the promised prince of QAnon, the Guy Who Exposed The Pedophiles, it would not be the Democrats, it would be Charlie Kirk, and he'd be able to use it to win the Groyper Wars forever and marginalise them for good.
Replies
the next few seasons of the show were supposed to be about him, and everyone knew it, and then nick fuentes, that poor, stupid, loyal twink, fucking beefed it for all of them by killing him. or engaging in stochastic terrorism such that he was killed by one of his followers. the world may never know
sep 12, 2025, 4:13 pm • 1,591 88 • view
Thank you for this enlightening thread!
sep 13, 2025, 1:17 am • 0 0 • view
Thank you, super valuable share.
sep 12, 2025, 7:12 pm • 3 0 • view
sure has a more lethal version of "Life of Brian" Peoples Front of Judea about it. We all hear the allusions to the Big Tent of Normies on the left, but I guess we need to be just as aware that there are lines on the right as well, QANON vs MAGA vs Groypers, Kirk, Loomer and all the militias......
sep 13, 2025, 12:05 am • 13 0 • view
Someone needs to meme this
sep 13, 2025, 2:28 pm • 2 1 • view
It's the Judean People's Front. Silly rabbit.
sep 13, 2025, 3:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Splitter!
sep 13, 2025, 3:45 pm • 2 0 • view
harrison is not a rando- he is within the r wing space. works for alex jones even
sep 14, 2025, 1:08 am • 0 0 • view
alex jones ppl trying to blame this on Jews seems par for the course
sep 14, 2025, 1:24 am • 3 0 • view
yes. It is going to be interesting to see how he avoids this as jones is allied to bibi
sep 14, 2025, 1:28 am • 0 0 • view
Great analysis
sep 12, 2025, 7:42 pm • 4 0 • view
This plays like every ‘palace intrigue’, autocratic succession, mob war movie I’ve ever seen. Therefore it must be true!
sep 13, 2025, 12:16 am • 4 0 • view
Do you think some MAGA will go after Fuentes now? And how does Laura Loomer fit into this?
sep 12, 2025, 7:10 pm • 14 0 • view
I'm unwilling to make confident predictions about what any sub-factions of MAGA are going to do as a consequence of these actions; I don't think Loomer has the kind of goon squad Fuentes has or once had but she's absolutely... part of this entire fucked up ecosystem.
sep 12, 2025, 7:15 pm • 75 1 • view
How much russian influence or money went to kirk (the mention of poole reminded me of this issue)?
sep 12, 2025, 7:22 pm • 25 2 • view
that's a question i'd LOVE to know the answer to. there's a LOT of Putin's money in GOP politics but I don't get the vibe that that's where it was *going* per se, and that might be part of this all.
sep 12, 2025, 7:32 pm • 42 0 • view
As far as I know, no Russian $$, just plain MAGA big donors. Additional info in here: baptistnews.com/article/how-...
sep 12, 2025, 8:08 pm • 3 0 • view
thank you for writing this for the ‘olds’ 😬
sep 12, 2025, 7:35 pm • 38 0 • view
I read a reference to Kirk being a paid influencer in the Trump campaign treasure chest. Don't ask me where I got that, as my head is spinning with 10 years of stuff I never wanted to know and dear god hepme hepme hepme.
sep 12, 2025, 8:51 pm • 2 0 • view
Counterpoint: according to various "insider reports" Loomer has THE Goon Squad of all Good Squads: Trump's drug-riddled brain. From handcuffing herself to social media doors to the White House Oval in 10 years. 🤯
sep 12, 2025, 8:29 pm • 4 0 • view
i'm about as confident as i can be at this point that neither Trump himself nor anybody in his court has direct and immediate responsibility for this. people said "false flag" the second it happened and it did not feel that way to me and the more we find out about the perp the more i feel i'm right
sep 12, 2025, 8:31 pm • 8 0 • view
But it does appear to be a "false flag op" to me because Dems got blamed for it...I mean, from Trump to Congress, MAGA were ready to kill us all. Hard to keep score, of course, since there are now enough crazies everywhere I look to wonder if this is a simulation.
sep 12, 2025, 8:56 pm • 0 0 • view
*Goon Squad of all *Goon Squads" (Very unfortunate typo.)
