What stood out to this person was the "lol nothing matters" attitude Kirk's assassin tried so hard to project in his ironic bullet inscriptions, political-but-mostly-stupid meme Halloween costumes, and the gamer culture he was steeped in. His politics almost feel secondary.

We're seeing an uptick in "ironic" phrases written on bullet casings and manifestos that are peppered with Very Online references meant to be read and understood not by the media, but by these shooters' online peers. They want to be remembered as the people who "went for it."

It speaks to an alienation that younger Amercians (disproportionately men) try to heal not through therapy but through online game communities, Discord, and validating themselves online. Their goal isn't news coverage - it's to be cheered on their niche forums of choice.

It also speaks to a lack of hope about the future. It's hard to say if these people even have coherent left-right "ideologies" so much as an overriding sense that their lives are pretty much over before they begin unless they hit a crypto jackpot or something equally unlikely.

At the same time, they're stewing in a social media ecosystem where algorithms feed them a constant stream of rage-bait. And so they form parasocial hatreds. As the shooter's family said, he'd only become political recently, and seemed to fixate on Charlie Kirk's viral content.

What Gov. Cox said is broadly right -- social media is a cancer, and when coupled with the social alienation epidemic we're seeing in America, it's convincing people that reality is something less than real. If you're never going to be rich, why not try to be infamous?

The traditional venue for that was school shootings. But those have become so commonplace now that the shooters barely register in our media coverage. We're numb to it. What gets headlines now? POLITICAL shootings. Even better if your message is confusing to the "normies"!

It isn't just the violence or the instant celebrity that makes it so appealing. It's using purposefully conflicting and often nonsensical messaging (like the meme slogans on the shooter's bullets) to confuse the media and create confusion and chaos. It's trolling with bullets.

I don't know the Kirk shooter's ideology, and I imagine we will learn more as the story develops. My point is the *pattern* of his behavior, his Very Online existence, his deep kinship with irony and nihilistic online culture, is shared by other recent shooters. Don't ignore it.

This is also why it's *critical* for media outlets to start hiring deeply Internet culture-literate reporters who can understand at a glance what these messages are, what they mean, and what they don't mean. That "trans ideology" turned out to be a video game reference.

@themaxburns This really must be a Covid thing. I don’t see it with my crowd (26/27) at all. But we only one had one or two years effected by Covid.

@themaxburns @cathy39637692 Blackpill

@themaxburns We need to spread this message. Nihilism and a sense of worthlessness is a contagion amongst young men right now, and it will be filled with the worst instincts if we as a society don't do something.

@themaxburns It appears either path are the only two lives worth living. Everything else is insecurity and shame —dependence on a weakening Democratic Party for social programs, charity for health calamities, parents for housing, and that doesn’t measure up to your friends on social media.

@themaxburns There is a lot of absurdity and nihilism but somebody who uses the first and definitely last public platform they’ll ever have to write ‘lol ur gay’ stuff before doing a political assassination is disconnected from reality in a way a lot more profound than teenage alienation

@themaxburns Part of the problem is that social media has leaned heavily into the narrative that middle class Americans are desperately poor and only the top 0.1% have a decent quality of life, which is just wildly untrue.

@themaxburns These kids have been destroyed by social media- YouTube, faves in phones, inability to socialize, everything!! I have a young teen and when he and his friends were little they all wanted to be a YouTube Star.

@themaxburns I thought blackpilled was basically another term for accelerationists

@themaxburns it's "nothing matters" anxiety more than get rich or famous bs

@themaxburns Not to shill but Carl Jung laid out these exact problems we are seeing now almost 100 years ago. We have cut ourselves off from everything that used to give us meaning and allow us to build identity - both personal and community.

@themaxburns Also - go outside, touch grass. parents are lazy as hell. I’m a parent you know when your kids screen time is too much and you can see their viewing history early when they’re young. Step in step up and take them outside. Agree with ^^^ but white families get a pass too much

@themaxburns Getting rich is usually a long process, involving living modestly, saving. Fame is another thing entirely.

@themaxburns It's nihilism for zoomers

@themaxburns That's another in a long list of reasons why it is essential to add Universal Basic Income (UBI) to the platform. We must come together as a class over this reality: it costs money just to exist. And it is hard to live with the awful fear of running out of enough money to live.

@themaxburns thanks for post. Good to know

@themaxburns “Watching the cable news commentary on the bullet engravings is wild because none of these people seem to realize that the content of the engravings are indicative of extremely online meme brain rot.” https://www.muellershewrote.co...

@themaxburns The hopeless and isolation of young people in this country and the brain rot from online media is truly an epidemic

@themaxburns social media has destroyed society