Elliot Rodger is seen in a self-recorded YouTube video titled “Why do girls hate me so much?”
A selection of angsty self-recorded videos uploaded by Elliot Rodger have been removed from YouTube, days after the 22-year-old went on a killing spree in Isla Vista, Calif.
The videos, which featured a lonely Rodger creepily venting his sexual and social frustrations and intent to “slaughter” his so-called “enemies” – mainly the women he felt rejected him – were removed by YouTube after viewers flagged them, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Rodger posted at least two of the self-pitying videos to YouTube shortly before going on a killing rampage Friday night, fatally stabbing three men, then shooting two women and a man before committing suicide.
YouTube spokeswoman Samantha Smith declined to tell the Post when Rodger’s videos were uploaded, or when they came to the company’s attention.
“Our hearts go out to the families affected by this terrible news. Videos threatening violence are against YouTube’s guidelines and we remove them when they are flagged,” Smith told the Post.
YouTube’s community guidelines prohibit videos displaying “predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment [and] intimidation . . . and inciting others to commit violent acts. . . . Anyone caught doing these things may be permanently banned from YouTube.”
In one of the videos, entitled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution,” Rodger sits sun-lit in his black BMW, with palm trees in the background. He spoke of his murderous plans, saying, “Tomorrow is the day of retribution for the last 8 years of my life, ever since I’ve hit puberty, I’ve been forced to endure and existence of loneliness, rejection, and unfulfilled desires…I don’t know why you girls are not attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it,” Roger said in his video.
Though YouTube has removed the videos, news outlets and bloggers have redistributed them online.
Rodger’s grim outlook was shared in a 138-page manifesto, which has been made readily available online.
In his writings, Rodger also makes his misogynisticviews clear, saying “Women are like a plague… They don’t deserve to have any rights . . . Women are vicious, evil, barbaric animals, and they need to be treated as such.”
One manifesto upload on scribd.com shows more than 510,035 views.
His anti-female ravings inspired #YesAllWomen, a social media conversation about the daily sexism faced by women, and their common experiences with misogyny, frustrations with entitlement and their fears about men.
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