I've never heard of any of those terms.

 

[Irredentist]

...the reporting of the assassination of Charlie (is)...hugely missing the point about the strange and deeply complex online world that 22-year-old Robinson, and many youngsters like him, was immersed in. Online subculture shot into the global conversation...when the Netflix hit show Adolescence brought the term “red-pilling” into the mainstream. In the broadest terms, red-pilling means having your eyes opened to a hidden or uncomfortable truth, often about politics, society, or gender. The term is frequently used in far-right or conspiracy theory communities to describe someone being “liberated” from notions of equality, feminism, and “wokeness”. But what this conversation missed was how “black-pilling”, the darker and stranger cousin of red-pilling, is an even bigger threat – and is present in both far-right and far-left online culture.

...black-pilling tends to take two forms: nihilistic and anarchist. The first is the belief that absolutely nothing matters at all... The second is a desire to disrupt and destroy the world through chaos. The writer Ryan Broderick ...said it means “wanting to cause chaos and hurt people to speed up what they see as the downfall of society, because they don’t like it, or think it’s not helping them and is broken already”.

...So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming...they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them. If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.” He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Link

If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned.

I don't think internet culture is to blame for Charlie Kirk's murder, any more than violent rhetoric or radical ideology. Its normal for people to search for a reason behind tragedy, but the most logical explanation for why Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk is because he hated him. Tyler was a young man with a grudge against a specific person, and he just so happened to also have the ability and willingness to carry out a murder.

 

[Gozaburo]

If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned.

Connecting the "black pill" to MAGA-driven political division is directionally incorrect, if not outright harmful. Nihilism and the general degradation of mental health is a product of modernity, not a product of some political movement. Some esoteric online movement isn't driving this vague malaise felt by many young people, it's driven by a confluence of over socialization, purposelessness, lack of idealism, technology, and an eroding social fabric.

It's genuinely an impossible to understand for older folks, who grew up in a homogenous, cohesive, idealistic, and socially adjusted society which hadn't yet been exposed to the technology and the consequences of the postmodern world.

 

[j brown's body]

Connecting the "black pill" to MAGA-driven political division is directionally incorrect, if not outright harmful. Nihilism and the general degradation of mental health is a product of modernity, not a product of some political movement. Some esoteric online movement isn't driving this vague malaise felt by many young people, it's driven by a confluence of over socialization, purposelessness, lack of idealism, technology, and an eroding social fabric.

It's genuinely an impossible to understand for older folks, who grew up in a homogenous, cohesive, idealistic, and socially adjusted society which hadn't yet been exposed to the technology and the consequences of the postmodern world.

Its logical to argue that those who seek to foment chaos would seize on issues that serve to divide us.

 

[Gozaburo]

Its logical to argue that those who seek to foment chaos would seize on issues that serve to divide us.

Well sure, but we're talking about two totally separate phenomenon here. If anything, MAGA is a consequence of modernity, not the other way around.

 

[j brown's body]

Well sure, but we're talking about two totally separate phenomenon here. If anything, MAGA is a consequence of modernity, not the other way around.

Yes, but Maga's response to modernity is based on demagogic emotion, and that causes people to act irrationally.

 

[Variant]

Yes, but Maga's response to modernity is based on demagogic emotion, and that causes people to act irrationally.

It's all still just different cults. I'm not sure it matters much which one the shooter belongs to unless it becomes a trend of violence or a cycle violence and retaliation.

 

[j brown's body]

Craig*, 19, who is deeply involved in the “far end” of the gaming world, told me he first got into it through Minecraft in his pre-teen years. Explaining the appeal of meme culture and black-pilling, he subscribes more to the nihilistic view than the anarchist or accelerationist one. He has no political affiliation, right or left, but says he admires Mangione, the prime suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Thompson. The shooting took place in New York City on 4 December 2024, and was met with a mixture of concern, fascination, and – in some quarters – surprising admiration. “It’s hard to explain, but our view is at least an honest one. We are both fed and totally fed over in every way. Why should I care about trying to believe in or save or get worried about anything or anyone? We want it all to burn and can at least have a laugh while we watch it happen.”

“My dad was so obsessed with being ‘down’ with memes and especially who Pepe the Frog ‘was’. We got sick of trying to explain, and him not getting it, so we told him Pepe had gone full circle and was now a feminist meme meaning ‘no boys allowed’ online. We heard him telling his mates this at their dinner party and they were all like, ‘Oh really, he’s feminist now, isn’t that interesting,’ and we were just dying upstairs. Especially as they’ll probably tell their friends and it’ll cause even more confusion.”

Link

Interesting.

 

[j brown's body]

It's all still just different cults. I'm not sure it matters much which one the shooter belongs to unless it becomes a trend of violence or a cycle violence and retaliation.

