Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah rally.

Tyler Robinson was heavy into the game helldivers 2 which a lot of conservative kids play and have misinterpreted its satire and made it into a conservative game. Herr is an interesting Reddit thread about it.
 
The Groyper movement, led by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, uses the video game world and internet meme culture as a key part of its strategy to promote extremist views, recruit young people, and troll political opponents
. This was highlighted during the investigation into the recent killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, where the alleged killer's online behavior and inscribed bullet casings linked to gaming and meme culture became a focus of public attention.
How Groypers operate in gaming and online spaces
  • Use of irony and memes: Groypers use memes, irony, and trolling to soften their extremist message, making it more appealing to younger audiences and creating plausible deniability when confronted. This strategy helps them introduce white nationalist concepts into more mainstream online spaces.
  • Recruitment tactics: The movement targets young men, particularly those from Generation Z, who are active in online and gaming communities. By adopting familiar gaming culture elements and leveraging online platforms, they seek to attract new followers who may feel disillusioned with mainstream politics. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes that they even engage in online gaming, such as hosting Fortnitetournaments, to spread their "America First" ideology.
  • Platform hopping: After being deplatformed from major sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch, Groyper influencers have migrated to alternative platforms such as Gab, Telegram, and their own streaming service, Cozy.tv.
  • "Hiding your power level": This strategy involves manipulating or misusing symbols to sow confusion about their true beliefs. For example, the song "Bella Ciao," an antifascist anthem, appeared on a Groyper playlist and was inscribed on a bullet casing allegedly used in the Charlie Kirk killing, possibly referencing its inclusion in the game Far Cry 6. This makes it difficult for outsiders to distinguish between an ironic meme and a signal of extremist ideology.
  • The Groyper meme: The movement's name and mascot derive from a meme of a variant of the "Pepe the Frog" cartoon. This specific version, a rotund frog known as Groyper, became a racist-coded symbol popular among extremist groups.
  • "Review bombing": The Groyper movement has been accused of "review bombing" video games that they perceive as having "woke" or progressive themes. This tactic involves coordinating negative reviews online to harm a game's reception and sales.
The Charlie Kirk killing and its connection to gaming culture
The alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, appears to have used language and references associated with gaming and meme culture. These messages, found inscribed on bullet casings, included:
  • "OwO what's this?": A popular meme phrase often used to mock online role-play communities, especially furry culture.
  • Helldivers 2 call-in code: A sequence of arrows referencing a move from the popular satirical video game Helldivers 2. The game itself is a satire of military conflict and fascism, and while its community is not politically aligned, the reference highlights the alleged killer's deep familiarity with gaming culture.
  • "Bella Ciao": As noted earlier, this reference can be interpreted as either antifascist (historically) or as a Groyper meme (within online extremist circles), showcasing how symbols are strategically co-opted.
Broader impact
The involvement of Groyper ideology in the video game world is part of a larger trend of far-right extremist groups using online platforms and meme culture to radicalize, recruit, and spread propaganda. This creates a challenging landscape for both online communities and the companies that manage them, as they grapple with how to moderate and counter extremism that is often cloaked in irony.
 
nycfan said:
* I do think there may have been a lot of pundit and political and law enforcement misunderstanding of online gamer culture and trying to peg it as left or right wing political ideology when it is more of an anarchist, shitposting all sides suck disaffected youth culture
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This is where his discord avatar came from. It's drowning in online culture and utterly indecipherable to someone not in that world (like myself). It just comes off as dadaesque. The board formats it into a single comic, but click it and you will see a bunch of them including some dealing with trans subjects etc. None of which make sense to a normie.

 
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Callatoroy said:
I didn’t understand the purpose of the post but after going back I interpret it as frustration because Ram doesn’t often post personal insults. I would invite you lefties to join a republican board and see how long you continue to participate before putting them on “ignore” by leaving due to the vitriol you get. On this board you live in a cocoon of affirmative nods. Regardless of your opinion of his views, if you are honest you will recognize that is out of character.
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It’s not out of character for him at all to make sweeping, broad brushstrokes statements ascribing blame for literally anything and everything to “transgenders” or to “the left”. Look no further than his first posts on this very thread on this very topic, when he declared that the shooter was most certain to be a “mentally-ill transgender leftist” long before we even had a suspect identified. He then claimed that “the left” wants a civil war. So, no, his posts last night were not out of character- they were very much who he is. The only thing that was somewhat atypical for him was to be aggressive in his responses to WMHeel- but as another poster noted, there is a weird pattern of late Friday and Saturday night posts from ramrouser that seem like those of a person who may be imbibing.

Personally, I despise him as a poster but it’s not because of his political affiliation- at all, in any way. I don’t care about having political ideology differences with anyone, and anyway, it’s decently possible that he and I may even have common ground on some classical political issues. I despise him because of his lack of decency. A decent human being does not relish and revel in being so nasty to and about marginalized people the way that he does. I’ve not seen you do it, for example, and even though you and I may have a different in political affiliation right now, I don’t despise you in the slightest- and in fact, welcome your perspectives – because you do not behave like ramrouser behaves. You try to learn, you try to educate yourself, you make every attempt to share links and back up your assertions, and most importantly, you don’t get your rocks off on ascribing blame to transgendered people as the root of all ills on every thread topic ever.

