What Is the Beta Uprising?
3rd October 2015
Many of the posters kept mentioning the phrase “Beta Uprising”, with some users asking whether they could join in, while others said they were happy to stay at home and watch it on the news.
According to a thread on Reddit, the term Beta Uprising refers to people who see themselves as being socially awkward, unattractive, shy, not popular with mainstream society or deviant in some way (the “Betas”) rising up and “rebelling against the society that they believe makes their lives difficult because they’re ostracised or don’t have success with women by shooting random people, usually people more attractive and popular than them”.
The Columbine High School massacre in 1999 may have started the trend off, but it is common for 4chan users to joke about shooting up public places: