#online-culture

#online-culture

This could have been useful to Extremely Online People like the alleged shooter, who was turned in by some of his own family members and who might have been dissuaded from his actions had he engaged more directly with them. (Of course, simplistic advice like this is often wrong; difficult family members and broken relationships might mean that in-person connection is also unhelpful for some.)

Unfired cartridges found with the gun that officials say was used to kill Charlie Kirk were engraved with a variety of messages, authorities said Friday, including many that suggest a familiarity with anti-fascist symbolism and the insider slang of video games and online culture that pervade the lives of young Americans. Many of the messages, described by Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah at a news conference announcing the arrest of Tyler Robinson, 22, adopt the flippant, sarcastic, in-jokey chatter often found on online message boards and in-game chats.

The modern internet is a hostile environment full of spies, miscreants and narcs, prompting savvy users to protect themselves with coded language.