- More to the transgender-roommate story?
- Media Matters summarizes the situation up to a couple days ago;
- Despite the right’s affirmation of free speech, they are compiling lists of people critical of Charlie Kirk, and getting them fired;
- How SF/F writer Catherynne M. Valente turned up on such a list retweeted by Elon Musk.
Well so there *is* something to the Charlie Kirk-killer transgender-roommate story! Still not a lot of detail. One could well say, so what? The right will be happy they found someone to blame that justifies their existing animosity. But why would this, or any other incident, implicate transgender people in general, any more than it would implicate young white males in general? That’s not how conservative psychology works, of course. And it’s not that surprising that something turned up in the suspect’s situation that conservatives could pin blame on, since there are so many things conservatives don’t like. (Including, for some, Mormons.)
NY Times, 14 Sept 2025: Kirk Shooting Suspect Held ‘Leftist Ideology,’ Utah Governor Says
Subtitle: “Gov. Spencer Cox said the suspect had been ‘radicalized,’ and noted he had a romantic partner who is transitioning from male to female who is cooperating fully with investigators.”
Since the suspect is not talking, it’s difficult to imagine how the governor concluded he’d been “radicalized,” but let’s see what the article says.
Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah on Sunday provided new information about the background and political leanings of the 22-year-old accused of killing Charlie Kirk, saying that the suspect had a “leftist ideology” and had also been in a romantic relationship with a partner who was in the process of transitioning from male to female.
Mr. Cox, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” described the suspect, Tyler Robinson, as a “very normal young man” who appeared to have been “radicalized” some time after he dropped out of college and moved back to his hometown in southern Utah, where he had spent the past few years.
Mr. Cox did not go into specifics about Mr. Robinson’s ideological views or offer details to substantiate his assessment of the suspect’s views. Mr. Cox said Mr. Robinson had spent much of his time immersed in online gaming, message boards and parts of what the governor called the “deep, dark internet.”
Mr. Cox, a Republican, did not detail a motive for the shooting of Mr. Kirk, a prominent conservative activist. The suspect’s motive has become the subject of fevered debate as President Trump and some Republicans have blamed Democrats and the “radical left.”
So, no explanation whatsoever, just vague accusation of becoming “radicalized” via “online gaming, message boards and parts of what the governor called the ‘deep, dark internet.'”
This JMG piece has quotes from Daily Beast, ABC News, and CNN, but with little extra detail.
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Anyone remember the film Dog Day Afternoon?
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Here’s a thorough recap of the Charlie Kirk situation up to a couple days ago.
Media Matters, Matt Gertz, 12 Sep 2025: On the killing of Charlie Kirk, political violence, and the right’s response
“They” are at war with us, conservatives say. It isn’t true that violence is only going one way. (See chart from Paul Krugman in this post.) With a summary of recent attacks against Democrats. How MAGA wants “the Left” to be “crushed with the power of the state.” And how Trump, who’s only interested in persecuting his political opponents, is making everything worse.
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Charlie Kirk and his followers claim true American values, like freedom of speech, but it’s not playing out that way. Again as I said, they’re treating him like a saint, or now a martyr.
CNN, 14 Sept 2025: People are getting fired for allegedly celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. It looks like a coordinated effort
This strikes of McCarthyism. (“I have lists!”) And a kind of cultish behavior that places someone like Charlie Kirk on the level of Trump, who may never be questioned or doubted, and above law and order and the Constitution.
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Like McCarthy they don’t care whose lives are bothered or ruined. Here’s an example of a science fiction writer, Catherynne M. Valente, who turned up on one list.
File 770, Mike Glyer, 13 Sept 2025: Pixel Scroll 9/13/25 May Your Pixel Live In Scrolling Times
(1) VALENTE TARGET OF KIRK DEATH BACKLASH. Catherynne M. Valente told her newsletter readers about the death and other threats she’s received after being targeted on a list retweeted by Elon Musk in “Through the F***ing Looking Glass, Folks”.
…What had happened was—and I say this with an exhaustion no simile can encompass—Mr. Elon Musk his own full-chested self quote-tweeted someone compiling a list of “Microsoft employees” who had “celebrated” Kirk’s death to be marked for retribution.
And my name was right there in the screenshot.
Now, first of all, was that screenshot, or literally anything I’ve said on the topic, celebrating anything? Absolutely fucking not.
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One more anecdote, which I saw earlier today, I think on Facebook, but which I now can’t find a link to.
The gist was that some Charlie Kirk fan was mindboggled by the vitriol she’d heard against Kirk, because the only videos she’d seen of Kirk speaking were about heart-warming values of family and community (and scripture). She had never heard his comments about stoning gay people to death, his antipathy toward civil rights, his attacks against Muslims and Jews and transgender people and women and Blacks. (See Thursday’s post for a citation of these.)
Which is just another example of political polarization and social silos.
