""I had enough of his hatred," the suspect, Tyler Robinson, wrote in a text message to his romantic partner, according to a transcript of their exchange released by the prosecutors. "Some hate can't be negotiated out." An assassin to the right of Kirk, irritated by Kirk's moderation, would have criticized him for being insufficiently hateful. The other charging documents describe Robinson's recent drift to the political left. Robinson's romance with a trans person, and decision to kill Kirk just as he was speaking about transgender mass shooters, strongly suggests that the alleged killer felt special zeal for the cause of trans rights, which is itself closely identified with the left."
"The evidence that Robinson was a "Groyper"-a member of an online further-right-than-thou movement that had harassed Kirk and President Donald Trump-was paltry. Why did anyone believe that idea to begin with? Already it bore the marks of an incipient conspiracy theory, a soothing nugget of esoteric knowledge, suppressed for political purposes. Many of those suckered in were victims of their own motivated reasoning. It hurts to admit that a movement you like has produced a bad person, and it hurts even more to admit that bitter truth to a gloating member of a movement you hate."
"But there is another reason this theory, which would have absolved the left completely, was so enticing. Lethal left-wing political violence, in America, has been a relative rarity, and the last time it was commonplace was when most Americans living today were not yet born. Seeing a real left-wing American killer, motivated by ideology, is like seeing a passenger pigeon or a saber-toothed tiger."
A Utah court filing and charging documents portray Tyler Robinson as drifting toward the political left and motivated by hatred directed at Charlie Kirk. Texts show Robinson saying, “I had enough of his hatred,” and prosecutors highlight his romance with a trans person and the timing of the killing as tied to Kirk’s remarks about transgender mass shooters. Evidence linking Robinson to the Groyper movement or other far-right groups was minimal. Many observers embraced the far-right theory through motivated reasoning because lethal left-wing political violence is historically rare in the United States.
Read at The Atlantic
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