Tyler Robinson dressed as a meme for Halloween, photo posted by his mother on social media
So long as Charlie Kirk’s killer refuses to cooperate with the law, he is Schrödinger’s shooter, a template for people to impose their beliefs on. We only have a few clues to his motivations: the memes on his bullet shells and his statement on Discord to his roommate:
Twiggs: Why? Robinson: Why did I do it? Twiggs: Yeah. Robinson: I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.
If opposing hate directed at trans people makes Robinson a leftist, the Log Cabin Republicans are leftists.
The memes etched on his four bullet shells confuse almost everyone. They are:
“hey fascist! catch!” followed by an up arrow, right arrow, and three down arrows. The arrows are a command from the shooter game Helldivers 2 to drop a 500kg bomb. “Fascist” has become an all-purpose insult online — Groypers use it to describe conservatives like Charlie Kirk who they think are insufficiently white supremacist.
“oh bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao.” The song “Bella Ciao” is used in at least two shooter games, Helldivers 2 and Far Cry 6. Originally an anti-fascist song, it is now just an “us versus them” song, which is why it appears as the fourteenth song on a Spotify playlist titled…
