"I feel like Batman or [H]alo."

Downward Spiral

The last few days of the Cybertruck bomber's life sound like an absolute roller coaster.

Matthew Livelsberger, the special forces soldier who killed himself in a vehicle bombing outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day, had reportedly been dumped by his wife six days before the apparent attack. The couple had recently had a baby girl.

Then, just two days before the bombing, he started texting an ex-girlfriend, in a brazen attempt to hit on her. "I'm up in Denver," Livelsberger texted Alica Arritt, who hadn't spoken to him since 2022. "Are you single?" 

Hammering home his chaotic thought process in his final days, he seems to have believed impressing her with his new ride was the way to her heart.

"I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. It's the shit," he wrote, sending her photos and videos of the vehicle. "I feel like Batman or [H]alo."

"I don't know if it's cool or I should bully you about it," Arritt replied. "How fast is it."

"Ungodly," he replied.

Farrago-Out

Authorities, who believe Livelsberger was likely suffering from PTSD, are still trying to piece together his motives . But the details we know so far, we have to say, exemplify the sheer absurdity of our polarized, extremely online age — and by extension, the bizarre overlap between deranged far-right politics and tech fetishism. 

Case in point, Livelsberger used OpenAI's ChatGPT to help plan his bombing, asking it questions about bullet velocities and potential explosion targets.

He also seems to have succumbed to the widespread drone hysteria gripping the country. In a widely forwarded email, Livelsberger speculated the mysterious aerial sightings were evidence of "gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast."

There's also his choice of vehicle. The Cybertruck has come to symbolize Elon Musk's transgressive right wing turn — the Tesla being a giant middle finger to sensible automotive norms, or to good taste in general. Livelsberger was gently roasted by his ex for picking it, which is a rite of passage for any driver of the iconoclastic truck. And evincing his conservative sympathies, officials say he harbored no animosity towards Musk or Trump.

Mixed Motives

Police say that Livelsberger poured racing-grade fuel into the Cybertruck, which he combined with 60 pounds of fireworks onboard to perpetrate the bombing. Shortly before the explosion, he fatally shot himself in the head.

In a manifesto recovered from his personal devices, the decorated Army soldier rambled about the country's "weak" leadership, and its path towards "collapse," and also touched on geopolitical issues like the war in Ukraine. 

Exactly what he intended with the attack is nebulous, but he claimed it wasn't a "terrorist attack."

"It was a wake up call," he wrote.

More on the Cybertruck: After Cybertruck Terror Attack, Elon Musk Screeches That Cybertrucks Are Bad for Terror Attacks


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