We can’t know with certainty why they chose to use that word.
It could be, as you seem to suggest, that the artist is so brain-riddled by living in a social media dystopia that they subconsciously avoid the word “killed” without thinking about it.
Personally, I choose to believe they made an intentional decision here, and are consciously applying that amelioration for reasons; maybe the stylistic effect of using that neologism out of context. Maybe to signal that they themselves and the comic are both of a certain generation, and so create shared context and subtext with readers also of that generation in how the comic is meant to be perceived.
The author also decided to use an intentional anachronism in the comic “t’is” in *t’is not butter", so the evidence to me is present that they are thinking carefully about word choice.
We can’t know with certainty why they chose to use that word.
It could be, as you seem to suggest, that the artist is so brain-riddled by living in a social media dystopia that they subconsciously avoid the word “killed” without thinking about it.
Personally, I choose to believe they made an intentional decision here, and are consciously applying that amelioration for reasons; maybe the stylistic effect of using that neologism out of context. Maybe to signal that they themselves and the comic are both of a certain generation, and so create shared context and subtext with readers also of that generation in how the comic is meant to be perceived.
The author also decided to use an intentional anachronism in the comic “t’is” in *t’is not butter", so the evidence to me is present that they are thinking carefully about word choice.