🕯️ Hello Satan: Inside the Complex Psychology of a School Shooter
Hesitation Media | April 20, 2025
Episode Show Notes
🌑 Overview
In this livestream, recorded on Easter Sunday and 4/20—a date loaded with cultural and symbolic resonance—I reflect on a longform investigation that will be published in May in a major U.S. magazine. The story centers on Solomon Henderson, the young man responsible for the Antioch High School shooting in January 2025, and the disturbing online ecosystem that shaped his descent into violence.
This episode explores the psychological, archetypal, and digital roots of extremism, as well as the ethical challenges of documenting these stories with care, clarity, and responsibility. If you care about shadow work, slow journalism, the edges of internet culture, or the warping of religious and mythic symbolism in modern violence, this is one to listen to all the way through.
Topics Covered
The Film That Opened a Portal
Background on Year to Kill, the short slasher film that sparked this deeper investigation.
Reflections on the archetypal intensity of school shooter narratives and the cursed production energy around the project.
The Antioch Shooting and My Archival Process
How I began collecting materials and archiving Solomon’s online footprint immediately after the shooting.
A strange and deeply obscure reference to the Noctulians—and how it led to uncovering links to the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), a Nazi-Satanic group.
Methodology: Empathic & Slow Journalism
Why I take months, not minutes, to understand events like these.
Influences from Delayed Gratification magazine and Jungian analyst Stanton Marlan.
The importance of shadow integration in both personal psychology and the collective psyche.
Key Findings from the Investigation
1. Saint Culture
A dangerous new trend: glorifying mass shooters as saints or martyrs in online subcultures.
Solomon actively sought—and received—this sainthood from corners of Gen Z and Gen A extremist communities.
2. The Satanic Schism
True Believers: Ideologically committed Satanists (e.g., O9A members in Oxford-adjacent networks).
Chaos Trolls: Meme-fueled nihilists who use Satanism, gore, and taboo imagery to provoke reactions and perform stochastic terror.
Solomon appeared to be caught between these worlds.
3. The Radicalization Process
A four-stage breakdown of how Solomon—and potentially others—are groomed into acts of mass violence:
Identity Crisis and social alienation.
Online Initiation via troll boards and esoteric communities.
Escalation Feedback Loops encouraging increasingly extreme content/actions.
Aftermath and Mythologizing, including posthumous canonization by online peers.
Challenges, Harassment and Online Blowback
After my reporting went viral, I was:
Doxxed on Kiwi Farms.
Harassed by right-wing influencers like Alex Rosen.
Targeted by false narratives claiming I was “defending pedophiles.”
I respond to those critiques, and defend the psychological nuance behind my work.
Ethics, Journalism, and the Shadow
The legacy of Columbine and how we’ve gone from sensationalism to silence in media coverage.
The ethical dilemma: “Do no harm” (mental health) vs. “Inform the public” (journalism).
Why I believe empathic, slow reporting can help us prevent future violence, not just report it after the fact.
What’s Next?
The full longform article will publish in May—details coming soon.
We’ll continue covering:
The April 2025 Wisconsin case (a potential “true believer”).
The intelligence infiltration of radical networks (FBI, Temple of Blood, entrapment discourse).
Stay tuned for future show notes, transcripts, and investigations here on Hesitation Media.
Final Invitation
“Whether someone is a troll or a true believer—respect is the starting point. Not mockery, not moral panic. If we’re going to confront radicalization, we have to understand what’s behind the mask.”
If you care about this kind of work, please share this episode, subscribe to the Substack, and leave a comment with your thoughts. Your presence matters here.
— Signing off. Going to the beach. Happy Easter or whatever you’re doing.
Brian
4/20/2025
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