UPDATE: The shooter has been identified as 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer. Rumors spread earlier in the day that the shooter was a a regular 4channer and active Youtuber known as “the eggman.” Obviously they were wrong.
This is beyond fucked up. In this archived thread from 4chan’s /r9k/ board, the apparent shooter at Umpqua Community College told fellow channers yesterday of his plans to shoot up a school today. He didn’t specify which school, mentioning only that it was in the “northwest.” /r9k/ is a board heavily populated by so-called “incels,” and the media is reporting that the apparent shooter regularly posted bitter complaints about his lack of success with women,
UPDATE 2: There is a lot of confusing and contradictory information out there, and the IDing of the killer has actually raised more questions than it’s resolved. An apparent Myspace page for Harper-Mercer suggests that he was obsessed both with guns and with the IRA.
There have also been reports that he was targeting Christians. According to the New York Post, a “woman who claimed to have a grandmother inside a writing class in Snyder Hall, where a portion the massacre unfolded” reported that
“The shooter was lining people up and asking if they were Christian,” she wrote. “If they said yes, then they were shot in the head. If they said no, or didn’t answer, they were shot in the legs.
So was he — as an apparent supporter of the IRA — targeting Protestants? The Daiy Beast, for its part, says the shooter “hated religion.” Chuck C. Johnson of GotNews says he’s “confirmed” that the shooter was a Muslim.
Is the Myspace page really his? Is the report from the alleged granddaughter bullshit? Was the 4chan posting yesterday actually from him, or a comment from a troll that just happened to have been posted the day before a school shooting in the northwest?
I don’t know. But I still recommend that you read the rest of this post, if only to see the comments from the other 4channers.
Screenshots below:
Here’s his first comment warning fellow channers not to go to school today if they live in the northwest.
He then said he’d post again shortly before he started to shoot. (I don’t know if he did.)
Because 4chan is a fucking cesspool, other channers offered him advice:
Another anon suggested that indiscriminate killing wasn’t the solution, seeming to imply that more targeted killing was?
Others put forth their ideas of what sorts of people might be considered appropriate targets:
More encouragement. Note the reference to Elliot Rodger, the Santa Barbara “incel” killer.
A few others urged the OP to NOT carry out his plans.
After reports of the shooting hit the news, anons reacted with amazement:
Amazement and enthusiasm:
In case you’re wondering, “kek” is the equivalent of “lol.”
More excitement:
There’s much more of this in the thread.
Naturally, someone claims that the shooting could have been averted if only the shooter could have found a girlfriend.
Yes that’s right: he thinks the shooter was himself a victim, presumably of the entire female gender.
There’s a lot more in the thread but honestly I can’t stomach it right now.
Note: This post has been updated numerous times.
Sorry if someone mentioned this, I haven’t read the comments yet.
Why is Maisie Williams being mentioned? That creeps me out.
@Argenti, so so so fucking THIS.
Apparently, one of the many witnesses has spoken out and stated that the shooter told people to get on the floor, and then one by one asked them to stand up and state their religion.
@Tracy
Yeah pretty much. Fight Club is a good analogy cause like Fight Club it offers some support but it suckers people in to a world of ugly misanthropy and hated.
It was really nice to talk to you and get some of this stuff off my chest. Thanks.
@justlikeheaven right back atcha 🙂
@Deanna Yeah, you’re right. If it is true… yeah….
@Victoria
A large majority of the people on the board openly embrace what they call a “NEET lifestyle” where they shun human contact and basically live alone with there computer. That truly terrifies me the idea that these people will openly cut off all contact with everything but this board.
@Paradoxical
Holy shit, no.
@ justlikeheaven
Yeah, I love how he put that “Cutest Puppies Playing” video at the end of the article specifically for “feminists and white knights,” like that’s supposed to be some kind of insult to us. “I bet you’ll enjoy this video of adorable puppies doing cute things, won’t you, you inferior piece of shit?”
CNN just posted that all the victims are women – so far as they could they confirm.
=__= And then just said that it might not be the case. They need to make up their minds.
@dhag85: Matt Forney’s going off thedeep end as well:
It only gets worse in that string of Tweets.
The Twitter shitshow is also speculating on who did the killings, and Twitter users have come up with at least four different people who might or might not have been the shooter. I’m seriously considering calling those sorts of people “Twatters,” but it’s using a gendered slur. (David/mods, you can delete that if you want.)
@justlikeheaven
*twitch*
Okay, first, agreed that that’s not anything even vaguely resembling healthy.
Second, ew, Japanophilia. Japan does have its positive aspects, but there’s something just gross about reducing an entire culture to exported media and then treating that as some kind of ideal.
Third, that’s not NEET, that’s hikkomori. NEET means unemployed and not studying.
Darnit, I forgot that space before the text link. I have now met the kid brother of the Blockquote Mammoth.
Shooters name just released: chris harper mercer
@Bonnie Blue
What I love is how he mentions it was posted in 2010 and he updates it every year. Hes been updating that since I was 12. Let it go man.
I also love how he thinks that if you dont get it “Satire” your an idiot but he still points out when its “Not Satire”
Here they talk abut the shooter considering himself a “beta male”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU4W0ef2654
@jy3
Hikkimori and Neet are used interchangeably by 4chan. The chans love bastardizing Asan culture. Kek actually comes from kekekeke which is what Korea uses for Hahahaha.
Holy shit, she connected him to Elliot Rodgers. GOOD.
Maybe now we can get a conversation going about misogyny and these kinds of mass shootings.
Like Scarlettpipstrelle mentioned above, AVfM is doing their annual “Bash A Violent Bitch Month” starting today. I clicked on the link she provided, and then went to the Jezebel article Paul Elam claims gave him the inspiration for it all. Elam’s a disgusting human being, whether he calls BaVBM “satire” or not (I don’t think he understands what that word means) but still: what is up with that Jezebel article??? It’s just as disgusting as anything on AVfM! MRAs are usually fighting an enemy that doesn’t exist (straw feminists) but it’s things like that that make them feel justified and makes me wonder if both sides (MRAs and feminists) have become too radical. I mean, the women in the comments section of that article are bragging about hitting their husbands and boyfriends unprovoked for ridiculous things. They give all feminists a bad name. Can someone clue me in as to what’s up with that article? Is Jezebel that bad–like a left-wing version of AVfM?
On topic: another shooting? This is getting ridiculous. If the early information that’s leaked out is true, this is TOXIC MASCULINITY at its worst!
Paradoxical Intention — I know! it pisses me of how they are always silent on toxic masculinity. The only time the conversation comes up is on feminist sites.
I updated the post. The iDing of the shooter actually raises more questions than it answers, and makes me wonder if the post on 4chan yesterday might have not have been him. That doesn’t make the comments from other 4channers any less disgusting, of course.
And of course there’s going to be attempts to talk about gun control, and its advocates will get shouted down with “too soon!” But considering that there’s an incident or two every week, and a nationally known incident nearly every month, the only “right” time to talk about it as a potential solution is when it’s no longer a potential solution to anything.
Josh Miller- where did you see on jezebel women commenting hitting their husbands and boyfriends. Do you have link?
Ugh, I was already getting drunk from the previous post when my compañero decided it was time to break up with me.
I feel so sad for the victims and family, and ashamed I also feel sorry for myself.
My heart is with you all.