# Charlie Kirk is Dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 11, 2025, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935 "2025-09-11T07:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/201 "2025-09-12T23:47:12Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > So this is not new, but it is interesting that one internet app that was named as being used by the perpetrator is called **Discord**. Not really. Discord is an app that has text and voice chat as well as limited streaming. Almost every content creator on YouTube has their own Discord community; the cool ones give you free access while the dorks put it behind a Patreon paywall. But Discord is also used for friends chatting with each other. Anyone can make a channel and add people to it. I have one with my high school friends, one for my TTRPG group, etc. What I’m shocked by is that his Discord handle or other socials haven’t leaked to the public yet. That would solve the mystery of his political persuasion pretty damn fast. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/202 "2025-09-12T23:48:27Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > But Discord is also used for friends chatting with each other. Anyone can make a channel and add people to it. I have one with my high school friends, one for my TTRPG group, etc. Yeah, I have a couple of Discord groups that are just people I met online and chat with, they aren’t associated with any organization. Just us. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/203 "2025-09-12T23:50:12Z")
The other major use of Discord is for leaking classified military blueprints of tanks and airplanes in order to win arguments with your War Thunder buddies. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/204 "2025-09-12T23:52:21Z")
As one does. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/205 "2025-09-12T23:58:25Z")
At least a dozen times, to my understanding. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/206 "2025-09-13T00:22:41Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > It’s a joke religion. My housemate at university used to be a Discordian; he ate hotdogs every Friday because it was funny. Yep, it is a joke if they (likely) mindfucked Lee Harvey Oswald. > [@DemonTree](#): > > Everyone uses Discord; it’s of no more significance than saying the killer used WhatsApp or Instagram. There has been push back from Discord, of course they can say that the app was not used for the crime, but then, why say that they removed his account for violence? > “The messages referenced in recent reporting about planning details do not appear to be Discord messages,” Hoffman said. “These were communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting, where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere.” > > It’s a fine distinction, but one that helps Discord downplay any involvement in the killing. The popular platform has been [used by multiple mass shooters](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/highland-park-shooting-suspect-bobby-e-crimo-iii-discord-server-raises-rcna36659) in past years to discuss violent and hateful rhetoric, and in one case to [offer details about the attack itself](https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/16/23078297/buffalo-shooting-suspect-discord-planning-logs). That’s earned it scrutiny from figures including New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office [probed whether it and streaming service Twitch](https://www.npr.org/2022/05/18/1099827783/new-york-attorney-general-probe-twitch-discord-buffalo-shooting) contributed to violence. > > On Friday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) [urged the FBI](https://x.com/RepLuna/status/1966521309275562171) to look into “radicalization networks,” claiming that online platforms like Discord “are being exploited by extremists for recruitment and radicalization.” > > **Hoffman told _The Verge_ that Discord has since removed Robinson’s account for violating its off-platform behavior policy. “We strongly condemn violence of any kind, including political violence, and we will continue to coordinate closely with law enforcement,”** Hoffman said. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/207 "2025-09-13T01:09:58Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Hoffman told _The Verge_ that Discord has since removed Robinson’s account for violating its off-platform behavior policy. Well, fuck. There goes any hope that his handle - and thus, any activity on public servers - will become public. Undoubtedly, the _authorities_ can access that information, but not the press. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/208 "2025-09-13T16:19:02Z")
Is [this](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/suspect-charlie-kirk-shooting) the story? It has an Editor’s Note now: > _Editor’s note: This article was updated on 12 September 2025 to remove quotes after the verified source who attended high school with Tyler Robinson said after publication that they could not accurately remember details of their relationship._ ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/209 "2025-09-13T16:34:08Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > Is [this](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/suspect-charlie-kirk-shooting) the story? It has an Editor’s Note now Yes. There is a dearth of evidence to indicate that the shooter was left leaning politically. To the contrary, all evidence points towards right wing origins. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/210 "2025-09-13T16:47:56Z")
