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.
You know they’ll all be cheering in the manosphere because deep down they all want to do the same thing and believe women deserved to be punished for not wanting their vengeful asses, but I believe this is going to shed a massive unpleasant light on the toxic and thinly veiled violent, vindictive, and entitled mindset that permeates that hate community.
That guy in the video wasn’t just targeting women, but any man that had more than he did. I doubt the movement will garner much sympathy from the majority of the population, but will be seen for what they really are, despite all their double talk.
There are plenty of women in the world that similarly feel ignored and rejected, and I don’t see any empathy for them from the MRAs/PUAs. If anything, they are openly reviled, so why the men in that situation think they deserve special consideration is beyond me.
I’d love to see the leaders of the feminist movement on Anderson Cooper addressing this. I don’t think most people are familiar with the toxicity these men are trying to spread.
@heretic, Please avoid the “insane” label–we don’t do ableism here. Thanks.
Shaenon: Yeah. Had the guy been a Neo-Nazi and shot up a jewish centre, no-one would be surprised that his ideology influenced his actions. I don’t know if this is just because these people don’t realize just how violently misogynistic these PUA sites can be, of there’s just a lot of anti-feminist “brogressives” who are too afraid of policing the extremists who they otherwise agree with?
Or maybe violent misogyny is so entrenched in society that most people don’t even recognize it.
What a disgusting creature. I just feel so sick. Watching that video, seeing him so fucking casual and relaxed has just undone me for the day.
@nerdypants and zolnier
Possible trigger warning – quoting from his speech:
I found that too about the unrealness. I do wonder how much of this horrific speech is actually his own words. It might be coincidence, but “mountains of skulls and rivers of blood” is what the latest WoW end boss says in his final phase in the fight; “they are animals and I will slaughter them like animals” is almost word for word Anakin Skywalker from one of the Star Wars prequels after murdering an entire village. Again it might just be coincidence and my horrified brain trying to distract itself by focusing on something less horrendous than this piece of shit man, but it really jumps out at me while reading his bile that he (possibly) chose to borrow phrases from two characters known for committing acts of unspeakable evil.
What he says is EXACTLY the manosphere rhetoric…
This is so incredibly sad and awful. Those people died to what, this dude’s false sense of entitlement? So pointless, such a waste. My heart goes out to their loved ones. And HIS loved ones. I can’t imagine the horror if your son/whatever did that….
Okay, FUCK EVERYTHING. FUCKING HELL.
Heteric: I clicked the links and they made me a bit nauseous. What the hell is wrong with these people!
Heretic*. I apologise.
According to “reasonable” MRA WT Price from The Spearhead, the only way to stop men’s violence against women is to control women’s sexuality. I’m on my phone or I’d screenshot that crap so you don’t give him any views.
Now the MRA backflips have begun. On Reddit/Mens Rights: OutrageLiberals blaming “Mens Rights” as cause of mass murder. Even though there’s no evidence this man was involved in Men’s Rights (dailykos.com)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/24/1301671/-Elliot-Roger-Gunman-in-California-Mass-Shooting-was-influenced-by-the-Men-s-Rights-Movement
Ooops, please disregard – someone here beat me to it.
cloudiah – I archived it. Here we go.
I cant help but immediately think of governmentsgetgfs and the fear everyone had of what he was capable of.
I have spent the morning pretending that this didn’t happen. Ugh, I can’t deal…
Article on the ABC News website mentions Asperger’s. Of course, Asperger’s is not actually associated with killing people.
Three of four people in my family – the two boys and I – have been diagnosed with Asperger’s (few years back, when that was still a diagnosis), and I suspect the husband might very well be diagnosed the same if there were any point to doing so. We really don’t need people assuming that our odd behavior means we’re somehow dangerous to them.
These killings just keep happening. So sad, so exhausting. I am on the sofa with two cats now and no plans to move for the next hour or so.
Reblogged this on Blog d'une jeune catholique progressiste.
I am in shock. This happened in my community. I have friends who saw it happen who had to run and hide for their lives. I am beyond heartbroken.
Because when a virulently misogynistic and incredibly entitled man, who frequents misogynistic websites and posts a misogynistic screed explaining how he is going to kill women for not sleeping with him, using rationales heard over and over and over again on these misogynistic websites, when that man picks up a gun and murders people in cold blood, it’s feminism’s fault?
Sorry for the massive run-on sentence, but, fuck.
How do you read something like this and not just weep for humanity?
All the hugs, if they’re wanted pollydactyl.
My god, pollydactyl, all the hugs, if you want them.
And massive Internet hugs for everyone here. You Mammotheers keep my hope for humanity alive and you are awesome. That includes David, too.
Hopefully this will be a wake up call to the authorities to monitor some of these sites. So far it’s all been SPLC, as far as I know.
I’ve done some blogging about the manosphere, and I’ve received occasional comments from people who are clearly teetering on the edge of violence. These aren’t actual trolls – they’re people who are trying to get me to understand the way the world works. One commenter who makes very worryingly violent comments has been polite.
The person above who said people would be very quick to see the relationship between the ideology of anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews got it right. Why is it that when it’s women being attacked, by people who openly hate women, the noxious ideology that underlies their action is ignored in favour of other explanations?
Here’s a big surprise. He was a member of PUAhate. Which, for those of you who don’t know, is a forum of people who are against PUAs, not for being misogynistic and manipulative, but because their pick-ups techniques didn’t work when tried. It’s been talked about on here before, and its just as misogynistic as any other manosphere website.
Fuck this guy, fuck the MRM saying it’s not a violent hate movement, and fuck any dude who wanders in here wanting us to play mommy and tell him how to get dates. Fuck all that noise.
I think I might go over to NOPEville and hang with LBT. I’ll bring ice cream and pie.
Hugs to pollydactyl and anyone else affected by this.
No, they aren’t. They’re a bunch of fucking cowards who prey on impressionable men and help them access the absolute worst of themselves.