Speaking of conservative leaning message boards, I am pretty active on the r/Conservative sub Reddit. I post the same exact viewpoints, in the same exact posting style, that I do here. If you’re looking for a heavily conservative-leaning board community that is very lightly moderated by conservatives for conservatives, it might be worth checking that board out (although I definitely understand that the format of Reddit is not everyone’s cup of tea).
 
altmin said:
This is where his discord avatar came from. It's drowning in online culture and utterly indecipherable to someone not in that world (like myself). It just comes off as dadaesque. The board formats it into a single comic, but click it and you will see a bunch of them including some dealing with trans subjects etc. None of which make sense to a normie.

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I know that one! That’s Garfield minus Garfield.

garfieldminusgarfield.net

garfield minus garfield

garfieldminusgarfield.net
 
BlooVooDoo said:
I’m actually concerned about a plea deal in which the shooter explains how he was radicalized by “the left” in exchange for something like a 25 year sentence with a chance of parole.
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I mean it’s obvious what is going on here. If this guy was a left wing nut they would have already announced it. They are trying to figure out how to cover this up.
 
CFordUNC said:
It’s not out of character for him at all to make sweeping, broad brushstrokes statements ascribing blame for literally anything and everything to “transgenders” or to “the left”. Look no further than his first posts on this very thread on this very topic, when he declared that the shooter was most certain to be a “mentally-ill transgender leftist” long before we even had a suspect identified. He then claimed that “the left” wants a civil war. So, no, his posts last night were not out of character- they were very much who he is. The only thing that was somewhat atypical for him was to be aggressive in his responses to WMHeel- but as another poster noted, there is a weird pattern of late Friday and Saturday night posts from ramrouser that seem like those of a person who may be imbibing.

Personally, I despise him as a poster but it’s not because of his political affiliation- at all, in any way. I don’t care about having political ideology differences with anyone, and anyway, it’s decently possible that he and I may even have common ground on some classical political issues. I despise him because of his lack of decency. A decent human being does not relish and revel in being so nasty to and about marginalized people the way that he does. I’ve not seen you do it, for example, and even though you and I may have a different in political affiliation right now, I don’t despise you in the slightest- and in fact, welcome your perspectives – because you do not behave like ramrouser behaves. You try to learn, you try to educate yourself, you make every attempt to share links and back up your assertions, and most importantly, you don’t get your rocks off on ascribing blame to transgendered people as the root of all ills on every thread topic ever.

Speaking of conservative leaning message boards, I am pretty active on the r/Conservative sub Reddit. I post the same exact viewpoints, in the same exact posting style, that I do here. If you’re looking for a heavily conservative-leaning board community that is very lightly moderated by conservatives for conservatives, it might be worth checking that board out (although I definitely understand that the format of Reddit is not everyone’s cup of tea).
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I was specifically referring to using personal insults and insulting slang. Ram doesn’t usually attack individual posters. Forget this thread, just pay attention to how threads evolve. Just saying it can get frustrating when you start off on a topic where you are in a hole to begin with due to the sheer number of people who immediately disagree with you before ever making the first post. Sometimes that frustration gets away from you.

Thanks for the Reddit suggestion. I would love to find a board driven by objective political discussion if that exists. Have less desire to be on a right wing zzl board than this version. I don’t need 99% of the participants to agree with me or tell me im right. I already know that :p
 
theel4life said:
I mean it’s obvious what is going on here. If this guy was a left wing nut they would have already announced it. They are trying to figure out how to cover this up.
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They’ve been announcing it since before they even had a suspect. What’s missing is supporting evidence. A confession could provide that. I’d like to think Utah authorities wouldn’t be cool with offering a reduced sentence in exchange for a guilty plea that points the finger at “the left”, but Cox’s statements have given me no confidence at all.
 
BlooVooDoo said:
They’ve been announcing it since before they even had a suspect. What’s missing is supporting evidence. A confession could provide that. I’d like to think Utah authorities wouldn’t be cool with offering a reduced sentence in exchange for a guilty plea that points the finger at “the left”, but Cox’s statements have given me no confidence at all.
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They know by now. This kid w
Had a huge digital presence. He left loads of evidence who he is. He’s a Groyper. Seems rather obvious with the memes, hatred for Kirk and Pepe the frog shit.
 
Callatoroy said:
I was specifically referring to using personal insults and insulting slang. Ram doesn’t usually attack individual posters. Forget this thread, just pay attention to how threads evolve. Just saying it can get frustrating when you start off on a topic where you are in a hole to begin with due to the sheer number of people who immediately disagree with you before ever making the first post. Sometimes that frustration gets away from you.

Thanks for the Reddit suggestion. I would love to find a board driven by objective political discussion if that exists. Have less desire to be on a right wing zzl board than this version. I don’t need 99% of the participants to agree with me or tell me im right. I already know that :p
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You should try ZZLP4KIDS. You might be able to win a debate there. Its what Charlie would of done.
 
theel4life said:
Tyler Robinson was heavy into the game helldivers 2 which a lot of conservative kids play and have misinterpreted its satire and made it into a conservative game. Herr is an interesting Reddit thread about it.
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I have said it before and say it again...

Many (most ? ) conservatives are concrete thinkers and lack the capacity for abstract thought. Due to this lack they fail to grasp irony, nuance, and satire. They do not possess a metaphoric mind.

When teaching students and residents , I covered the various aspects of a mental status exam. One element in the exam was to evaluate the thinking process. To give an example of concrete thinking, I used an experience from my practice to demonstrate :

Me: What brings you into the clinic today ?
Patient : The bus
 
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