When the police investigating the assassination of Charlie Kirk found a lock rifle near the place where he was shot down on a Utah campus, they also said they had also found sockets on which mysterious messages were engraved.
One of them said: “Hey, fascist! Catch that! (with an arrow up, an arrow to the right and three arrows down), “according to a declaration under oath filed on Friday in a court of Utah.
If the reference to fascism seemed clear, the arrows were probably only understandable for some video game enthusiasts. It would be a reference to popular video game Helldivers 2in which this sequence of pimples on the controller makes it possible to explode a powerful bomb.
“It is a joke of the community Helldivers According to which we can put an end to any disagreement by entering ↑ → ↓↓↓ and by exploding everything, “explains in an email Steve Iannelli, 38, mechanical engineer and follower of the game, who lives in Baltimore.
The authorities believe that the suspect has engraved these messages himself on the ammunition. They are among the rare known clues on his possible motivations. Thursday evening, Tyler Robinson, a 22 -year -old Utah man, was arrested and accused of killing Kirk.
Web and video games codes
The authors of very publicized acts of violence have often used these kinds of messages to communicate their convictions. And in some of the most violent cases of the last decade, young shooters have drawn from the culture of small internet forums to try both to justify their crimes and to seduce the nest groups which, according to them, would approve their gestures.
The messages found on the sockets – especially childish jokes and a reference to a popular Italian song – are part of this style of communication usually used online.
Even the reference to fascism finds an obvious echo in Helldivers 2a satirical science fiction game in which the player fights an extraterrestrial invasion in the name of a land ruled by a barely veiled fascist obedience.
But these messages are difficult to analyze. The jokes and references specific to the web, often covered with several levels of irony, have a fleeting meaning. Many Americans therefore tried to decipher these enigmatic messages: was Robinson a man on the left or right, or something else?
Troubled policy
At a press conference on Friday morning, the republican governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, said that the inscription “Hey, fascist!” Catch that! “(Hey, fascist! Catch!) clearly showed the shooter’s intention. “I think it goes about comments,” he said.
But even this message, which, according to many preservatives, placed Robinson on the far left, is perhaps not a reliable indicator of the accused’s political convictions.
“It is very difficult to define a political ideology from this heterogeneous mixture of references to video games and allusions to different internet subcultures,” said Emerson Brooking, researcher at Atlantic Council, a group of reflection on international affairs, and former cyberpolitics advisor in the Department of Defense.
The use of this kind of language does not necessarily mean that the authors of violent acts are influenced by video games. The official position of the American Psychological Association is that there is “not enough scientific evidence to establish a causal link between violent video games and violent behavior”.
But the use of this vocabulary speaks volumes about the omnipresence of online game culture. A recent Pew survey revealed that 85 % of American teenagers play video games, 40 % of them considering themselves as gamers.
Friday evening, many things remained unclear concerning Robinson and his motivations. He is registered on the electoral lists of Utah, but he is not a member of any political party and has never voted, according to the County of Washington clerk.
In an interview granted on Friday, Adrian Rivera, 22, who had taken a carpentry lesson with Robinson, said that he was interested in “all kinds of Nerd stuff (Random Nerd Stuff) “, Calling it” big fan of Halo »And specifying that he liked to play Call of Duty and other shooting games.
Rivera said he didn’t know if Robinson had political opinions. According to the statement under oath filed on Friday, the investigators interviewed a family member, who said that Robinson had “become more politicized in recent years”.
Thanks to interviews with a loved one and a roommate, the investigators also learned that the accused had criticized Charlie Kirk shortly before his assassination, said Governor Spencer Cox.
Troll?
The messages registered on the sockets are hardly more revealing.
One of them-“Note an Owo bump, what is it?” “(Bulge OWO notices What’s this?) – is often used to make fun of participants in online role -playing game communities. Another message said, “If you read this, you are gay lol” (If you read this, you are gay lmao), his tone suggesting a kind of childish insulting humor running on the internet forums.
There was also the message “O Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao, Ciao! », Probably a reference to the famous Italian folk song Bella Ciao. Popularized in Italy after the Second World War as an anti -fascist hymn, it has resurfaced in recent years worldwide thanks to its inclusion in the successful series of Netflix La Casa de Papel and in video games, including first -person shooting game Far Cry 6.
The song is always recognized for its anti -fascist character. She was sung as a protest sign last year by progressive members of the European Parliament during a visit to Viktor Orbán, the far -right Prime Minister of Hungary.
But Friday, some noticed on the internet that a version of this song was appeared in a Spotify reading list for the Groypers, the supporters of Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who occupies a political space more to the right than that of Kirk and in opposition compared to him.
While Internet users debated the meaning to give to these references, Mr. Brooking considered that this discussion could constitute a mission accomplished for a troll.
“The show,” he said, “must be the ultimate goal. »»
This text was published in the New York Times.
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