New Years tragedies point to similarities: our toxic online problem
What to learn in 2025 about our extreme online extremist society. Also, uninstall Honey, and do it now.
One guy renting a pickup truck using the Turo app and using it to kill 10 and injure many more in New Orleans is a random act of violence, even if it has a particular religious motive. Two guys renting pickup trucks, one a Tesla Cybertruck, using the same app and committing deadly crimes, resulting in their own deaths, may be a coincidence. If it happens a third time, even the uninformed can be fairly certain this is a planned attack by a determined enemy.
What these two acts have in common: they were both intentional acts of violence and mayhem. Both men died in the attempt: in New Orleans, the driver, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a 42-year-old from Texas, died in a shootout with police. In Las Vegas, the driver, whose identity has not yet been established or released by police, died in the explosion. The latest reports say he died by a gunshot wound to the head, so it is an apparent suicide. Both vehicles were rented using the Turo app, which allows renters to obtain vehicles directly from owners, who the app calls “hosts”. Think AirBnb for vehicles.
About Jabbar, he was a U.S. Army veteran, who served nearly eight years on active duty, including a deployment to Afghanistan, according to the New York Times. He was not some illegal immigrant, or some sleeper cell plant who arrived to our shores. It appears Jabbar was a homegrown radical, who was recently radicalized to jihadist Islam, and displayed an ISIS flag in the truck he used to ram into a crowded street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Nothing the journalists found indicated people thought Jabbar was a radical extremist who was planning violence. But the unseen is important, and the links between the two attacks, even if they are not directly planned from a single source, indicates a rich environment for extremists seeking ways to commit mass violence.
I haven’t gone out and searched for “ways to avoid government red flags” or installed encrypted “dark web” TOR browers on my computers, but I do know how easy it is to do that. And Jabbar had a degree in information systems from Georgia State University. Any reasonably technical person could find a trove of information that might lead them to plan, or coordinate with others, extremist violence. Though the FBI and other agencies likely have assets monitoring or penetrating extremist groups, they can’t check everyone and everything, from Discord servers, to Telegram channels, to WhatsApp groups. Encrypted and anonymous places exist for individuals who want to put the “mayhem kit” latest version into action.
For example, Luigi Mangione, the accused murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, obtained plans for his 3D-printed “ghost gun” from the Internet, where a rich discussion and plans are available. Mangione called the effort required “fairly trivial” in documents found on his person. Making the lower receiver for his weapon required “some elementary social engineering” plus “basic CAD”—computer-aided design—and “a lot of patience.” Scientific American delved into the tech required to make a “ghost gun,” and to attempt to disappear as a fugitive. It’s far easier, they concluded, to make the gun than to be a successful fugitive, especially when the whole country is on alert to find you.
Similarly, anyone in certain corners of the Internet who wants to figure out how to maximize mayhem and terror could find a rich discussion. Or they can read the news about what happened in Megdeburg, Germany when a car plowed through a Christmas market on December 21. It’s possible that copycats are simply what they appear to be.
When we crack down on one problem, like semiautomatic rifles or “bump stocks,” individuals who want to commit mass murder turn to another method. Or people who want to assassinate high profile targets find a way to avoid the gun store and federal forms. In places where guns are highly regulated, using vehicles, or even knives, is more common.
What I think we can point to is the use of Internet communities that serve radicals and radicalized extremists is a catalyst to their actions. That’s not just limited to Islamic radicals and jihadists. It’s the thousands of online people who post accolades about Mangione, or cloak their approval of murder in stories of how UnitedHealthcare mistreated them or denied their claims. Or how Mangione is some kind of sex symbol (grotesque).
Or it’s the gun enthusiast community circling the wagons about responsibility for published plans of “ghost gun” CAD files. Or the community telling us how the police and the FBI are part of a “deep state” operation. Or how secret programs to introduce alien spores through fog, “Fogvid-24” produces COVID-like symptoms. You think that’s ridiculous and stupid to believe, right? But how is it less so to believe that 3 A.M revelers in New Orleans are devils who need to die, or that a health insurer CEO, a father of two teenage boys, is an avatar of evil?
What I can learn about online 2025 is fairly summed up in a video by one of my favorite Youtubers, Ben Christie, a.k.a. the Urban Rescue Ranch in Waco, Texas. What we see on social media is not the people as they are. Influencers are not who they appear to be on camera. Popular online personalities have depression, problems, and even suicide. The same things that make the world go round outside the Internet affect those who live for views and clicks.
The two men who used vehicles to kill others in acts of violence also ended their own lives. Those acts are recorded and constantly replayed online for others to see. Perhaps someone who has fallen for a radical or extremist lie has seen these, and is now chatting or searching online to complete their own personal plan. The information is out there, and the communities of online cheerleaders exist to help these people to their own demise, bringing others with them.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for free speech. I am all for free association. Even for anarchists and farmers who lost three fingers building a giant bomb farm outside Norfolk, Virginia, who wear #NoLivesMatter patches. But 2025 shows us that we’ve moved from words like “friends” or “fellow Americans” to “chat” as a greeting (that’s what online streamers say to address their followers).
This year may be the year where we start to address the toxic online communities that result in dumb Air Force intelligence enlisted kids sharing highly classified material on Discord to impress a chat room. Or places that publish plans to 3D print lower receivers that mate with Glock slides and barrels to produce a pistol with no serial number. Or dark corners that offer tips on how to rent a car with Turo and use it to commit mass murder. Or communities that entangle teens and bully them into ending their own lives, as sickos watch for their own twisted pleasure.
Or even Amazon Prime’s top series of Mr. Beast (who just got engaged) giving away millions of dollars in a Squid Games inspired contest involving a thousand contestants and a private island. Or the proliferation of sports gambling that has infected our colleges and high schools. Sure, it’s entertainment. It’s also online brain rot. Even our entertainment has become a macabre way to waste money, time, and effort, while real life is more viral content.
As for me, I’d rather watch animals and real stories.
[Edited to correct the number of deaths by the Las Vegas explosion, and the manner of death of the driver of the Tesla, who is now said to be an active duty U.S. Army green beret.]
Oh and one more thing.
Uninstall Paypal Honey. Its entire business plan is a scam. Don’t believe me, believe Megalag, who exposed it. Believe Marques Brownlee, the influcencer (pictured in the video by Megalag) who agrees, and has also recommended you remove PayPal Honey. Uninstall the browser extension. Stop using Honey. Do it today.
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"This year may be the year where we start to address the toxic online communities that result in dumb Air Force intelligence enlisted kids sharing highly classified material on Discord to impress a chat room. Or places that publish plans to 3D print lower receivers that mate with Glock slides and barrels to produce a pistol with no serial number. Or dark corners that offer tips on how to rent a car with Turo and use it to commit mass murder. Or communities that entangle teens and bully them into ending their own lives, as sickos watch for their own twisted pleasure."
Yeah - no. Americans voted out the folks who had an interest in such matters and replaced them with erratic "free speech" warriors who are out to neuter online content moderation. They voted in a President with his own issues using classified materials to impress his friends and acquaintances. The folks who build, design, and distribute ghost guns are a part of the base of the party coming to power in a couple of weeks.
Over the next four years, these are problems that will have to be addressed bottom-up, often in conflict with top-down leadership. We did not elect responsible leaders on any of these fronts.
I wonder what the aggregate membership is in the left- and right-wing fringe groups that are out to destroy all or some part of our society. Free speech is guaranteed. Getting away with unlawful activity is not. Why is rioting, arson, stealing and property damage allowed to go uncontrolled and unpunished?