A moment of silence for Charlie Kirk.
It’s Monday, September 15, 2025 and less than a week ago, Charlie Kirk was killed by a single bullet fired from a rooftop rifleman while he was speaking at Utah Valley University. The suspected killer has been identified after a security photo of him was released to the public and he was recognized by family and friends.
The suspect is Tyler Robinson, a 22 year old male from Southern Utah (the St. George area to be exact.) He is from a Mormon and very pro-Trump family.
Details about Tyler Robinson and his apprehension were released in a press conference held by Governor Spencer Cox with appearances by local law enforcement and the FBI, including the Director of FBI, Kash Patel, who strangely ended his remarks by saying “Lastly to my friend, Charlie Kirk, rest now, brother. We have the watch, and I’ll see you in Valhalla.” This post is not about those very strange words, and I’ll just leave them there for now.
In the same press conference, the Governor confessed that he prayed for 33 hours that the killer “wouldn’t be one of us.” Is that why he framed the killer as a person who despite his conservative upbringing and community was radicalized by left wing ideology?
In the few days since the murder, I’ve learned that someone close to the killer shared with LEO that he had a deep hatred of Charlie Kirk. The left has a laundry list of Kirk’s racist, sexist and homophobic talking points. But also, the far-right America First and/or Groyper culture has waged “war” with Charlie Kirk twice. As I’ve learned, Groyper culture seems to resent both a few of Kirk’s policy positions (support for Israel, support for legal immigration, backing off the Epstein file release) and his central role in the maga movement and sharp elbows against the America First/Groyper movement.
The bullet messaging, particularly the “hey fascist, catch,” may point left or right. The left accuses maga of authoritarian moves and calls all manner of maga office holders and influencers nazis and fascists. But the trolling, deep vernacular, ironic language on that bullet and others is also consistent with the far-right/Groyper culture.
So too, the shooter’s reported romantic partnership with a male roommate who was transitioning to female is inconclusive. If being gay or in a same-sex relationship or being in a relationship with a transperson is evidence of being “left;” don’t tell Peter Thiel or Scott Bessent or Caitlyn Jenner that. But even here, there’s plenty of evidence that male-male, male-feminine male, male-transfemale relationships develop in this far right, incel, sub-culture that hates women and feels dating and traditional marriage to be undesirable or unattainable.
I know all this because I was hungry to understand how a shooter develops and if I needed to decode the maga and hyper-partisan messaging around the killing. I’m raising young people growing up with the internet, “citizen journalism,” outrageously effective creators and influencers, and open-source intelligence. I witness first-hand how the sacred cows of my xillennial generation get ripped down and twisted by the younger generations and how fast nonsense and memes move on the internet. I feel an urgent need to understand how information, opinion and culture form and spread online and how office holders and law enforcement shape narratives – sometimes in outright bad faith. I see it as the work of parenting.
It is also the work of being an American. At this point, it’s clear President Trump and his administration are not interested in this work; but I do hope WE all take a moment of silence, refrain from judging and arguing, and really seek to understand, as best we can, how this happened and how best to move forward.