It’ll probably spun as the Democratic messaging is so powerful and detrimental that even small exposure to it can corrupt a lifetime of proper, conservative education. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/211 "2025-09-13T19:51:36Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > > [@GIGObuster](#): > > > > Hoffman told _The Verge_ that Discord has since removed Robinson’s account for violating its off-platform behavior policy. > > Well, fuck. There goes any hope that his handle - and thus, any activity on public servers - will become public. > > Undoubtedly, the _authorities_ can access that information, but not the press. Curse them and their ass-covering. They should have left it up. Now we’ll get 15,000 conspiracy theories, each more idiotic than the last - I’ve already seen some real doozies on Twitter. We’ll probably never know the truth. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/212 "2025-09-13T21:12:26Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I don’t think Groypers do complicated. These are people who think “you’re a Jew” is an argument. Their worldviews aren’t especially complicated, but they do reside within Byzantine layers of irony and meme references. Part of it is cultural mystique and the thrill of the in-joke, but partly it’s to surround their ideology with a convoluted attack surface that resists straightforward and uncomplicated critique. In other words, they wrap themselves in multiple layers of ironic mindfuckery so that normies can’t label them as the fascists that they very clearly are. So in that sense they’re complicated, but who they are isn’t the slightest bit complicated. In that sense, they’re an echo of the KKK, who created alternate terms for everything, including the day of the week, simply to be esoteric. Externally it provides a degree of shielding from easy scrutiny, and internally it provides a sense of cameraderie from being initiated into the mysteries. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/213 "2025-09-14T00:34:36Z")
I don’t really know much about Groypers. According to RW Twitter, their leader is a guy named Nick Fuentes, who is a gay Latino and probably a fed. They are regarded with a great deal of scorn. My only encounter with them was a zerg rush of nameless accounts all repeating the above mentioned phrase. Extremely tiresome, and only threatening due to the sheer number of them. (It’s not Groypers but neoreactionaries you want to watch out for; _they_ are scary bastards.) What isn’t complicated is that they didn’t like Charlie Kirk. He was far too moderate and reasonable for them. So it was always a possibility the killer could be one, and it still is. But repeating obscure internet memes is by no means narrowing down the beliefs of the killer. The only things we can safely conclude at this point are that he was a gamer and he was way too online. A meme poisoning sufferer. Who needs AGI when dumb fucking memes can lead young men to kill? Also: latest on Twitter is that Nick Fuentes is acting all sympathetic and trying to horn in on Charlie Kirk’s audience. Which is pretty horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/214 "2025-09-14T00:58:56Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I don’t really know much about Groypers. If you remember that viral youtube video of Mehdi Hasan being blindsided by a group of facists. The bat-shit, manic-crazy, laughing one (“connor“) was a groyper. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/215 "2025-09-14T01:11:16Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > The only things we can safely conclude at this point are that he was a gamer and he was way too online. Well, we also know he’s a white man, and a Mormon. He wasn’t estranged from him father. He seems to have had friends. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/216 "2025-09-14T01:34:50Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Who needs AGI when dumb fucking memes can lead young men to kill? I’m sorry, but this is a really bad take. Memes did not lead anyone to kill. It’s like saying emojis create killers. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/217 "2025-09-14T02:27:01Z")
Killer Emoji. Band name. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/218 "2025-09-14T03:19:05Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > I’m sorry, but this is a really bad take. Memes did not lead anyone to kill. It’s like saying emojis create killers. There’s a significant fraction of the internet whose entire personality is memes. Nothing going on upstairs but repeating shit they’ve seen other people make that follows a pretty rigid known pattern. The memes themselves don’t, of course, mind control people, but it’s just such a fucking culturally and personally empty way to live. There’s a whole lot of people whose lives and personalities are basically shitposting and it sounds like this dude is one of them. Killing Charlie Kirk was probably just shitposting IRL. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/219 "2025-09-14T03:34:28Z")
Again, that’s a bad take and shows a lack of understanding of what these memes are. Memes are a way to communicate. That communication can be intelligent or stupid, the same as communicating in English. Saying kids communicate with memes therefore they are idiots is basic old man yelling at clouds BS. lf you want to criticize _what_ they are saying, that’s fair. But don’t just criticize the means of communication. > [@SenorBeef](#): > > There’s a whole lot of people whose lives and personalities are basically shitposting and it sounds like this dude is one of them. That’s quite an analysis based on nothing more than a few scrawled words on bullet casings. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935/220 "2025-09-14T03:39:38Z")
Yes I’m sure this kid has a rich philosophical life as evidenced by the very thoughtful message he chose to make greatly important: “if you’re reading this you’re gay” I’m aware that there are people who aren’t total morons who use memes, but “shitposter” style of internet moron who basically lives memes all day is almost always brain dead. Which isn’t to say that this generation is dumber than any previous generations or all that, but the modern media/communications landscape has allowed everyone to find similar people, so a lot of dipshits that would normally be isolated and maybe learn to be able to interact with regular people just find other “shitposting” morons and never develop the ability to express a real thought. The internet is full of this shit. I realize I’m jumping to conclusions about that one but what little we know about him sure is consistent with the sort of person I’m describing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-kirk-is-dead/1022935.md?page=12)