How 4chan’s toxic culture helped radicalize Buffalo shooting suspect

Oh so this is why the family is blaming the COVID lockdowns for the actions of their kid. Extreme boredom led him to getting radicalized by extremists online and family and friends never recognized the signs. Or the mental health evaluation didn't catch it either after his statements to a teacher. Or how no one felt the need to invoke the Red Flag law to ensure he couldn't acquire or possess a firearm. We'll never know if any media personalities directly or indirectly influenced him but we know racial extremism is a growing threat in America.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Besides Buffalo, both 4chan and 8chan have become politically significant forces in the US. Both boards helped form and foster QAnon, the far-right myth that Donald Trump is combating a cult of elite leftist pedophiles. The boards played a central role in constructing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump, which inspired the deadly Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.

Then, last month, 23-year-old Raymond Spencer recorded himself shooting and wounding four people at random. He uploaded the footage to 4chan and continued posting right up until he committed suicide, as police closed in on him. A racist meme, popular on 4chan, was posted on the wall of the apartment Spencer used as a sniper’s nest.

Gendron and Spencer’s cases vividly show how 4chan’s toxic culture can radicalize young men, according to Amarasingam.

“You can hear it all over the Buffalo shooter’s manifesto – a deep sense of urgency that there is an imminent collapse of white people and white culture,” the professor said. “Combine all this with the furious nihilism, racism, and angst of 4chan and it all becomes deeply worrying.”