I checked, and The Hill, Lawfare, and Volokh Conspiracy all had dozens of articles that mentioned Charlie Kirk (outside the context of the shooting). Financial Times had a lot of hits for “charlie kirk” in articles dated prior to September, but they were behind a paywall, so I couldn’t read them myself. The only one that returned zero hits when I searched “charlie kirk” was Government Executive - not even for the assassination.
Kirk was huge on the right. Full stop. Not a minor or ancillary figure, i.e., a waterboy.
Kirk is mentioned twice (that I can quickly find) on Lawfare podcasts:
And many, many times in The Hill; here’s a sampling:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5400288-charlie-kirk-epstein-trump-administration/
https://thehill.com/newsletters/the-movement/5477882-national-conservatism-conference-the-movement/
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5336941-trump-musk-battle-turn-page/
https://thehill.com/newsletters/the-movement/5320662-trump-putin-maga-movement-questions/
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5133777-elon-musk-threatens-republican-senators/
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5205516-wisconsin-judicial-election-2026/
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5261494-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-trump-support/
Stranger
Couple of things:
- I think it’s mostly dogmatism that is the danger, and this affects secular thinking too (viz, cults of personality and dogmatism with respect to Hitler/Nazism, Lenin then Stalin/Communism, Mao/Maoism, etc.).
- I don’t think the Christofascists are sincerely Christian (i.e., the content of their belief system is not orthodox Christianity), but they are dogmatic about both their religion and politics. The thing is, they’ve melded performative religion and RINO fascism into a complete personal brand and lifestyle, making it impossible to tell where the religious ends and secular begins. The religious aspect, however faux it may be, is especially useful to them, inasmuch as they can selectively other or forgive anyone they want (e.g., Obama is a Muslim, but Trump is a real Christian), and they can be selectively aggrieved and persecuted by anything and anyone they want. It’s the ultimate get out of jail free, throw others in jail for free card.
Faith is dogmatism; dogmatism is just the less polite term for it.
^Yes, but the word “belief” had been used, which is not dogmatism (dogmatic belief being a subset thereof).
If it’s dueling dogmas, will they self destruct?
^Banjos start playing…
Now that the information is coming forth that the killer was a right wing nutjob, I think the answer to the OP can be answered with a No.
Charlie Kirk was killed by forces he fomented. The circumstances surrounding that will have to be suppressed.
^Yep, and I’m sure all the RWNJs in media are deeply regretting they jumped the gun (pun intended). /s
A split in the Republican party could put the country on the road back to rational political discourse. el donald’s cult has driven away many of the rational conservatives. Many are now independents. Many want to keep voting in primaries so they join the Democrats but squirm a lot. If the cult and the normal Republicans were to go their separate ways, we would see many of those traditional conservatives going back. With three parties instead of two, there would be a need for coalitions to have a majority in Congress. If two of the three are capable of working together, they would be able to find common ground. That is what we really want from our politicians.
Your boundless optimism is inspiring if implausible.
In reality, the MAGAs will imagine all of this to be a vast sprawling conspiracy by the ‘Deep State’, and the madness will continue on the march. These people aren’t going to let a little factual inconsistency dissuade the from the path of the righteous.
Stranger
Or we could just be back on the Hitler track where Trump gets popular support for cracking down on his right wing ala Night of the Long Knives.
I haven’t been following the news, other than this morning when the announcement was made that he’d been caught.
I’ve seen some FB posts saying he’s a straight, White, Christian/Mormon who grew up in a conservative family and with guns. I’ve seen a few posts here mentioning some sort of game called Groyper or something. But I haven’t seen anything definitive saying he’s a RWNJ, such as ‘He has been very vocal in his support of Trump,’ or ‘His social media posts express his disdain for “libtards”.’
EDIT: I’ve just opened the Charlie Kirk is Still Dead thread, and clicked on a link that says what a ‘Groyper’ is.
What is a Groyper?
Before getting into why Robinson is being called a Groyper online, here’s what the term denotes. A Groyper is a member of a group of alt-right, white nationalist and Christian nationalist activists, who are led by Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes.
So why would a RWNJ assassinate a RWNJ?
There is more than one flavor of RWNJ and they don’t always get along. Groyperführer Nick Fuentes has had a long running beef with Kirk.
For the same reason the Left continually fights among themselves. The narcissism of small differences.
Because Nick Fuentes preached that Kirk capitulated to gays and Jews, meaning he wasn’t a real White Nationalist. This is reflected by his support for Israel, and the fact that he had a gay man as a speaker.
The last time that Kirk did a college speaking tour, in 2019, they targeted by asking questions designed to elicit his “inferior” opinions.
That question might have been the last thought of George Lincoln Rockwell.
Hardly the only motivation, but there’s a subset of assassin: “I’m the smallest nobody so I’ll kill the biggest somebody to even it up.”
They used to scribble letters to the editor and manifestos, and Oswald even made it onto local TV. But then the explosion of YouTubing and podcasting opened up greater opportunities, yet didn’t cure the frustration.
Ironically, even though Charlie Kirk was an Eagle Scout from the shiny buckle of the Bungalow Belt, in an earlier age he might have been the one on the other side of the gun.
Let’s not forget that this happened in Utah County, Utah. Utah has a fully Republican congressional delegation as well as Republican supermajorities in both state legislative houses. Utah County’s representation in the legislature is 100% Republican, too. Last fall, two out of every three votes cast for president were for Trump. We’re talking the proverbial “most Republican county in the most Republican state” here, folks.
That’s where Mr. Kirk, or Kirkey as he liked to be called, got his neck exploded.
Yet in response they want to attack Democrats and send in the military to blue state cities. Doing what they were planning on doing, anyway, in other words. That’s not where the physical danger to prominent conservatives is, apparently. They don’t seem to have a reliable sense of danger.
Let’s not forget that they also seem to be physical cowards. Remember when Ashli Babbitt got kirked while attacking Congress and the reaction of her brothers-in-arms wasn’t anger or determination in the face of danger. You remember what they did at that point. They calmed the fuck down.
Their idea of civil war is the might of the U.S. government being brought to bear against their enemies. How does the knowledge that they’ve yet to conquer their safe spaces affect their perception of things? Not at all, probably.
One thing is certain, though: We’re cooked.
The problem is not faith. Religion is a human institution that attempts to uphold faith. Humans are fallible. We don’t always get it right. Separation of church and state has made a big difference in the abuses that were once committed in the name of Christianity. Religious leaders make terrible politicians.