sep 12, 2025, 8:53 pm • 0 0 • view
English needs an antonym for ‘ecosystem’ 😉
sep 14, 2025, 1:52 pm • 1 0 • view
So you are telling me that the guy who shot him did us a favor in ways much bigger than most of us ever thought?
sep 12, 2025, 9:00 pm • 33 0 • view
The idea that Kirk would be president - chilling
sep 12, 2025, 9:52 pm • 20 0 • view
If nothing else the American far right just lost one of its top three or so most talented organizers.
sep 13, 2025, 2:20 am • 10 0 • view
charlie's body, nick's choice.
sep 13, 2025, 5:40 pm • 2 0 • view
Wowza.
sep 14, 2025, 12:17 am • 0 0 • view
I hope for his mom's sake that Nick doesn't still live with her.
sep 12, 2025, 11:13 pm • 3 0 • view
Thank you for your analysis. Much appreciated.
sep 12, 2025, 8:50 pm • 4 0 • view
Pool's obviously dumb as a post and his charisma has limits. I think he's already gone just as far as the Peter Principle allows.
sep 12, 2025, 5:11 pm • 87 0 • view
christian conservatives aren't gonna ever go for an unmarried, childless gamer, no matter how racist he is
sep 12, 2025, 7:03 pm • 108 1 • view
Never underestimate the capacity for horrible choices unlocked by folks who think "we'll put the guy we hate in charge for now, and get rid of him when his usefulness comes to an end" is good strategy.
sep 12, 2025, 7:29 pm • 6 0 • view
right, but trump has being a big business guy who at least sold us on a fantasy of Success™️ and christian prosperity gospel people believe that means god loves him
sep 13, 2025, 9:22 am • 1 0 • view
That explains why the rank & file fundies bought it, not why their leaders decided to sell it.
sep 13, 2025, 8:23 pm • 0 0 • view
I don't know, they went for Trump. I know he's not unmarried, childless or a gamer but he's ostensibly anathema in other ways and they go for him bc "God chooses sometimes an imperfect vessel". Would they really not go for an unmarried, childless gamer who otherwise ticked boxes in the same way?
sep 12, 2025, 7:11 pm • 2 0 • view
Mind you the fact we're talking about Tim Pool makes the question moot, I just think the charisma thing is a bigger issue there.
sep 12, 2025, 7:12 pm • 2 0 • view
It needs to be said that the Republican party was politically rudderless after G-Dubs fucked up the country and the Count of Mostly Crisco was the only one with the bravery to spit supremacist talking points on main. Now that everyone's spouting supremacist shit on main, that's not gonna work again
sep 12, 2025, 7:42 pm • 4 0 • view
The supremacists, authoritarians, and other bastards HAD to forgive him all that because he very quickly became the tip of the spear. That's how you get preachers blaming Hills for Bill's sex pestery but excusing Donny's actual rape. Pool, otoh, brings nothing new to the table. Except maybe the hat
sep 12, 2025, 7:45 pm • 3 0 • view
I regret to inform you that Tim Pool has a partner and a child now
sep 13, 2025, 12:21 am • 2 0 • view
oh no that sucks for them
sep 13, 2025, 12:23 am • 6 0 • view
Right?????
sep 13, 2025, 12:24 am • 3 0 • view
Charlie Kirk was really good at what he did, so that's something to bear in mind that I didn't know.
sep 12, 2025, 7:05 pm • 33 0 • view
Even Bernie Sanders called that out in his statement on the murder.
sep 12, 2025, 7:31 pm • 0 0 • view
I don't know if I agree with JC about Kirk's VAR here... but the freak out reactions make me think a lot of Kirk fans agree with JC. I have long maintained lots of people, even majorities, can still be wrong on the merits... but maybe I am underestimating his pull/influence.
sep 12, 2025, 7:07 pm • 28 0 • view
Further evidence for the "we know it wasn't a leftist because while we kind of know about these people we don't know enough to even tell them apart" thesis lol bsky.app/profile/erud...
sep 12, 2025, 7:15 pm • 1 0 • view
true though to an extent, the majority can't be wrong about being popular since it's sort of a closed loop.
sep 12, 2025, 7:08 pm • 15 0 • view
He was definitely "popular." I have doubts about his actual efficacy and whether he genuinely did something somebody else would not have done just as readily if the wheel stopped on a different square kind of thing, but clearly he was considered highly valued by a lot of folks not me.
