on the day 22-year-old Tyler Robinson shot and killed right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, prosecutors claim he texted his roommates to confess to the act. While admitting to the murder and seemingly indicating he intended to reclaim his firearm, he shifted the conversation to his motivation for inscribing messages on the ammunition.

“Remember how I was carving the bullets. The messages are almost a big meme,” Robinson texted.

Robinson’s shooting of Kirk underscores the intersection of political violence and a growing nihilistic online environment that fosters misinformation and extremism. This convergence raises significant questions about the impact of internet culture on the nature and understanding of extremist actions.

Robinson was heavily engaged with online platforms and seemed to enjoy video gaming. A friend described him as “Online at the end,” noting his activity on Discord, a messaging service popular among the gaming community.

The bullets he allegedly fired bore niche internet references and phrases, such as “What is this?”, alluding to sexual memes within online furry communities, “If you read this, you’re gay LMAO,” and “Hey fascist! Catch!” referencing the game Far Cry 6.

In conversations with his roommate, with whom he had a romantic relationship, Robinson appeared to contemplate how his ironic messages would be interpreted.

He even mentioned “UWU’s awareness” in Fox News [sic] highlighting the absurdity of certain responses,” Robinson texted.

Robinson exemplifies not only a product of online culture, but also aligns with a contemporary trend where attackers feel compelled to leave behind a message. The increase in manifestos and single-sentence declarations online, be it a full manifesto or a brief phrase, has been notable in recent years.

The manifesto left by the neo-Nazis who murdered 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 included extreme white nationalist ideologies and “shitposting” style ironic references related to video games and podcasters. The shooter who opened fire in a supermarket in El Paso, Texas the same year announced his attack on the 8chan message board while creating memes that encouraged others to “achieve high scores” with body counts.

The mass shooting in predominantly Black areas of Buffalo, New York in 2022 and the Poway synagogue shooting in California in 2019, both echoed with the language used in fringe online forums. A 2022 survey by multiple newsrooms found thousands of messages from international neo-Nazi networks, showcasing exchanges filled with memes and gaming slang as they plotted violence.

Moreover, attackers frequently engage with each other in far-right circles, celebrating individuals as “saints” on memorial days or mimicking elements from previous attacks. As noted by others, Robinson’s inscriptions on bullet cases closely resemble the meme messages left on ammunition and firearms by a young shooter from a Minneapolis Catholic School attack, echoing the patterns left by United Healthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione on bullets, which was visible on a popular alt-fashion brand’s shirt.

Robinson’s messages do not provide a clear motive for Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors claim Robinson indicated he shot Kirk because he believed conservative activists were perpetuating hatred. His mother reportedly stated that her son had “become more political, more inclined towards the left, and supportive of gay and trans rights.”

However, the path to Robinson’s radicalization remains unclear. There is a vast gulf between opposing Kirk’s ideologies and enacting targeted violence. Experts increasingly contend that the motivations behind such actions, especially among young individuals, are shaped more by the fragmented and chaotic online landscape of modern politics rather than fitting neatly into traditional political categories. Neglecting the radical nature of these individuals in favor of simplified narratives can obscure the factors driving them towards extremist violence.

Radicalization of being online

Rather than striving to decipher the exact meanings behind the sarcastic trolling messages left by attackers, researchers studying extremism argue that understanding how online media contributes to widespread radicalization is more valuable. In fact, many suggest that the current era of political violence is markedly different from past occurrences due to the influential role of social media and online communities in radicalizing and isolating users.

While technological factors represent only part of the rise in political violence—alongside mental health concerns, political polarization, and easy access to firearms in the U.S.—extremist researchers increasingly focus on how social media platforms and online environments evolve to foster radicalization.

In a 2023 paper by George Washington University’s Project on Extremism, Jacob Wear, explained the emergence of what he termed the “third generation of online radicals” in the late 2010s. Characteristics of this generation include how memetic culture facilitates radicalization and normalizes attacks, as well as a shift away from ideology and group affiliations towards individual acts of violence. Wear argues that online culture surrounding violence and extremism blurs the conventional boundaries of terrorism, spurring content designed to showcase acts of violence.

“Global grievances are expressed with great intensity in localized contexts, yet the primary audience often remains online,” writes Wear.

The expansion of social media and the erosion of traditional gatekeeping have muddled strategies to combat escalating online radicalization, especially given shifts in social media platforms. Responsibility for hosting violent and extreme content has become a contentious issue. What was once a standard policy among media organizations and platforms to refrain from disseminating a perpetrator’s manifesto has evolved into a public health debate among researchers, deteriorating as social media platforms replaced amateur detectives who amplified the digital footprints of individuals for perilous discoveries. Furthermore, as messages and memes from attackers spread more effortlessly, riffs about violence produce more posts, transforming them into consumable content. This represents a particularly grim aspect of an industry that has thrived by algorithmically promoting politically divisive and extremist content.

Consequently, online culture has become intertwined with extremism and political violence, increasingly blurring lines as previously extremist internet culture permeates everyday online experiences. The use of sarcastic humor associated with violence and extremism isn’t new to the digital landscape—a 1944 essay debated how factions entertained themselves with euphemisms of hate, yet has now become a prominent feature of online interaction. Ideologies and memes that were once confined to obscure message boards and extremist sites now serve as the common language of the Internet, disseminated across mainstream social media platforms.

Kirk is also a product of this online milieu, widely recognized for his confrontational, debate-style clips that have gone viral, stirring reactions from various political audiences.

The footage of Kirk’s murder has since propagated through the same online ecosystem that once rendered him omnipresent, now autoplaying on X without caution for viewers. The aftermath of his death has blended into the same content machine, with video essays analyzing the murder and AI-generated tributes portraying his legacy online. One aspiring influencer who attended the event where Kirk was fatally shot attempted to exploit the chaos for content, posting videos promoting his social media channels amid the turmoil.

“Make sure to subscribe!” the TikToker, who later deleted the video, exclaimed while flashing peace signs as attendees screamed and fled.