4chan users encouraged the Oregon school shooter to kill

4chan has inadvertently continued to attract dark, maladjusted and dangerous characters – misogynists, racists and homophobes at ease behind a computer. It’s a chaotic wilderness that allows contributors to share ideas under a veil of relative anonymity.

At a time when more Americans have died from gun violence than terrorism and school shootings are shamefully commonplace, killer Chris Harper-Mercer stormed a US college and murdered students in what looks to be an anti-Christian attack.

Now it’s come to light that before the terrible mass-shooting, an anonymous 4chan user – potentially Harper-Mercer – started a thread detailing his plans.

Less than 24 hours after the post, a shooter opened fire at Umpqua Community College. Thirteen people were killed and dozens injured. According to the New York Post, a woman reported that ‘“the shooter was lining people up and asking if they were Christian. 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.”’

The 4chan post is no longer visible on the website – but the cached version was posted on Reddit and is currently floating around the internet. “Some of you guys are alright. Don’t go to school tomorrow if you are in the northwest,” the poster warns. There’s currently no confirmation that is definitely the writing of the actual shooter, but it certainly looks suspect.

Disturbingly, underneath the message, users encouraged the person to go ahead with the shooting. One anonymous user said “You might want to target a girls school which is safer because there are no beta males throwing themselves for their rescue”, going on to to give advice on the best weapons to use. Another message said “Make us proud anon” while someone else just bluntly said, “Kill them all for us.”

His actions have been referred to as a “beta uprising”. A beta or beta male is the underdog. He lacks the physical presence, charisma and confidence of the Alpha male. He is unpopular and potentially unable to form connections with people. And a “beta uprising”, such as the shoot shooting in Oregon, is a beta rebelling against the society that hey believe makes their life difficult.

One Reddit user defined it as follows: “Some idiots believe there are betas and alpha males. Since sexual freedom is rising and women today can choose with whom they want to have sex, a small minority of “alpha males” gets all girls while most betas are left in the dust. See this picture. After the betas have realised this, they’ll rise up and stop the feminist insanity that left them without pussy. Or something like that, nobody knows.”

If you google the term, Angry Pepe the Frog comes up, the user’s meme profile picture. Was the shooter aligning himself with this movement?

Naturally, someone claims the shooting could have been averted if the shooter had a girlfriend:

If the shooter turns out to be the user who posted this message, this is the latest in an extremely dark history of school shootings in America, horrific tragedies that continue to take place while gun laws are so lax. Thankfully, Obama has now agreed to look into the US gun control policy. But 4chan still remains a breeding ground for warped darkness.