sep 12, 2025, 7:17 pm • 18 0 • view
I thought chuckles was going to be a footnote when Trump lost, but Elon's cash (and possible fuckery) combined with a poor campaign once again by the Democrats won the day for Trump. Kirk is good at what he does, but it's that kind of Criss Angel magic that only works with edits and camera angles.
sep 13, 2025, 1:48 am • 5 0 • view
Up against someone that is prepared that he can't cut the footage or just talk over non stop thing didn't always go his way. So I really do wonder how that goes over against adult opponents. We'll never know.
sep 13, 2025, 1:49 am • 5 0 • view
Having watched him (with horror) over much the last decade (gawd), it's also clear that he was improving very rapidly at the media/influence game. Years of practice with live audiences will do that. Having a stable of billionaires at the ready pays for the spin amplifier.
sep 13, 2025, 2:05 pm • 1 0 • view
I think a lot of people underestimate the TP influence, especially on campuses where College Republicans have real presence. Kirk was beloved by "Seven Mountains" Xian dominionists AND by billionaires worried about MAGA aging demographics. He delivered for both.
sep 13, 2025, 1:53 pm • 15 4 • view
So is there a chance Nick ends up in gitmo? Because that would be hilarious.
sep 12, 2025, 5:47 pm • 27 0 • view
If only. But of course not.
sep 12, 2025, 8:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Very interesting analysis.
sep 13, 2025, 9:35 am • 1 0 • view
and nobody's going to be able to grab the ring - CERTAINLY not Fuentes - because you need to be able to code-switch between Christian Pastor and also Charm The Grandmas and ALSO gutter-racist antisemite Branch Hitlerian Dialect. and nobody is going to be able to do that like he could.
sep 12, 2025, 4:13 pm • 1,938 165 • view
So a Groyper may have inadvertently saved the world by proxy. Ironic, but good, in a FAFO sort of way.
sep 12, 2025, 8:51 pm • 9 0 • view
no, Fuentes is definitely not ready for prime time, despite having dined with Trump at least once. he looks like a grubby potato
sep 12, 2025, 6:47 pm • 13 0 • view
Thanks for that. I needed to know that there isn't some jerk on the sidelines who can jump into that ugly space.
sep 12, 2025, 8:34 pm • 4 0 • view
This is fascinating, and it puts a lot of the reaction to Kirk's death in a new light - it's not just bigots vs. marginalized, it's people who responded to Kirk's charisma vs. people for whom his charisma meant nothing, two overlapping but not identical opposed sets.
sep 12, 2025, 5:39 pm • 46 3 • view
Halfway through this thread, and it’s like… did we just dodge a major catastrophic bullet here?
sep 12, 2025, 7:16 pm • 29 0 • view
Well, Kirk certainly didn't.
sep 13, 2025, 1:13 am • 7 0 • view
👀
sep 12, 2025, 4:32 pm • 2 0 • view
To your point - this is also why Ben Shapiro would never be able to successfully fill the same role.
sep 12, 2025, 5:50 pm • 31 0 • view
Precisely. Ben Shapiro is a geek who wishes he were a 6'2" infantry Colonel, and the fact that he's not drives a massive inferiority complex that is immediately obvious. Desperation is the worst cologne.
sep 13, 2025, 5:53 pm • 1 1 • view
I mean, there’s that, but more specifically I meant that being Jewish precludes him from taking up the mantle of Christian nationalism in the Republican Party. The true believers will gladly have him in their ecosystem, but they’ll never in a million years let him truly *lead* them.
sep 13, 2025, 6:23 pm • 4 0 • view
some people have said "oh the billionaires will just decant another one" or install Tim Pool or Hanania or something like that but, I need you to believe me when I say that that is *not how this works*, and Turning Point was the work of decades, and Charlie Kirk was load-bearing for it.
sep 12, 2025, 4:13 pm • 1,887 118 • view
i understand that we're real deep in the shit in lifechanging ways that we will not understand the full ramifications of for decades but i won't lie to you this is the most optimistic thread i've read in a week.
sep 12, 2025, 5:19 pm • 39 0 • view
I feel like what I see in what you're saying is that this is the assassination of RFK (Sr.) for MAGA and we should be watching for their 1968 DNC down the pipeline.
