I’m sure that many of you are like me and are a bit mystified by the Kirk shooter’s “messages” on his firearms. I’m sure it has to do with me being old.
I wish the media would look more closely at all this because they are getting it wrong. Here is an excellent explanation of what it all means from people who follow the part of the online gaming world that I know nothing about. According to many others who know about this stuff on my social media feed, Alison Gill has this right:
I’m noticing the corporate media is relying heavily on the fact that the shooter – now in custody – engraved anti-fascist rhetoric on some of the bullets found at the scene. But to tie those phrases to actual anti-fascist movements, or Democrats, is a mistake.
The phrases engraved on the bullets include “Hey fascist! catch!”, “Notices, bulges”, “If you can read this, your’e gay lmao”, the lyrics to O Bella, Bella Ciao, and a series of arrows. As Anna Bower from Lawfare put it: 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.
Alexandra Matheiu sums it up nicely: A friend and I have been debating whether the alleged Kirk shooter was either a “dirtbag left cumtown chapo stupidpol poster” or if he was an “irony poisoned, terminally online, neonazi groyper type” given the gun casings, which shows just how impenetrable this is going to be for MSM.
But most of these phrases come from a video game.
The game – Helldivers2 – takes place on Super Earth in the 22nd century, and it’s a united planet governed by “Managed Democracy” – which is a fascist state made to look like a democracy to trick the citizens into thinking they’re living free.
In the game, you are from Super Earth in the 22nd century, which is now a united planet under a system called “managed democracy.” Managed democracy is an authoritarian state that uses propaganda to convince citizens they’re in a democracy. The game satirizes authoritarianism and nationalism. So “Hey fascist! Catch!” is irony. It’s self-referential. The players are essentially role playing as the bad guys while engaging in dialogue that criticizes the regime they serve.
O Bella, Bella Ciao is an anti-fascist anthem used ironically in montages from the game. The series of arrows, which the WSJ reported as signifying “transgender ideology” is actually the controller sequence to drop a 500kg bomb in the game.
Finally, “Notices, bulges” and “If you can read this, you’re gay lmao” are online gaming insults/memes.
I hope she doesn’t mind that I posted all of this. (You can subscribe to her newsletter here.) I think it’s important to get this information out there in this moment. Contrary to the immediate assumption that this was a political assassination by an ideological leftist, it appears that this was a political assassination by yet another a fucked-up terminally online young man. Whether the political world will be able to make this distinction is still up in the air. Certainly, the right wing is going to do everything it can to make sure they don’t.