We need to understand the internet sub-cultures of a certain subset of Gen Z and later generations to understand the deviants that surround Charlie Kirk's assassin. I believe too many people ages 35 and older are starting to lose touch with what is really happening in the hybrid reality of the internet meme culture and real life. The world of young radicals like Tyler Robinson are products of the half reality of online message board culture and Marxist indoctrination. They live in echo chambers of nihilism and constant feedback loops of hate impelled by satanic Marxist fuel.
From the time they’re old enough to be on computers until they’re teenagers they’re locked into the reality of an unholy online commune. They’re further entrenched in this programming through the media. Afterwards, they are immediately propelled into the Marxist petri dishes of high schools / college campuses. They’re groomed by violent groupthink culture from the time they can walk until they become adults. The meme culture idea that I would like to focus on has profound theological implications. It has profound social and cultural ramifications for Christians. Tyler Robinson subscribed to this subculture to some extent or was part of it and it had lethal ramifications.
The Edgelord and their acolytes.
An Edgelord is a person who expresses harsh opinions in a distasteful or offensive manner and seem aloof. These expressions can be verbal, written or as we’ve learned, physical. They’re drawn to taboo and controversial topics, aiming to shock others and showcase their nihilism. In online contexts, an Edgelord may deliberately discuss controversial subjects to provoke reactions. The problem is that their thespian act doesn’t remain an act, it becomes them. Confusion becomes disarray, and anger becomes violence.
For as he thinks within himself, so he is. Proverbs 23:7
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment… Matthew 5:21-22
They mold themselves into a nihilistic worldview because they limit human interaction. In nihilism, life has little/no value as they believe there are no moral absolutes/ truths. This puts their view in direct conflict with Christians. Therefore, an adherent to this ideology has ended up godless and sees everything as pointless including human life, love, grace etc. A person with these inclinations would therefore be more likely to gravitate towards callousness, setting the stage for violence and evil.
We’ve all known an Edgelord. I believe at times I embraced this persona but without the nihilism and deception. Whereas I did it to snap people to attention and recognize danger. Conversely, Edgelords are ones who say shocking, upsetting things they may not even believe to provoke emotions/reactions in other people (mostly rage). It’s done to cause a rage baiting reaction. Rage bait being a "teaser" that exploits the "curiosity gap" through anger. They provide just enough information to make readers or watchers curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity so they click on content or respond to it. Sometime the responses go far beyond words as we saw last week.
In the case of Charlie Kirk, he was viewed as just another Edgelord or rage-baiter when in fact he was stating traditional biblical truths. Unfortunately, biblical truths and views have now become viewed as extreme. If you’ve never had the displeasure of engaging in conversation with an actual nihilist Edgelord, spend a few minutes on Reddit and you’re bound to run into multitudes as they are Legion. There are some in regular media, but mostly they lurk on younger generational platforms (<35 years old) and they are dreadful people. The things they discuss and flaunt are some of the most base and rank evil humanity has to offer.
The problem with Edgelords is their cavalier attitudes versus the risk of violence they’re engaging in. They believe they’re too trendy to care about anything or anyone. Ambivalence while appearing cool is deadly and lacking actual spiritual grace. Podcasters and social media persona like Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes (Groypers) are the most recent conservative Edgelords noted. The likes of Destiny, Hasan Piker and a clutter of nobodies in government, academia and everyday citizens on social media platforms mocking Charlie Kirk's death have revealed themselves to be Edgelords too. People that are our neighbors.
Although some of these individuals may appear morally based and principled, it is dubious that they are. There is a thin line between people saying what they believe and accidentally being offensive (Kirk) and saying something they don’t believe for notoriety (Fuentes, Milo, Destiny). As agent provocateurs, an Edgelord is especially attracted to situations which best showcase their nihilism. An analog GenX/Millennial version of today’s Edgelords were Howard Stern and Tom Green back in the day. They were salacious for salaciousness’ sake.
Unlike online trolls, who often are just normies trying to start trouble, Edgelords set themselves apart from the norm in every way possible on purpose. The truth is, Edgelords don’t really care about the edge at all; they delight in pushing things over the edge and pretending it’s not there. Like many otherwise enigmatic concepts Edgelords came from the internet. Specifically, its origin was in 4chan and similar boards like Reddit where people would post radically offensive opinions just to watch the chaos that erupted. The term and the practice spiked in usage after 2015 due to the pervasive use of social media and chat boards.
An interesting fact is that this subculture is a 35-and-under phenomenon. Ask many Boomers, GenXers or even older Millennials and they would be clueless to this subculture and its language. If you ask those younger, not only would they know what you’re talking about they’d explain to you that much of the division and strife currently in society is being caused by the social media itself AND older people’s ignorance of some of these subcultures. Many youth including my sons avoid social media. The older mindsets want things to fit neatly into categories and want to compartmentalize things into left/right, black/white paradigms. Morally ambiguous situations are uncomfortable for older generations (pre-1990). Herein lies another problem in society, the need to make things right or wrong makes for a confrontational approach to everything. People are no longer debating or discussing things to understand other points of view, they’re doing it to win arguments and crush adversaries. The battles are usually between losers in their parents basements that never fully mentally matured. When they crawl out of the basement they are usually doing so for bad reasons.
Many people, the age of my sons in Gen Z are more at ease with it because they realize that much of the current dissonance in society is being caused by deliberate provocateurs searching for rage-bait clicks. So…they just ignore the noise and hyperbole. Their outward appearance of ambivalence is not apathy, its mental survival. The legacy and social media thrive on the conflict, but the Gen Y and Zers are savvy and know what is actually happening…and they smartly avoid the stupidity.
I suggest that this is why the youth that haven’t already been brainwashed by the Marxist dialectic being propagated by the culture have started to lean towards more traditional values again. They are also going back to embrace things from the time their grandparents came of age in. Specifically the spiritual revival of the late 60's and early 70's. Those were generations which were devoid of the digital world. This included committing to marriage younger and changing the status quo of ‘anything goes’ crowd indicative of Millennials, GenX and Boomers. They’re also able to better navigate the minefield of volatile political situations and filter it out because they realize a lot of the chaos is manufactured and a rouse.
This is why Charlie was silenced by an assassins bullet. He was opening the minds of the youth to a world outside the demonic world projected onto their brains by the culture. It certainly wasn’t the world of cognitive dissonance and over-modulation on the Internet. It was a world with God still in it. A world that made sense. A world that was seeking to be normal again. This gives me hope. The new generations (Gen Y and Z) aren’t as stupid and hedonistic as the Boomers and GenXers were. There are still some slipping through the cracks that the lunatics and liberals manage to get their claws into but there seems to be many more that cut through the Edgelordian hyperbole.
They literally have collectively said:
“I reject your reality and substitute my own.”
If their reality involves ignoring the Edgelords, avoiding the division and seeing the God of the Bible…that is a good thing and a work of God.
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