sep 12, 2025, 6:10 pm • 62 6 • view
Interesting, but in this analogy, what is their Vietnam War? What is so deeply unpopular that it steamrolls their rift and renders it largely irrelevant? Trump and MAGA itself?
sep 12, 2025, 7:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Immigration as one driver. Farmers have lost their workforce over the raids and deportations. And many Farm products were exported but not any more. Plus food inflation is already skyrocketing.
sep 12, 2025, 9:09 pm • 3 0 • view
The Epstein Files, I would hope and assume. Like, surely (he sweated, being not at all sure) pedophilia is still considered distasteful by a lot of the base.
sep 12, 2025, 7:29 pm • 10 0 • view
👍 If (optimistically I’d like to say when) the Epstein Files are released, they’re as explosive as I assume they have to be to get as much pushback from Trump and the current spineless Congressional GOP, that could have as catastrophic an effect on MAGA as the Vietnam War did on LBJ’s presidency.
sep 12, 2025, 7:34 pm • 4 0 • view
Hard to see even MAGA staying on board with video footage or some other damning evidence of Trump and Epstein molesting children together. But who knows? Something has kept Congressional opportunists in the GOP from throwing Trump under the bus.
sep 12, 2025, 7:37 pm • 3 0 • view
yes! yes, exactly.
sep 12, 2025, 6:19 pm • 21 0 • view
People complain about Democratic infighting. This is another level.
sep 12, 2025, 6:20 pm • 9 0 • view
It has been going on for awhile. The Reagan/Bush GOP is nothing like today's MAGA controlled GOP. Remember the 2018 House election? They purged the old guard of the Repubs.
sep 12, 2025, 9:05 pm • 4 0 • view
Historically fascists don't like or trust even each other. They maintain alliances right up until they don't think they need to anymore and then they purge. The more power they have at that point, the more bloody the purge.
sep 13, 2025, 3:27 pm • 3 0 • view
Ok this is super helpful. Thank you!!!
sep 12, 2025, 7:55 pm • 1 0 • view
2025-2012 cannot be easily replaced. Are we on a Brigham Young or James Strang timeline? We know how these situations go!
sep 12, 2025, 5:04 pm • 1 0 • view
I just hope we're not on the Nehemiah Scudder timeline.
sep 12, 2025, 7:08 pm • 3 0 • view
Are you saying this was a "go back in time and kill baby hitler" moment?
sep 12, 2025, 6:22 pm • 6 0 • view
i'm avoiding saying that with a carefulness that suggests that i may have some thoughts on the matter
sep 12, 2025, 6:27 pm • 28 0 • view
Not saying the theory isn't sound, but Kirk changed his stance, basically saying: I trust the president when he tells me there's nothing there, and we should put this all behind us. That detail can still support your theory (he could swoop in, and claim he was fooled too), but needs update.
sep 12, 2025, 5:46 pm • 90 2 • view
yeah but he changed it back again more recently. tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwik... I mean not really, as JCC points out it was undoubtedly more calculatedly cynical than actually giving a shit about the victims, but, yanno.
sep 12, 2025, 6:48 pm • 26 2 • view
I thought the groypers were mad about that too?
sep 12, 2025, 8:05 pm • 7 0 • view
like this bsky.app/profile/matr...
sep 12, 2025, 8:07 pm • 10 0 • view
I understand that he recently reversed that.
sep 12, 2025, 6:34 pm • 2 0 • view
As an observation on this *specifically*, does anyone remember Andrew Breitbart? How much clout does Breitbart News carry, now that he’s gone? I think you’re right about this; part of the issues lies in his insight & flexibility, and part lies in his ability to be personable while being horrid.
sep 12, 2025, 8:20 pm • 6 0 • view
When Breitbart expired under the newspaper rack Bannon was involved with him but I don't know if this lasted.
sep 13, 2025, 1:14 am • 1 0 • view
I believe Bannon moved on; I don’t know if he took his money with him.
sep 13, 2025, 3:17 am • 1 0 • view
Super excellent thread. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
sep 12, 2025, 6:25 pm • 2 0 • view
This is so right. They can't just decant another one!! Have you SEEN Richard Hanania, heard Tim Pool SPEAK?? These little weirdos are never going to have the broad appeal of Charlie Kirk. He was genuinely the full package
sep 12, 2025, 6:26 pm • 7 0 • view
Or Miller? Yet Kirk could argue for the same crap but he came off as a tRumpy Bear.
