The Changing Narrative

 

Heather Cox Richardson writes in her "Letters from an American" Substack on how the right changed the narrative of the Charlie Kirk shooter after first making some hasty assumptions:

... Trump announced on the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends that he had just heard “they have the person that they wanted.” That person turned out to be 22-year-old Utah native Tyler Robinson, who turned himself in to authorities after his father urged him to. Robinson’s parents are registered Republicans; he was not affiliated with a political party and was an inactive voter. Over the past years, Robinson’s mother posted a number of pictures of him and his brothers posing with guns.

Robinson had recently had a conversation with a family member about why they didn’t like Kirk’s viewpoints. Robinson appears to have admired the “Groypers,” led by Nick Fuentes, who complain that more mainstream organizations like Kirk’s Turning Point USA are not “pro-white” enough and have publicly harassed Kirk in the past.

Allison Gill of The Breakdown explained that the rumors the shooter had engraved anti-fascist rhetoric on some of the bullet casings found at the scene turned out to be a misunderstanding of terms from the video game Helldivers2. The claim that he had used “transgender ideology” was apparently a misreading of the headstamp “TRN” that marks ammunition as the product of Turkish manufacturer Turan.

Almost as soon as Robinson was identified, the tone of MAGA leader’s conversation about the shooting changed. Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC), who had used a slur to refer to the shooter as pro-transgender, posted on social media: “We know Charlie Kirk would want us to pray for such an evil, and lost individual like Tyler Robinson to find Jesus Christ. We will try to do the same.”

Now, emboldened by the Malignant Fascist's continual lying about "the lunatic left,"  MAGAts (and some in the media who should know better) seem to be getting back on the same page, ignoring the nuances of the shooter's background:  the conservative gun culture, the gaming obsession, the (at least) Groyper- curious signs, to point to a common enemy that the right always has to have:  the marginalized, the "other," liberals, "Demoncrats".  It's so much less of an intellectual effort than to look in a mirror.

But, the whole point, of course, is to establish that narrative so that it becomes fact in the minds of the MAGAts, and seeps into the mainstream through a lazy, cowed media.  That's where we are, and have been for some time, in America.

BONUS:  No More Mister Nice Blog on "Charlie Kirk and the presumption of right -wing decency."