Assassins often have unclear motives, but evidence is accumulating about what led Tyler Robinson to allegedly kill Charlie Kirk. The bullets were inscribed with anti-fascist messages. Robinson’s mother informed the government that her son had recently become “more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.” Robinson told his romantic partner, a trans-identifying male, that he had “had enough” of the conservative activist’s “hatred,” and that “some hate can’t be negotiated out.” Given the available information, it is reasonable to conclude that Kirk was killed on account of his political views by someone who believed that his death would advance anti-fascism and transgender rights.
And yet some on the left have suggested that Robinson was in fact a MAGA Republican. Others have suggested that, whoever killed Kirk, the victim was asking for it with his dangerous rhetoric. What these responses have in common is an assumption that the right is always to blame for political violence, even when it is committed by the left.
But an equally conspiratorial, reason-defying reaction has emerged in the independent media that wields so much influence on the American right. Figures such as Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson found in Kirk’s death an occasion to criticize Jews and Israel, doing their best to inject a suggestion of Jewish culpability into the conspiratorial brew even as they paid tribute to Kirk. Meanwhile, a predictable assortment of online cranks who see Jewish conspiracy behind the weather and any other event beyond their own control suggested that Kirk might have been murdered by Mossad. All this has been a reminder that for all the failings of traditional media, serious problems beset the independent media that proposes to take their place.