The point here, I think, is that its apolitical.

 

[j brown's body]

If this "black pilling is true" it means that any political expression made by someone engaging in political violence cannot be taken at face value. If the point is to confuse, that can be part of the confusion.

 

[Peacenik]

I don't think internet culture is to blame for Charlie Kirk's murder, any more than violent rhetoric or radical ideology. Its normal for people to search for a reason behind tragedy, but the most logical explanation for why Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk is because he hated him. Tyler was a young man with a grudge against a specific person, and he just so happened to also have the ability and willingness to carry out a murder.

Maybe the OP point is why Robinson hated Kirk.

 

[Irredentist]

Maybe the OP point is why Robinson hated Kirk.

That's not particularly hard to figure out. Robinson had a transgender girlfriend, and Charlie Kirk spoke out many times against transgender people in particular. It's not hard to imagine how Robinson may have felt like he was being personally attacked by Kirk, even if he wasn't. In my opinion, this doesn't seem political at all; it seems personal. Robinson had a grudge, and he chose to act on it. There have always been people like that. If the Internet played a role, it's only in the sense that it helped to disseminate Charlie's ideas to reach a wider audience.

 

[Jezcoe]

...the reporting of the assassination of Charlie (is)...hugely missing the point about the strange and deeply complex online world that 22-year-old Robinson, and many youngsters like him, was immersed in. Online subculture shot into the global conversation...when the Netflix hit show Adolescence brought the term “red-pilling” into the mainstream. In the broadest terms, red-pilling means having your eyes opened to a hidden or uncomfortable truth, often about politics, society, or gender. The term is frequently used in far-right or conspiracy theory communities to describe someone being “liberated” from notions of equality, feminism, and “wokeness”. But what this conversation missed was how “black-pilling”, the darker and stranger cousin of red-pilling, is an even bigger threat – and is present in both far-right and far-left online culture.

...black-pilling tends to take two forms: nihilistic and anarchist. The first is the belief that absolutely nothing matters at all... The second is a desire to disrupt and destroy the world through chaos. The writer Ryan Broderick ...said it means “wanting to cause chaos and hurt people to speed up what they see as the downfall of society, because they don’t like it, or think it’s not helping them and is broken already”.

...So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming...they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them. If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.” He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Link

If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned.

When the thing about the bullets came out I said that I thought that this was a meme shooting.

It wasn't about making a firm political statement through murder but it is sadly a shooting that is fueled by the lulz.

It is a nihilistic worldview that is leading this that isn't fueled by coherent politics but with undirected rage.

This is one of the end results of an entire generation growing up in country where mass gun violence is part of the daily news and has become background noise at this point.

Sadly I don't think that this is the last of this type of shooting.

 

[Jezcoe]

That's not particularly hard to figure out. Robinson had a transgender girlfriend, and Charlie Kirk spoke out many times against transgender people in particular. It's not hard to imagine how Robinson may have felt like he was being personally attacked by Kirk, even if he wasn't. In my opinion, this doesn't seem political at all; it seems personal. Robinson had a grudge, and he chose to act on it. There have always been people like that. If the Internet played a role, it's only in the sense that it helped to disseminate Charlie's ideas to reach a wider audience.

Placing the blame on the existence of Trans people has been the goal of a certain segment of people since day one.

No Trans people were involved.

 

[Irredentist]

Placing the blame on the existence of Trans people has been the goal of a certain segment of people since day one.

No Trans people were involved.

It's not about blame, it's about what motivated Robinson to commit murder. Obviously he hated Charlie Kirk; the question is why.

 

[Jezcoe]

It's not about blame, it's about what motivated Robinson to commit murder. Obviously he hated Charlie Kirk; the question is why.

I don't think that the "why" is anything that is coherent.

That is the point... I think that this was a meme killing that has become more and more prevalent over the years.

It is done for peak irony.

 

[Irredentist]

I don't think that the "why" is anything that is coherent.

That is the point... I think that this was a meme killing that has become more and more prevalent over the years.

It is done for peak irony.

I just don't believe that. Robinson thought this murder through, and he planned to get away with it. He didn't do it on a whim.

 

[Allan]

It's not about blame, it's about what motivated Robinson to commit murder. Obviously he hated Charlie Kirk; the question is why.

The killer is obviously (to me) mentally ill to the point of delusional psychosis.

His reason is irrelevant.

 

[Irredentist]

The killer is obviously (to me) mentally ill to the point of delusional psychosis.

His reason is irrelevant.

I'm not convinced that's true. I haven't seen much evidence for delusion or psychosis on the part of Tyler Robinson. You don't need to be mentally ill to commit murder.

