Political violence is a bad thing from any perspective, but there is a long tradition of it. In the classic 1970 collection of over one hundred primary source documents American Violence, the earliest account is Pilgrims versus Puritans from 1634 and the most recent, two years before the book was published, are the Chicago Riots and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
The murder of Charlie Kirk at age 31 tragically impacts his wife and two young children, but aside from the substantial moral issues, the practical problem of political violence is that it threatens to destabilize the nation and undermine the rule of law: Either we settle our disputes through the political process or we degenerate to some degree of civil warfare.
It is disturbing that numerous opposing parties have attempted to seize the narrative to retrofit the killing into their worldviews, damn the facts. President Donald Trump said he would posthumously bestow on Kirk the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom: “Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty and an inspiration to millions and millions of people.”
Kirk himself defined his identity with the organization he founded, Turning Point USA, as a provocateur whose shtick was to say outrageous things intended to seek attention and piss people off, such as “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term,” “Jewish donors have been the No. 1 funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and nonprofits… And it’s not just the colleges. It’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it.” suggesting that a “patriot” should post bail for the man charged with a brutal hammer attack against the elderly husband of US Rep. Nancy Pelosi, “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s,” and most ironically, “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” Kirk marketed his appearances on college campuses as “debates,” but most of the quick exchanges were as devoid of real content as “You’re wrong!” and “Says you!”
Not to push the analogy too far since Kirk was hardly a Nazi, but his rehabilitation from millennial troll to presidential honoree is as awkward as that of Horst Wessel, a member of the paramilitary Brown Shirts turned into a Nazi hero and martyr, after being killed in 1930 by a communist in what seems to have been a landlord-tenant dispute involving Wessel’s ex-prostitute girlfriend.
Soon after Kirk’s shooting, police detained 71 year-old George Zinn, who reportedly confessed to the killing, but was soon released because he was notorious for decades of apparent mental illness and being arrested at events both political and otherwise.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill was quoted saying, ”He’s a person who can be odd, and has those kinds of sometimes odd behavior challenges, but by and large, he’s more of a gadfly than anything else.” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on Twitter/X “The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody,” but less than two hours later had to retract that, posting “The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.”
This was, it turned out, the first huge warning sign that the FBI had no idea what they were doing. Eventually, 22 year-old Tyler Robinson, the alleged killer, was reportedly talked into voluntarily surrendering to authorities by his father and his pastor who wanted to avoid an incident such as a suicidal shootout with police. Conservative satire site Babylon Bee ridiculed this under the headline, “‘Ladies And Gentlemen, We Got Him,’ Announces FBI After Killer Turns Himself In.”
One of the strangest aspects was watching Utah Gov. Spencer Cox reading aloud, apparently with no understanding of what he was saying, internet memes written on the cartridge casings recovered by police from the shooting scene:
Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found with the rifle. Inscriptions on a fired casing read: “notices bulges” capital “O-W-O what’s this?” Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read: “hey fascist!” “catch!” Up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols. A second unfired casing read: “Oh Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao, Ciao.” And a third unfired case read: “If you read this, you are gay LMAO.”
A telling indicator of how out of touch the media was on this is the way they transcribed what should have been “OwO”, an internet emoticon intended to convey surprised open eyes as a variant of “UwU” that is simply a cute face, originally using carets “^w^” – but the “w” is never capitalized. Associated with the “furry” subculture of people who pretend to be and often dress up in costume as non-human animals, this cutesy emoticon is at least 25 years old, long before the alleged shooter was even born, when it was necessary to draw small pieces of artwork using text characters because that was all users had back then. One of the last places I ever expected to see this sort of thing is a cartridge casing, but it is hardly new: In the 1980s, a Datamation article said in every mainframe computer shop “taped to the wall is a line-printer Snoopy calendar for the year 1969.”
The Wall Street Journal cited an internet law-enforcement bulletin asserting that the markings on the cartridge casings were “transgender and anti-fascist ideology,” but had to retract this when it proved untrue. Among other wrong claims, the headstamp “TRN” had nothing to do with ‘transgender” but is actually a manufacturer mark from Turan Ammo, a company in Türkiye.
