Not So Simple

Sometimes things are simple: some acts and decisions have clear edges when it comes to cause and effect.

Others do not.

Last week, a professional provocateur was shot to death before a crowd of students. And because modern life is a heap of dry tinder waiting for a match, I need to pause here and say no, shooting a man is never justified, and certainly not because you disagree with things he has said.

Charlie Kirk was clever, famous, and unabashedly Right-wing. Therefore, it was instantly assumed that 1) his death was about politics, and 2) his murderer was from the Left. Now, this was before anyone had a clue about anything. The shooter could have been someone whose girlfriend Charlie Kirk stole, or whose dog he had run over, or just a plain everyday nut-job with a gun—God knows we have plenty of those around. And yet, even NBC News, which is usually fairly careful about such things, announced it as a political assassination, and everyone ran from there.

Then came the peculiar “messages” scratched into bullets found with a discarded rifle. The phrases were related to internet memes and video games, but how are we to judge the simple meaning behind insider references that are deliberately complicated and obscure?

It took no time at all to move straight to rage and revenge. Despite the fact that the shooter’s parents are Republicans, that there doesn’t seem anything the least bit political in his online presence, and that he doesn’t appear to have been involved in much beyond video games or radicalized to anything more partisan than a glorification of violence, the picture of this 22-year-old as a deliberate Democratic assassin is being pushed, and anyone who questions that interpretation is at risk of being targeted.

Tyler Robinson told one of his circle that he was motivated to shoot Charlie Kirk because Kirk was spreading too much hate—which may indeed have contributed, since some of the things Kirk was known to say were aimed at the LGBTQ community, and Robinson’s roommate is undergoing transition.

But at the same time, Robinson was also playing to an audience of his own, fellow online gamers whose disdain for lesser human beings is asserted in a nihilistic push-back against order and mockery of “normies” of any persuasion.

The motivation for this murder is not simple, but neither is it political. Those phrases on Robinson’s bullets are in-references among a group known as the Groypers, who take joy in disrupting events and digitally harassing people like Charlie Kirk—not because Kirk was too far Right, but because he wasn’t far-Right enough.

Yes: Gruypers like Tyler Robinson (and, by the way, a number of the January 6 insurrectionists) attack figures they feel are not radical, racist, white nationalist, or disruptive enough. Their goal is “accelerationist,” aimed at making bad matters and chaotic situations even worse, seeking to push the world over the brink by seizing the most controversial people and divisive ideas, and making them even more inflammatory. And a man like Kirk, who had built an industry on inciting arguments, debating amateurs, and posting the humiliation of his opponents online, was a bonfire just waiting for a splash of accelerant.

It would be convenient if this event had clear edges and simple motives. It would be helpful if Tyler Robinson’s personal turmoil and toxic beliefs weren’t being used by those in power to crush anyone perceived as an opponent of MAGA. It would be nice if we could all calm down, just a little, and look at what might be done to encourage actual debate rather than flame-feeding.

And if that doesn’t happen, well, it’s probably because Tyler Robinson is not the only accelerationist out there.

Further reading:

Guardian article on ‘The Online World of Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Killer’: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/17/charlie-kirk-suspect-online-memes?CMP=share_btn_url

The Anti Defamation League’s article on Accelerationism: https://www.adl.org/resources/article/white-supremacists-embrace-accelerationism

What Jimmy Kimmel actually said that got him fired—a remark not about Charlie Kirk, but about MAGA: “The Maga gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”