A mass shooting in Santa Barbara last night left seven dead, including the man suspected of being the killer. Local authorities say that this chilling video, titled Elliot Rodger’s retribution, “appears to be connected” to the shootings. It is a supremely disturbing real-life villain’s monologue in which a young man, evidently the killer, explains on the day before the massacre why he intends to kill: because women have rejected him.
As the person who sent this video to me this morning noted, it sounds almost like a parody of the misogynistic beliefs and rhetoric that I write about on this blog. His language and his melodramatic tone both echo the writings of many of those young men who consider themselves “incels.” His anger is the same anger we see from the rejected men who lash out with insults and threats on OkCupid when their often crude advances are turned down. He reminds me of every so-called “nice guy” who is inwardly seething with resentment born of sexual entitlement denied. He even, at one point, calls himself a “gentleman.” He also calls himself an “alpha.”
It is clear that his resentment at women was stoked by what I call the “new misogyny” and by steeping himself in at least one online community that reaffirmed his exaggerated, unwarranted sense of victimhood. So far we have evidence that he was a commenter at PUAhate, a site ostensibly designed to critique PUAs but which has degenerated into a haven for misogynistic “incels” and angry trolls. I suspect we will find that he was also a reader of, or a commenter at, some of the other sites I critique on this blog.
For those of you who cannot make it through the video — I found it very hard to watch — here is a transcript of what he said.
Hi, Elliot Rodger here.
Well… this is my last video. It all has to come to this.
Tomorrow is the day of retribution. The day in which I will have my revenge against humanity. Against all of you.
For the last 8 years of my life, ever since I’ve hit puberty, I’ve been forced to endure an existence of loneliness, rejection, and unfulfilled desires. All because girls have never been attracted to me.
Girls gave their affection, and sex, and love, to other men but never to me.
I’m 22 years old and I’m still a virgin. I’ve never even kissed a girl.
I’ve been through college for two and a half years, more than that actually, and I’m still a virgin.
It has been very torturous.
College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex, and fun, and pleasure. But in those years I’ve had to rot in loneliness.
It’s not fair. You girls have never been attracted to me.
I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it.
It’s an injustice, a crime, because I don’t know what you don’t see in me. I’m the perfect guy, and yet you throw yourselves at all these obnoxious men, instead of me, the supreme gentlemen.
I will punish all of you for it. (laughs)
On the day of retribution I am going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB… and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blonde slut I see inside there.
All those girls that I’ve desired so much, they would’ve all rejected me and looked down upon me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them while they throw themselves at these obnoxious brutes.
I will take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you.
You will finally see that I am in truth the superior one. The true alpha male. (laughs)
Yes, after I’ve annihilated every single girl in the sorority house, I’ll take to the streets of Isla Vista, and slay every single person I see there.
All those popular kids who live such lives of hedonistic pleasure while I’ve had to rot in loneliness for all these years, they’ve all looked down upon me every time I try to go out and join them. They’ve all treated me like a mouse.
Well now, I will be a God compared to you. You will all be animals. You are animals, and I will slaughter you like animals. I will be a God, exacting my retribution, on all those who deserve it.
And you do deserve it, just for the crime of living a better life than me.
All you popular kids. You’ve never accepted me, and now you’ll all pay for it.
And girls, all I’ve ever wanted was to love you, and to be loved by you. I’ve wanted a girlfriend, I’ve wanted sex, I’ve wanted love, affection, adoration, but you think I’m unworthy of it.
That’s a crime that can never be forgiven.
If I can’t have you, girls, I will destroy you. (laughs)
You denied me a happy life, and in turn, I will deny all of you life. (laughs) It’s only fair.
I hate all of you, humanity is a disgusting, wretched, depraved species. If I had it in my power, I would stop at nothing, to reduce every single one of you to mountains of skulls and rivers of blood, and rightfully so.
You deserve to be annihilated. And I’ll give that to you.
You never showed me any mercy, and so I will show you none. (laughs)
You force me to suffer all my life, and now I’ll make you all suffer.
I’ve waited a long time for this.
I’ll give you exactly what you deserve.
I will have more on this as the story develops. My heart goes out to the loved ones of all the victims.
Misogyny kills.
EDITED TO ADD: Elliot Rodger seems to have been a commenter on PUAhate, the anti-PUA message board that is as misogynistic and generally awful as the PUAs it critiques. PUAhate has taken itself offline, so all evidence of this may end up scrubbed. I added a paragraph about this.
I will keep updating as I track down more information on this story. Please post anything you find in the comments as well.
EDIT 2: This will be a NO TROLLS thread. Anything gratuitously argumentative or less than respectful of the victims will be removed.
Exactly.
I don’t blame you. I myself am tempted to smoke after reading this crap.
weirwoodtreehugger – It’s 10:22 AM. I wish I could drink, but I’m not legal. 🙁
I just got a bag of cookies…. this is so horrible…
I’ve already seen people trying to blame this on mental illness or the women he killed.
Because g-d forbid a man be responsible for the deliberate murder of multiple people because he was a whiny, entitled asshole.
I’m just sick over this, I know you guys get it so I won’t type out a big thing. The one part of the transcription (can’t watch) that really gets me though is all the ‘would have rejected me’ and ‘if I had made an advance’ stuff. Sounds like he never actually made any effort to get to know these women, just expected a ‘hot’ girlfriend to drop into his lap. And when his life didn’t magically work out the way he wanted, violence was his first resort. I somehow managed to be single and celibate for 20 adult years without ever ONCE considering mass murder. I’m just terrified that as the larger culture refuses to admit that this shit doesn’t happen in a vacuum it’s only going to become more common. Where to even begin when literally just existing as a woman with free will is enough to incite such deep hatred?