 

[Jezcoe]

I just don't believe that. Robinson thought this murder through, and he planned to get away with it. He didn't do it on a whim.

There of course had to be a certain amount of premeditation.

Yet... what we know of his politics is that they are completely incoherent... they are basically Reddit and 4Chan which is steeped in nihilistic irony.

If you remember the Christchurch Shooter who livestreamed his murder spree said during it... "Subscribe to PewDiePie". Now that guy did it as an act of White Supremacist terrorism but that internet brained irony was injected into it.

The Annunciation School Shooter had written on their weapon references to the Christchurch shooting, the Epstien list and Skibidi Toilet.

There is a whole online community that is dedicated to mass shootings that glorifies it. https://sites.psu.edu/propato/2021/04/29/the-dark-truth-behind-the-true-crime-community/

I think that what we are seeing is the result of a generation of young people who have grown up in a society where mass shootings are just part of the air that we breathe. That these things can happen without any societal change. That when this type of violence is simply the background noise it is part of the culture.

There isn't a coherent political ideology that is fueling this.

 

[PeteEU]

...So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming...they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them. If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.” He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Link

If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned.

LOL Telegram? Telegram and Discord has absolutely nothing to do with each other and are in no way similar.

Discord is more like Skype/Facetime on steroids. Thats where gamers are, as they can use voice chat to communicate online.. I use it myself as a gamer.

And Minecraft or Roblox? What the hell is this OP article journalist talking about? They trying to go after Microsoft and Roblox Inc? Its 10 year olds that play these games mostly, not 22 year olds.. wtf?

 

[roberthughey]

...the reporting of the assassination of Charlie (is)...hugely missing the point about the strange and deeply complex online world that 22-year-old Robinson, and many youngsters like him, was immersed in. Online subculture shot into the global conversation...when the Netflix hit show Adolescence brought the term “red-pilling” into the mainstream. In the broadest terms, red-pilling means having your eyes opened to a hidden or uncomfortable truth, often about politics, society, or gender. The term is frequently used in far-right or conspiracy theory communities to describe someone being “liberated” from notions of equality, feminism, and “wokeness”. But what this conversation missed was how “black-pilling”, the darker and stranger cousin of red-pilling, is an even bigger threat – and is present in both far-right and far-left online culture.

...black-pilling tends to take two forms: nihilistic and anarchist. The first is the belief that absolutely nothing matters at all... The second is a desire to disrupt and destroy the world through chaos. The writer Ryan Broderick ...said it means “wanting to cause chaos and hurt people to speed up what they see as the downfall of society, because they don’t like it, or think it’s not helping them and is broken already”.

...So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming...they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them. If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.” He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Link

If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned.

If this is what you got out of the article, you missed it.

"If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned."

 

[roberthughey]

...the reporting of the assassination of Charlie (is)...hugely missing the point about the strange and deeply complex online world that 22-year-old Robinson, and many youngsters like him, was immersed in. Online subculture shot into the global conversation...when the Netflix hit show Adolescence brought the term “red-pilling” into the mainstream. In the broadest terms, red-pilling means having your eyes opened to a hidden or uncomfortable truth, often about politics, society, or gender. The term is frequently used in far-right or conspiracy theory communities to describe someone being “liberated” from notions of equality, feminism, and “wokeness”. But what this conversation missed was how “black-pilling”, the darker and stranger cousin of red-pilling, is an even bigger threat – and is present in both far-right and far-left online culture.

...black-pilling tends to take two forms: nihilistic and anarchist. The first is the belief that absolutely nothing matters at all... The second is a desire to disrupt and destroy the world through chaos. The writer Ryan Broderick ...said it means “wanting to cause chaos and hurt people to speed up what they see as the downfall of society, because they don’t like it, or think it’s not helping them and is broken already”.

...So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming...they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them. If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.” He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Link

If this is all true, it really speaks to dtye consequences of Maga's demagoguery dividing us. In this case, their war on transgenders is giving material to these black pillers to act on.

Either way, the two sides are wasting their time blaming each other. A leaders early on pointed out the dangers of social media, putting them on the right track. But interest in that seems to have waned.

From the article.

"We all need to really listen to what our young people are saying. If a young adult suddenly voices extreme views about gender, race, or equality that you know didn’t come from you – or if they crack jokes about, or even celebrate, shocking or terrible stories in the news – the chances are those views are being shaped online. That’s a red flag to investigate what spaces or people are influencing them."

 

[Allan]

I think that what we are seeing is the result of a generation of young people who have grown up in a society where mass shootings are just part of the air that we breathe. That these things can happen without any societal change. That when this type of violence is simply the background noise it is part of the culture.

Mass shootings are the new normal.

There isn't a coherent political ideology that is fueling this.

Agree.