The Mimetic Sacrifice: Martyred for the Lulz

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From: Cross-Series

Research for Book 3 (Lurk More) dedication and thefire.lol Episode 40.
Contents 13 sections

The Mimetic Sacrifice: Martyred for the Lulz — Research

Research for Book 3 (Lurk More) dedication and thefire.lol Episode 40.

TIER 1: THE UNDENIABLE ONES

  • Aaron Swartz (2013, age 26) — Reddit co-founder, RSS co-creator, SecureDrop. Facing 35 years for downloading JSTOR papers. Suicide by hanging. The single most mourned death in internet culture.
  • Jonathan James / c0mrade (2008, age 24) — First juvenile jailed for cybercrime (hacked NASA at 15). Falsely implicated in TJX breach. Shot himself the day agents raided his home. Note: “I no longer have faith in the justice system.”
  • Barnaby Jack (2013, age 35) — Made ATMs spit cash at Black Hat 2010. Found dead one week before his pacemaker-hacking presentation at Black Hat 2013. Accidental OD. Timing spawned conspiracy theories.
  • Kevin Mitnick (2023, age 59) — The most famous hacker. 5 years federal (8 months solitary). Prosecution claimed he could “start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone.” Died of cancer. End of an era.
  • Adrian Lamo (2018, age 37) — “Homeless Hacker.” Turned in Chelsea Manning. Found dead in Wichita. Autopsy could not determine cause. Most mysterious death on the list.

TIER 2: THE ONES THE COMMUNITY CARRIES

  • Len Sassaman (2011, age 31) — Cypherpunk, PGP dev, Mixmaster maintainer, DEF CON regular. Suicide. Tribute encoded in Bitcoin block 138725. Later Satoshi candidate.
  • James Dolan (2017, age 36) — Co-created SecureDrop with Swartz. Former Marine, PTSD from Iraq. Suicide. Two of three SecureDrop creators died by their own hand.
  • Dan Kaminsky (2021, age 42) — Found the DNS cache poisoning bug that could have broken the internet. Died of diabetic ketoacidosis.
  • Ian Murdock (2015, age 42) — Founded Debian (the “Ian” in Debian). Final tweets described police assault. Found dead. Ruled suicide.
  • Sean Smith / Vile Rat (2012, age 34) — US diplomat. Something Awful mod. Goonswarm diplomat in EVE Online. Killed in Benghazi attack. Internet culture meets geopolitics.
  • Lowtax / Richard Kyanka (2021, age 45) — Founded Something Awful. Without SA, no 4chan. Without 4chan, no Anonymous. Suicide. Legacy complicated by domestic abuse allegations.
  • Bassel Khartabil (2015, age 33) — Palestinian-Syrian open-source dev. Started Syria’s first hackerspace. Arrested by Assad regime, tortured, secretly executed. Wife didn’t learn of death until 2017.
  • Terry Davis (2018, age 48) — Created TempleOS single-handedly over 10 years. Schizophrenic. Struck by train. Simultaneously mocked and revered on 4chan. Internet’s most tragic outsider genius.
  • John Perry Barlow (2018, age 70) — EFF co-founder. “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.” Natural causes. End of the utopian internet era.
  • Hal Finney (2014, age 58) — First PGP Corp dev. Received first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi. ALS. Cryopreserved. Cypherpunk movement’s greatest natural loss.

TIER 3: THE COLLATERAL — KILLED BY THE CULTURE

  • Mitchell Henderson (2006, age 13) — Suicide. MySpace memorial found by /b/. Origin of “an hero” meme. Parents prank-called for a year.
  • Megan Meier (2006, age 13) — Catfished on MySpace by an adult neighbor. “The world would be a better place without you.” Hanged herself.
  • Amanda Todd (2012, age 15) — Blackmailed with webcam image. Posted flashcard YouTube video. Suicide. Video went viral posthumously.
  • Tyler Clementi (2010, age 18) — Roommate spied on him via webcam, tweeted about it. Jumped from George Washington Bridge.
  • Sunil Tripathi (2013, age 22) — Missing Brown student. Reddit misidentified as Boston bomber. Already dead before the bombing. Reddit’s darkest hour.
  • Andrew Finch (2017, age 28) — Swatted over a $1.50 CoD wager. Shot by police 10 seconds after opening door. Had nothing to do with gaming.
  • Brandon Vedas / ripper (2003, age 21) — Overdosed on webcam in IRC. Someone called 911; another user talked them out of it. First death livestreamed online.

TIER 4: THE KIWI FARMS BODY COUNT

  • Julie Terryberry (2016, age 19) — Targeted for posting about mental health. Photos leaked. Found dead by hanging.
  • Chloe Sagal (2018, age 31) — Indie dev. Set herself on fire in a Portland park after years of KF targeting.
  • Near / Byuu (2021, age 38) — Created higan (100% SNES emulator). Non-binary, Japan-based. Years of KF harassment. Final tweet: “finally be at peace.”

TIER 5: ADJACENT

  • Ilya Zhitomirskiy (2011, age 22) — Co-founded Diaspora (anti-Facebook). Suicide.
  • Mark Fisher / k-punk (2017, age 48) — Capitalist Realism author. k-punk blog. Suicide. Intellectual godfather of understanding internet culture as systemic symptom.
  • Etika / Desmond Amofah (2019, age 29) — Nintendo YouTuber. Body found in East River.
  • Reckful / Byron Bernstein (2020, age 31) — WoW streamer. Suicide. Memorialized as NPC.

GIRARDIAN FRAMEWORK (for Episode 40)

René Girard’s mimetic theory:

  1. Desire is mimetic (we want what others want)
  2. Mimetic rivalry produces violence
  3. Violence is resolved through the scapegoat — a sacrificial victim
  4. The sacrifice founds/refounds the community
  5. The community denies the mechanism

Internet version:

  • Every platform produces its sacrifice
  • The punishment is always disproportionate (the point isn’t justice, it’s ritual)
  • “For the lulz” = “for the good of the community” dressed in irony
  • The mimetic/memetic pun: Girard’s mimetic desire → internet’s memetic contagion

Three readings of “To the martyrs for the lulz”:

  1. Normie: “Weird. Author thinks trolling is funny.”
  2. Insider: “He’s naming the dead.”
  3. Girardian: “He’s naming the mechanism.”

DEDICATION FORMAT OPTIONS

Option A — Names only, no explanation:

Aaron, Jonathan, Barnaby, Len, James, Vile Rat, Bassel, Terry.

Option B — Names and years:

For Aaron (2013), Len (2011), Vile Rat (2012), Bassel (2015), James (2017), and the others.

Option C — The full Girard:

To the mimetic sacrifices. You know who they are.

Option D — The one-liner:

For the martyrs. For the lulz.

Source URLs

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Girardian Framework