Charlie Kirk - Kevin Lewis

Fair enough; I've worked with, met, and observed thousands of people in all sorts of professions and work environments and I don't always see ironclad professionalism, even in the most elevated positions. People working with people react to those people.

In particular, during time I've spent in holy roller environments like the Deep South, religion seems to affect everyone and everything, including how your hamburger is cooked. Would doctors and nurses treat me the exact same way if I mentioned that I was an atheist? I'd like to think so..

So it looks like this shooter was from a right wing family and then he started to sway hard left and fell in love with a transgender.  So it looks like he started to lose his mind the further left he fell.......til the point where he went out to murder someone, huh?  

Did I summarize that OK?  I know a lot of people on this site had this guy as a right winger.  

How do you know he started to sway left? He self identified as a Groyper on Facebook. 

I'm just reading the articles Mark, as I'm sure you are.  They are saying he was starting to get into arguments with his dad (who leans right) per his mom so I'm connecting the dots to him swaying left.  

I'm open to correction on this.  More will come out I'm sure.  The problem with more coming out and the damn media spins it one way or the other.  

Robinson had become more political recently, mother allegedly told police -CBS news.

The trouble with this "analysis" is that advocating for gay amd trans rights doesn't necessarily mean a move to "the left" overall. After all, he still did gun love and was still a devout MAGA.

What Robinson experienced was that the MAGA his family devoutly belonged to and dominated his thoughts and beliefs had made people like the trans person he met their prime targets. I mean, JESUS, how much time and ink has MAGA spent in the last few years demonizing and attacking trans people? Robinson's experience would be very much like that of a brown shirt and storm trooper in 1936 who met and fell in love with a Jewish woman (the plot of a very good novel, the name of which I can't recall). His ideological masters told him to hate the person he had just fallen in love with. That's a brutal conflict, and unfortunately for Kirk, Robinson had lotsa guns.

Robinson may or may not have rejected MAGA in toto. He may have dutifully licked his Trump blow-up doll twice a day. This is about a "forbidden" relationship. That sort of thing transcends politics. Robinson heard Kirk describe a person he loved as an "abomination" and someone who should be "removed from the face of the earth."

When I said a few days ago that my thoughts were with the shooter, I meant it. He was obviously a MAGA, given his armaments and the way of solving problems by shooting people. So I was wondering why he would kill a fellow MAGA--it had to be one of Charlie's most odious and offensive positions. It wasn't surprising that Robinson killed Kirk out of outrage. He also, in his own way, thought he was protecting his new beloved. Which, I think, he actually was. All trans people, especially in Utah, are a little bit safer because Kirk is dead.

I don't think a move towards trans and gay rights necessarily signifies a move to the left. He could still be a rabid MAGA and believe in things like Trump For Emperor and Kill All Brown People. He could still think Trump won the 2020 election. Et cetera.

Of course, the MAGA media is painting the picture that because he became an advocate for trans rights when talking to his family, he had automatically become a liberal right-winger. That way, they can blame the shooting on LIBERALS belch grunt snort.

I guess you've never heard of the Log Cabin Republicans. You might want to tell them they're not welcome in the MAGA party, and maybe don't qualify as RINO's either. 

Thanks for posting that. My take is that the older conservatives (leos working on the case and his parents) are misinterpreting what is going on. From what you posted, yes, I believe he was arguing with his parents, but I think what they were arguing about was his sexual preference and his choice of a girlfriend. His parents and the conservative leos are conflating sexual preference and politics.  They don't know that it is typically younger conservative males who are into dating trans males to females. 

They see anything associated with trans people as liberal, and given his parents' age and political affiliation, they likely have fully bought into all the anti-trans conspiracies that are regularly promoted by MAGA and think that if you are trans or date a trans person, you must be a liberal. I wouldn't be surprised if his parents believe their son was brainwashed when, in reality, he was just attracted to a trans girl. 

That's why I think the Groyper stuff is important. As I have said many times before at LVA,  there is a certain component of the MAGA/conservative movement (18-35 year-old males) who are very much into dating male-to-female trans and, in fact, often see them as the ideal partner. Typically, they say they prefer trans women because they are more feminine and adhere to traditional female gender roles. The leader of the Groyper movement has said publicly that it is gay to have sex with women and was caught watching gay porn on one of his live streams. So the shooter definitely fits with that conservative group on an ideological basis. So, I'd say if law enforcement, the Trump administration and his parents think he was brainwashed, then they ought to take a long, hard look at the Groyper movement. 

For those curious or for those who don't believe me about the younger conservative men being into trans women, you can find these folks on 4chan and in a lot of active forums/discord groups built around online gaming. 

One thing for sure, he was a very confused young dude to say the least.  How off your rocker must one be to gun down someone because that person doesn't approve of trans?   I'm certainly not going to gun somebody down for being for or against it, whether I think it is odd or not.  

I've had lots of gay people working for me.  My nephew just came out of closet.  I couldn't care less.  What does it matter to me?  I don't think you have to be a republican or a democrat to just behave in that manner, right?   

They couldn't care less, Kevin.  They'd just say "OK, what else can I help you with?"   Nobody would even bring it up, on our end that is.

Folks from the north often express surprise at how kind/friendly people are here.  A doctor from up east, visiting our hospital, said it best this way:  "Southern hospitality is not a myth!"

Candy