According to Kahlil Greene, in the game Helldivers II, “Hey fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓” is “a ‘stratagem’ code that players enter to call down an Eagle 500kg Bomb, one of the most destructive weapons available. The game is known for its satirical use of totalitarian aesthetics to critique militarism and the glorification of war, with players fighting against an ‘intentionally oppressive’ government.”
“Bella Ciao” is a century-old protest song, recently popularized in the 2019 – 2021 Netflix series Money Heist, originally the Spanish-language La casa de papel (“The House of Paper”). Consistent with the alleged shooter’s interest in video games, it features prominently in Far Cry 6.
Much of this symbolism has been adopted ironically by the Groyper army, a group so far-right that they object to Kirk as too left-wing. Because an inherent part of the loosely organized “Groyper” movement is to exploit leftist terms and symbols to encourage ambiguity as to their motives, media deception is part of their goal.
“The Groypers’ focus on Turning Point USA stems primarily from their dislike of founder Charlie Kirk, who they consider insufficiently pro-white,” explained the ADL. “Kirk is pro-Israel, and Groypers oppose Israel and are generally antisemitic. Groypers are also angry that Kirk has invited black conservatives and gay conservatives to TPUSA events as speakers. They believe Kirk is a hypocrite who doesn’t truly want to advance an ‘America First,’ agenda which, for the Groypers, means ‘whites first.’”
Recognized as the leader of the Groyper army, Nick Fuentes, despite a long history encouraging a strategy of confrontation and disruption, issued increasingly panicked denials of involvement in the killing: “My followers and I are currently being framed for the murder of Charlie Kirk by the mainstream media based on literally zero evidence.”
On Meet the Press, Gov. Cox referenced reporting about the roommate of the alleged shooter, “We do know that the roommate that we had originally talked about, we can confirm that that roommate is a boyfriend who is transitioning from male to female. So we know that piece. I will say that that person has been very cooperative with authorities.”
Various sources state the roommate uses the name “Lance,” and despite claims by the roommate that incriminating messages were sent by the alleged shooter over Discord, the platform denied this in a statement: “The messages referenced in recent reporting about planning details do not appear to be Discord messages. These were communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting, where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere.”
The credibility of Lance has been called into serious question because of the Discord messages. The media conclusion Lance is transgender appears to be entirely on the basis of gamer tags rather than a personal declaration, and there is no evidence of a romantic relationship with the alleged shooter. The living situation has been reported to be a three-bedroom apartment or condominium, with the owner living in one with at least one roommate and renting out the other two.
Numerous sources reported that the alleged shooter has undergone recent personality changes and become politically radicalized, after a straight-A high school academic record that earned him a four-year college scholarship, from which he dropped out after a single semester. He grew up in a Mormon religious family, all of whom are reportedly MAGA adherents. Given his age at the sweet spot for onset of schizophrenia, it is impossible not to wonder about the real possibility of so-far undiagnosed mental illness. Because the state has said they intend to seek the death penalty, it is no surprise the defendant is uncooperative.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, in an interview with Fox personality Sean Hannity, threatened to bring to bear the full force of the federal government against those who “celebrate” the death of Kirk, labeling them “domestic terrorists” despite such sentiments, no matter how objectionable, being unquestionably protected by the First Amendment: “And my message is to all of the domestic terrorists in this country spreading this evil hate, you want us to live in fear — we will not live in fear. But you will live in exile. Because the power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you, will use to take away your money, take away your power, and if you’ve broken the law, to take away your freedom.”
From a journalistic perspective, the gold standard for accuracy has traditionally been assumed to be official statements from sources such as the FBI or the state governor, and the governor seems to be relying on the FBI, but this is all unraveling amidst profound cluelessness while most media uncritically report absurdly misinformed conclusions in total ignorance of internet and gaming culture. How does law enforcement cope with a mindset where the highest goal is “lulz,” meaning that everything is an appropriate target for mockery and derision, regardless of cruelty or tastelessness, as long as someone is willing to point and laugh? Is this really the tinderbox that will escalate a new surge in America’s tradition of political violence?
Great article, Mike! I had felt the same way every time I heard these meme references. How can the fbi, government not at least fact check and understand them before ckuelessly reading them out like a different language. It has felt like the most extreme case of outside observation, almost alien.