The most media news of the week has been the murder of the star of American conservative thought Charlie Kirk, while participating in an act at Utah Valley University on September 10. Although Kirk’s strong and controversial political convictions led to think about a crime of political dyes, reality has ended up revealing himself as much more twisted. Undoubtedly, politics had an important role in the murder, but if we look out to the rabbit burrow of internare abdicates we will find a much more absurd and complicated reality of understanding.
Who was. Charlie Kirk was an influential conservative political activist. Founded Turning Point uses at 18, an organization that mobilized thousands of students in defense of conservative ideals and the Maga Movement. Near Donald Trump, Kirk stood out as One of the main spokesmen of youth conservatism In the United States. Under his leadership, Tpusa expanded to more than 850 universities (the act in which he died was from the organization) and raised millions in donations.
He was the author of several books on traditional politics and values, and his thought was controversial since under a seemingly reasoned defense of freedom of expression, he spread misinformation on issues such as The COVID-19 or the Climate change. He has also been accused of popularizing leisure positions to groups such as LGTBIQ+people, especially Trans peopleand the African American.
Who shot him. Although the initial conjectures were oriented, with all logic, towards the idea that it could have been a leftist activist, the truth is that the detention by the FBI of Tyler Robinson, a man of 22 of Utah, has opened a box of thunder with much more subtle political nuances. Some of its characteristics enter a conservative profile, such as the fact that it was raised in an environment of defenders of firearms, and thus looked in A series of photos on the Facebook of Robinson’s motherwhich were eliminated. The most radical conservative media They have tried to poison public opinion Speaking of a shooter of leftist trends, but the FBI has declined to pronounce on the subject.
The Groypers. Many had not heard of this Internet subculture until this moment, and it is not uncommon: it is a American extreme movementmainly integrated by cyberactivists and social media trolls, often very young. They are characterized by their white, conservative and anti-Semitic nationalist ideology, with openly homophobic, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ positions. They emerged around influencer Nick Fuentes and use provocative tactics to radicalize the conservative discourse, confronting republican figures considered “soft” or not sufficiently radical, among which Kirk would find (this rivalry would be the Core of the “Groyper Wars” of 2019).
The bullets. To understand to what extent the main weapon of the Groypers is the mistake, radicalization and chaos, you just have to Analyze recorded memes in the projectiles that Robinson used. The most striking is the phrase “Oh Bella Ciao Bella Ciao Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao”, chorus of the anthem of the Italian anti -fascist partisans of World War II ‘Bella Ciao’, which was used profusely in the Second Groyper Warswhich faced the group with Trump. “Hey Fascist, Catch” and a combination of buttons, is a game code ‘2‘Famous because it triggers a comically ex -devastic bomb, and the combination of buttons has also worked as an independent meme.
“*Bulge*, Owo What’s This?“It is also a hate meme used to harass another internal subculture, the Furry community. The intention is so much to sow confusion and blame the Furries of crime such as the use of a meme that only makes sense in a sector very foreign to the mainstream cultural (online game). Finally, “If you read this you are gay Lmao” is also a usual insult in online competition games.
A meme killed him. As the always successful Ryan Broderick and Adam Bumas claim In his Newsletter Garbage DayCharlie Kirk was killed by a meme. Or as with much more forcefulness the memes expert Aidan Walkerthe equivalent of a Shitpost In a forum (an internet publication created intentionally to be of low quality, absurd, incoherent, aggressive or ironic): this murder is made to be “incomprehensible and disruptive to the maximum.” It is a nihilist position because no policy will not be advocated, except to leave behind any type of red line (except when the shootings begin, of course: a sources visibly terrified in case the next bullet bears his name, apart from a meme of 2015, he has already said that Vamo to Calmarno).
Famous snapshot. Gargabe Day leaves us two additional reflections, very important to understand the phenomenon thoroughly. First, it is not the first time that a murderer uses Internet culture to configure crimes of political dyes. The 2019 killing in a mosque in New Zealand was broadcast live and started with the criminal saying “Subscribe to Pewdiedie“. In 2022, a white nationalist started and broadcast a shooting In a greengrocer in Buffalo, and previously planned it without hiding in 4Chan and Discord. Luigi Mangionelast year, he killed the CEO of Unitedhealthcare with bullets where he read “Deny”, “Defend”, “Depose”also sentences with roots in the meme world.
And second: the intention of all these murderers cannot be calibrated with a traditional knowledge about the desire for notoriety or the mental processes that take 4 channel to take a rifle. It is a new era of the homicidal motivations, and if Algó is highlighting this crime it is to what extent the media and traditional analysts lack tools to interpret reality. A reality that no longer dictates political parties, but murky and cryptic ideologies born in the abysses of the Shitposting.
Image: Gage Skidmore
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