Lindsey Souvannarath, a former Geneva resident and GHS graduate was arrested a few weeks ago for her involvement in a plan of committing mass homicide at a mall in Nova Scotia. Authorities were informed of this plot through a Canadian crime tip line after a concerned party saw threats of the crime on her social media accounts. Shortly after word of this incident came out, other members of the Voyager staff and I read multiple articles about Souvannarath’s murder plot. Several of these articles included links to the Tumblr accounts of everyone involved in the plan. The header to Lindsey’s blog contained a pastel swastika accompanied by the phrases “school shooter chic” and “violence is the aesthetic”. I proceeded to go through several pages of her Tumblr, most of which were filled with graphic images glorifying serial killers, school shooters, and other mass murderers. After going through other blogs with similar themes, it became apparent to me that there is a little known, and horrifying, internet subculture obsessed with tales of mass murder. Intrigued, and more than a little disgusted, I decided to look further into what this group of people believe in.

They call themselves “Columbiners”; named thusly because of their main obsession with the young men responsible for the Columbine High School massacre of 1999; however, their obsession seems to include almost all mass murderers. They also serve as a hate group, as the more “serious” Columbiners are often neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and severely homophobic. Many posts talk about “natural selection” referring to their beliefs that they are superior to minority groups. While they are most heavily concentrated on Tumblr, Columbiners can be found scattered around several other social media sites. The accounts created by those involved in this group are horrifying; containing page after page of ghastly scenes of homicide, suicide, and death in general. Some users make gifs of graphic deaths in horror movies, while others use footage from real life horrors and tragedies; making these accounts even more gut wrenching. Columbiners glorify and romanticize terrible deeds and make them seem heroic and tragically beautiful, painting those responsible as merely troubled souls rather than acknowledging the true horror behind what has been done.

After discovering this internet subculture of death and violence, I began to wonder what, if any, the legal consequences were for being part of hate groups such as these. To answer my questions I spoke to GHS’s very own Detective Jerdee. Unfortunately, because even hate speech falls under the protection of free speech, no legal action can be taken to stop people involved in this and other groups unless a specific threat to a certain person or group of people is made. That being said, if someone is posting violent and disturbing content on social media sites it can always be reported to the police to hopefully start an investigation to ensure that there is no intent to harm anyone. If anyone you know begins posting things that make you fear for their safety or anyone else’s, always let someone know to make sure that everyone can be kept safe.