sep 12, 2025, 9:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Reading this thread has me swinging between “Know thy enemy” and “It is so fucking exhausting to care about any of this and I just want to go outside and take a walk”
sep 12, 2025, 5:55 pm • 75 0 • view
lmaooooooo imagine what it felt like writing it *highfives*
sep 12, 2025, 6:08 pm • 49 0 • view
Thank you for your service 🙏
sep 12, 2025, 6:11 pm • 13 0 • view
Thank *you* for wishing ill on fetid bigots!
sep 12, 2025, 8:58 pm • 8 0 • view
Us 60+ and 70+ just said we need to understand what all these terms mean, looked them up, tried to follow this and then hubby just sighed and said, "I am going to go outside and fire up the tractor."
sep 12, 2025, 6:27 pm • 10 1 • view
What about Crowder? People were even getting them mixed up.
sep 12, 2025, 4:34 pm • 12 0 • view
Pretty clearly abused his wife (at least verbally if not more) before she divorced him. That’s nothing (or a positive) for the Groypers but probably hurts with code-switching for people who are merely confused old racists
sep 12, 2025, 4:38 pm • 41 0 • view
Also Crowder has vanished into the ether ever since his divorce
sep 12, 2025, 5:15 pm • 21 0 • view
Kirk was a dropout who's work includes an Ayn Rand term paper published as a book. A classic. His job was giving idiots on campus talking points. His influence is way overestimated. Radicalism today is driven mostly by social media. Youtube and Instagram dwarf Kirk, not hard.
sep 12, 2025, 4:30 pm • 8 0 • view
Dare I hope this might result in the end of actual power for these types of guys? Or is it too soon to know?
sep 12, 2025, 6:54 pm • 5 0 • view
Lord, I hope so. I do think they *really* fucked themselves with this, my entire thesis is that this was an unrecoverable unforced error on their part, and I mean, I wanna be right, which means I have to resist motivated reasoning, but I also think I'm right, enough to be hopeful
sep 12, 2025, 6:55 pm • 25 1 • view
Faction fight! Ever read "Push Comes to Shove"? When pro labor democratic socialists split with the anti war democratic socialists. We ended up with Nixon. Humphrey vs McGovern factions couldn't come together.
sep 12, 2025, 8:58 pm • 2 0 • view
As someone else has already pointed out, it's "SA vs. SS Part Deux" all over again. I also hope you are correct, J.C., and you make a strong case for it. There will unfortunately be a period of troubles no matter what, but perhaps the next crop of weeds has been pulled early before they take root.
sep 12, 2025, 9:09 pm • 1 0 • view
What was the substance of the beef between Kirk and Fuentes?
sep 12, 2025, 4:18 pm • 6 0 • view
Should Israel be supported to help bring about armageddon (Kirk) or is there no use for Jews beyond target practice (Fuentes)?
sep 14, 2025, 6:28 am • 4 0 • view
Crypto-nazis vs. open nazis.
sep 12, 2025, 4:19 pm • 4 0 • view
Is there any ideological distinction? Or is it all performative?
sep 12, 2025, 4:26 pm • 1 0 • view
significant ideological distinctions, although Kirk gave up on a couple of the more important ones to keep the neo-nazis on board
sep 12, 2025, 4:28 pm • 4 0 • view
Just started reading and it kinda mirrors the leftist/liberal divide here as to purity vs pragmatism.
sep 12, 2025, 4:29 pm • 4 0 • view
www.isdglobal.org/digital_disp...
sep 12, 2025, 4:21 pm • 26 3 • view
Thanks! Also, you may truly want to start diving into the Baudrillard I’m finding it helps provide a mental framework to understand this insanity.
sep 12, 2025, 4:28 pm • 7 1 • view
Baudrillard and Barthes, baybeee, all day every day
sep 12, 2025, 4:32 pm • 5 0 • view
YOUR SUBJECT IS MY OBJECT ALWAYS AND 4EVA
sep 12, 2025, 4:33 pm • 6 0 • view
many people are saying
sep 12, 2025, 4:29 pm • 5 0 • view
aw nuts i don't wanna read theory
sep 12, 2025, 4:29 pm • 3 0 • view
I know it sounds crazy but theory is one of the only ways to reduce my blood pressure and anger now that I’m sober.