Nope. NOPE. Not today. Not this week. Not ever, thank you. NOPE NOPE NOPE
*nopes off into the sunset*
NOPE
Oh no. This is terrible. Wholly terrible. That’s all I’ve got.
Hugs, everyone. Maybe it’s a futile hope, but I hope this will get more people to listen to David and all the good people here about what a huge problem we’ve got here. And help put an end to it.
This is just awful… 🙁
And this sorry excuse of a human being ranting in the video… his worst problem which he killed people for. That’s something I call a minor inconvenience. I’m a 34 year old virgin, but than again I’m a socially awkward, fat, not conventionally attractive, geeky woman. The type most MRA either ignore or actively wish to death upon. I might be a terrible human being but I don’t feel sorry for him at all, for his victims on the other hand, this is just awful. 🙁
Oh sweet blessed goddess, that is horrifying. And I can’t bring myself to watch the video, the transcript is bad enough. Hugs to any who want them, and prayers for the victims and their loved ones.
Are there any USian lawyers here?
I was wondering if the victim’s families have a case for a lawsuit against the misogynistic sites Rodgers frequented.
I know that because of the 1st amendment the standard for inciting violence is very high and difficult to meet and because they weren’t directly advocating murder there is no chance of a criminal case being brought against them.
It’s a different story for civil cases though and I think they might have a case. But I’m not a lawyer so I’m not sure.
He’s 22 and never kissed a girl, and he thinks that’s an excuse to go off like that? DUDE! NO!
I am 42, and never been kissed, and I’ve never gone off like that. See, I recognize that the fact I have never had a mutually romantic relationship is because people are allowed to love whom they will, and just because I love someone doesn’t mean they’ll love me, and vice versa. I’ve had a man want to marry me, and I didn’t want him, and I realized that had I agreed to marry him, we would have been miserable in short order. Because one-sided love is just something to which I am unwilling to settle or submit.
But instead of blaming the men in the world (I am straight), I look to improve myself, and hope that I’ll meet “Him” in the future, and when I do, I know it will be all the sweeter and that I won’t take him for granted.
Thanks, David, for the transcript. I got all the way to 1:15 before I had to shut it down, just knowing stuff was coming that would be worse. Sometime later, I might actually go back and read it, but I won’t be watching the video.
I will say this, though. He said that girls weren’t attracted to him. I hope he didn’t say because he’s physically ugly. He looks just fine. So, I reckon they were not attracted to him because he gives off major creepy, entitled, misogynistic, possibly misanthropic, vibes. And if they pick up those vibes, they are allowed, no, they OUGHT to avoid him, for their own safety. In fact, he rather proves that, with his pre-meditated actions.
Yikes. I can’t read more right now.
Note to Johnny: This thread is not the place for the debate you want to have; I may do a separate post dealing with that issue later. I can let through your comment with that portion of it removed, if that’s ok with you.
His sense of entitlement is just gobsmacking – he genuinely seemed to think that women owed him sex just for existing.
Already one of the PUA sites says they are on the side of the angels because they want to teach men the special cheat codes so they won’t be angry and murdery and such.
David, thanks for the “No Trolls Allowed” part.
Is there somewhere, where we can donate to a funeral fun, or something like that, in memory of the victims? Something specific to comfort their families? My heart really goes out to them.
A message to all the “Elliots” out there who haven’t snapped yet – Life isn’t all about sex or romantic love. If you don’t have those things in your life, fill your heart with fraternal love, for your family, your fellow human beings, your “fellow man,” if you will. Love others in a platonic way, and you will have joy enough to fill your soul, even without romance. I know it can be done.
This man-boy had no love, at all. Not even for himself. For that, I pity him. I don’t forgive him. That’s for God. But I’m too full of sorrow for all of them involved right now to feel anything else, but pity.
David, in the edit above, did you mean PUA had taken itself *offline*?
This is just horrible. I felt so sick reading the transcription, how could someone think like that? This is EXACTLY why the manosphere makes me so goddamn angry. The ideas that this guy was spewing in his video, all manosphere talking points. But I imagine we’re going to be hearing from the MRM that this had NOTHING to do with what they say, just that men are oppressed by women and this was the fault of the women who rejected him (without him even making an effort apparently).
Ugh ugh ugh. I feel so much sympathy for the families and lovers who may have lost someone to this. I can’t say they have my prayers since I’m agnostic, but they have my increased determination to fight against vitriolic ideas of the like that that selfish, entitled monster believed and the movements that crow these ideas far and wide.
Regardless of my own religious beliefs, I hope the victims and their loved ones can find peace.
Reblogged this on I eat sacred cows. They make the best hamburger!.
@jupitaur – “Special cheat codes”?! What, do they think women are video games?
I’m too sad now. I’m on my pain pill, and physically can’t work up any anger, but I’m very, very sad. I’m going away now.
I’ll check back later, though, in case there’s any news about fundraising for comfort or funerals. If there is, David, will you please post or re-post the information in your own comment, so it’s easy to find? Your moderator comments stand out so well.
Thanks for the hard work of posting this, David. Hugs!
Didn’t watch the video, skipped over the transcript. I just want to share some hugs and comfort with anybody who would like some.
Someone claiming to be a former classmate of his is saying that he had aspergers. What do you want to bet that the media will run with ‘autistic man goes on killing spree’ and ignore the MRA bullshit?
Latest BBC report says the shooter’s family has confirmed his identity as Eliot Rodger.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27561127
FYI – the killer was identified as the man in the video – http://gma.yahoo.com/suspect-uc-santa-barbara-shooting-identified-family-171001175–abc-news-topstories.html
What a disgusting human being.
and Z (for Zorro?) beat me to it, with a nicer source, even!!