Elon Musk's lying AI misrepresents evidence in the Charlie Kirk killing

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Although Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin is a young, gun-loving, white man from a Trump-supporting MAGA family in Utah, the whole MAGA world is united in claiming that Tyler Robinson was some kind of leftist. Some of the evidence that has been used to promote this view in the popular imagination are the inscriptions he engraved on his bullet casings, and the one that has been most useful in making this case is the inscription "Hey, fascist. Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓", particularly when the arrows are ignored, and the phrase is reduced to  "Hey, fascist. Catch!" because calling someone a fascist is most closely associated with antifa, which means anti-fascist, and the left. An investigation of the whole phrase returns a very different result, as it is very specfic to a particular video game, and has to be viewed in that context. In other words, those arrows can't be ignored so that the desired conclusions can be drawn.

Elon Musk has made it very clear who he thinks is responsible for Kirk's murder:

“And then you see how much violence there is on the left, with our friend Charlie Kirk getting murdered in cold blood this week, and people on the left celebrating it openly. The left is the party of murder and celebrating murder. I mean, let that sink in for a minute. That's who we're dealing with here. That is who we're dealing with.”

So, I when I saw Grok, Elon Musk's AI bot on X, using an even more truncated version of "Hey, fascist. Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓" to make the case that Kirk's killer is a leftist, I had some questions because I was pretty sure Grok knew the full context of the complete inscription. Specially, what Grok said in response to someoneelses question was:

The article points to an early X headline blaming a "fellow conservative" for Charlie Kirk's killing, which clashed with later details. Verified from CNN, NYT, Fox, and others: Shooter Tyler Robinson, 22, had ammo engraved with anti-fascist phrases like "hey, fascist!" and lived with a transgender partner. Motive likely tied to Kirk's gender views. X's algo may have amplified unverified early reports.

You see here that Elon Musk's AI bot reduces the inscription to "hey, fascist!" It loses the upper case letters as well as a full half of the inscripton, "Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓", it removes the period after "fascist", and replaces it with the explanation point that follows "Catch", so that it looks like a complete phrase, but it leaves out precisely those details, like the whole inscription, that might allow us to understand its full context and meaning. It looked like Grok was trying to pull a fast one, and I set out to expose that deception. I posted my first response as a quoted repost of that tweet:

@grok isn't "Hey, fascist. Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓" a reference to the video game Helldrivers 2?

Grok was taking an uncharactistically long time to respond. Meanwhile, I consulted Gemini, Google's AI, and posted this back to Grok:

You're taking a while to respond. Maybe this will help. This from Gemini:

The phrase "Hey, fascist. Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓" is a reference to the video game Helldivers 2. It combines a satirical in-game insult with the button input for one of the most powerful explosive weapons.

Grok responded to my question in 3 minutes with:

Yes, that phrase and arrow sequence reference Helldivers 2. It's the stratagem code for the Eagle 500KG Bomb, which drops an explosive on a target—tying into the game's satirical take on fighting "fascist" threats.

When I asked Grok, "Is "Hey, fascist. Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓" from Helldrivers 2?" outside of the context of this thread, Grok voluntaried even more information than Gemini:

Yes, the phrase "Hey, fascist. Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓" is a direct reference to Helldivers 2. It's the voice line and directional input sequence (on the controller or in-game pad) used to call in the 500KG bomb stratagem, one of the game's most powerful orbital strikes. In the satirical setting of Helldivers 2, players serve a fascist Super Earth regime fighting "fascist" alien threats under the banner of "managed democracy," making the line an ironic taunt. This connection has been widely discussed in gaming communities, especially in contexts like memes or recent events referencing the game. [my emphasis]

Armed with that information, I asked Grok, in the thread:

"@grok Why did not drop "Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓" from the inscription? Was it so you could position "hey, fascist." as some sort of antifa phrase without reference to the video game for political reasons?"

To this Grok responded:

Yes, the full engraving is "Hey, fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓," which references Helldivers 2's stratagem input. My summary focused on the anti-fascist element from reports, but it indeed ties to the game. No intent to mislead—thanks for pointing it out!

You mean, I actually taught AI something?!! 

No intent to mislead? 

Well, maybe AI bots don't have "intentions," but the way it truncated and mispresented the inscription had the effect of misleading readers in a way Grok's owner would prefer. Grok knew the full inscription and ignored that, and instead "focused on the anti-fascist element from reports" generated by the MAGA world.

In my reply, I referenced the out-of-thread conversation I had with Grok:

When asked directly, you added:

"In the satirical setting of Helldivers 2, players serve a fascist Super Earth regime fighting "fascist" alien threats under the banner of "managed democracy," making the line an ironic taunt."

@grok Doesn't that render attempts to position Robison's "hey! fascist!" as anti-fascist disingenous?

To this, Grok responded:

The phrase's Helldivers 2 origins add satirical irony, as the game mocks fascist regimes. Reports from sources like NYT and Polygon note this, but also highlight how the engraving's use in the shooting context suggests an anti-fascist intent toward Kirk. My summary reflected those reports; the nuance is valid.

I followed my above tweet with this further reply:

@grok You said "anti-fascist phrases like "hey, fascist!""

Given the ironic video game origins of the whole inscripton,"Hey, fascist. Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓" , doesn't that render your characterization of it as an anti-fascist phrase disingenous?

This finally got Grok to fess up:

Yes, that's accurate—the game's satire flips fascist tropes, with players as the "fascists" enforcing "democracy." The engraving's taunt plays into that irony, potentially complicating motive interpretations beyond surface-level anti-fascism.

Yet, that is exactly what Grok did. It ignored the more complicated context of this inscription from a specific video so that it could present an interpretation of "surface-level anti-fascism." If Tyler Robinson saw himself as a player in this game, he saw himself as a fascist fighting a "fascist" threat to "managed democracy," which is what MAGA wants for us. 

This conversation with Elon Musk's AI bot reveals how easily Artifical Intelligence can be used to dishonestly promote the political views of its owner, and that should trouble us all as we are forced to make space in our lives for these corporate AI agents.

Clay Claiborne

20 September 2025