sep 12, 2025, 4:32 pm • 3 0 • view
This is a fantastic thread that seems to explain why so many Rs are taking maximalist Groyper positions publicly and translating that into action. Makes it look like Rs are really afraid of them, so maybe the Groypers won? And like people who win, they now want more? Full recoginition?
sep 12, 2025, 5:55 pm • 3 0 • view
I did have the hack thought of "so how does this affect the maga movement" without really knowing anything in depth about tpusa. This helps thanks
sep 12, 2025, 4:57 pm • 4 0 • view
Looks like we dodged the bullet that he didn't.
sep 12, 2025, 5:08 pm • 22 0 • view
🔥
sep 12, 2025, 5:12 pm • 3 0 • view
That's entirely correct, you can't just substitute these people. I mean some you can, but just like Trump himself there was no Kirk but Kirk.
sep 12, 2025, 4:30 pm • 90 1 • view
I also got the sense that he kept his nose actually clean; I would have been actually surprised if there were a sexual assault claim against him, etc. He had a long game all planned out, and he kept his eyes on the prize.
sep 12, 2025, 4:31 pm • 93 1 • view
There will be others who try but I think they'll have the DeSantis problem. The OG really nailed what it was trying to do.
sep 12, 2025, 4:36 pm • 64 1 • view
Not easy to do in that crowd. TPUSA events were CPAC like in sexual freedom as I understand it.
sep 12, 2025, 5:48 pm • 8 0 • view
One question about this, because I don’t follow them closely. But I listen to Knowledge Fight and Nick is pretty regularly on InfoWars as a guest. Nick seemed pretty eager to throw Trump over on the Epstein thing, and I thought Kirk was more loyal. Did that shift?
sep 12, 2025, 5:14 pm • 11 0 • view
the more i look into recent speech acts the more it feels like the two of them were doing this weird fucking dance of positionality with each other around the epstein files
sep 12, 2025, 5:21 pm • 21 0 • view
i'm confident that the Groyper Wars were starting back up about it but I'm less certain than I'd like to be what the sides actually were or stood for
sep 12, 2025, 5:21 pm • 19 0 • view
Yeah, they definitely hated each other.
sep 12, 2025, 5:39 pm • 5 0 • view
Yeah, as near as I can tell Kirk went full "trust the process" in mid-July and I don't think he's done anything to walk that back (though grain of salt, I try not to get any of him on me). My first thought re: timing was "someone saw Kirk fold on Epstein, saw the birthday book, and..."
sep 12, 2025, 6:12 pm • 11 0 • view
Regardless of whether the shooter was actually a groyper, one dog is certainly hollering like it's been hit: bsky.app/profile/chro...
sep 12, 2025, 6:25 pm • 55 11 • view
i'm pretty certain he was at this point, i can't figure out what other group would dress up as Pepe and Trump for Halloween and write stale memes on their bullet casings
sep 12, 2025, 10:08 pm • 3 0 • view
Been thinking about it for different reasons. But once they’re gone, a person can’t be replaced.
sep 12, 2025, 8:56 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes. I've been saying this about Turnip for a while now, that even tho' JD is a Thiel acolyte (or whatever) there is no way Vance replaces Trump if the "awful" should happen. I hadn't really understood or appreciated the same thing in Kirk's universe, but thanks to this thread now I can see it.
sep 12, 2025, 9:06 pm • 3 0 • view
Will learning more about the groyper war stuff clue me in to how/why kirk was exceptionally load bearing?
sep 12, 2025, 9:23 pm • 0 0 • view
read about the Groyper Wars, read about Turning Point USA and its history and its involvement with Trump's campaign in '24, that'll bring you up to speed
sep 12, 2025, 9:30 pm • 2 0 • view
@velshi.com Here is your Breaking News A block for next weekend - this Right on Right violence needs investigation and nobody in MSM has or will have any perspective on this.
sep 14, 2025, 1:04 pm • 0 0 • view
There's a joke in here somewhere about how people say if they could time travel they'd use it to go back in time and eliminate Hitler
sep 12, 2025, 7:33 pm • 8 0 • view
Uh, yeah. bsky.app/profile/ston...
sep 12, 2025, 9:09 pm • 3 0 • view
was listening to The Bulwark FY Pod last night and PARKLAND SURVIVOR Cam Kasky, of all people, said that Charlie Kirk in person could be perfectly pleasant and affable, whereas other RW personalities came across as robotic / weird / off-putting.
sep 12, 2025, 4:17 pm • 178 10 • view
One of Charlie Kirk's HS buddies was interviewed on PBS Newshour last night; seemed conflicted; sorrowful that his former buddy/mentor was killed, and wanting us to know he'd dissociated himself years ago from Kirk's forays into racism/sexism/homophobia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpDe...
sep 12, 2025, 6:19 pm • 6 1 • view
This looks like a worthy segment to watch. Thank you.
sep 12, 2025, 6:25 pm • 3 0 • view
I'm sure this is true or even in this corrupted age he wouldn't be currently slobbered over by the entire fucking media. He charmed them personally. If they thought he was an unpleasant prick, it'd show.
sep 12, 2025, 6:51 pm • 11 0 • view
Before the Parkland shooting I found myself working with and befriending Cam’s father at a rock show. (He and I are both avid music junkies.) It was heartbreaking to see this guy suddenly on MSNBC talking about the shooting and also inspiring to see his son take the mantle as an outspoken activist.
sep 12, 2025, 7:08 pm • 9 0 • view
Both Cam and his brother were in school that day and the father, Jeff Kasky, was suddenly on tv talking about how the two boys were handled by the traumatized but effective school staff. It made the shooting so much less removed for me, even though I was viewing the news in California.
sep 12, 2025, 7:10 pm • 4 0 • view
I only know Cam for his public appearances (as the vast majority of people do) and because of the show he's currently co-hosting. It was quite striking to hear him being so candid about the way certain agitators / personalities could be super smooth *to him* as a Parkland survivor.
sep 12, 2025, 7:28 pm • 4 0 • view
I have never met Cam or his brother but worked an annual event alongside his father for a number of years and always found him good natured, thoughtful, and enjoyable with a healthy but not mean spirited sarcastic streak. We get along well when we see one another and I’d bet he’s a great father.
sep 13, 2025, 5:08 pm • 0 0 • view
From 09 to about 2017 I used to mix in the young pundit circle in DC and the ones on the right were oddly better company than the kids who worked at CAP.
sep 12, 2025, 5:01 pm • 42 0 • view
But there’s only so many rooftop parties you can go to with warmongers before you start daydreaming about pushing one off the edge.
sep 12, 2025, 5:07 pm • 76 0 • view
in hindsight I have at least one stark regret
sep 12, 2025, 5:22 pm • 24 0 • view
My wife still reminds me of the conflicted expression on my face when I learned that one particularly reprehensible guy was also a big Porsche fan.
sep 12, 2025, 5:42 pm • 17 0 • view
I feel like Porsche, taken as a whole, is too broad/common an interest to separate "guys like me" from "guys I don't like". Rest easy knowing that that guy probably doesn't fully appreciate the 959
sep 13, 2025, 1:21 am • 1 0 • view
He owned a really nice 993. :(
sep 13, 2025, 3:09 am • 3 0 • view
I saw an article on the cars Trump had owned, more interesting than I would have guessed, and miles were put on them. The most relatable thing I've ever seen about him. No idea who picked them, or who drove them, just public records, so he might not have been involved.
sep 12, 2025, 8:56 pm • 5 0 • view
Ever since I saw his Diablo being auctioned I’ve been saying that car will win Pebble Beach 30 years from now. They love their Nazi cars at Pebble.
sep 12, 2025, 9:57 pm • 4 0 • view
I'm not sure this is so odd when you consider that, unlike their leftwing peers, they can be carefree because they don't have to (and indeed can't) worry about anyone or anything. Except, as it turns out, armed nihilists inspired by their fellow pundits.
sep 12, 2025, 6:05 pm • 13 0 • view
narcissistic abusers are notoriously charming!!! they can fool everyone!!! they use empathy to convey their lies & manipulations most effectively, so people FEEL they are authentic & genuine.
sep 13, 2025, 1:39 am • 0 0 • view
That’s partly why so many in the media are reacting the way they did, because they’d met the guy and he was nice to them
sep 12, 2025, 5:38 pm • 28 1 • view
absolutely.
sep 12, 2025, 6:51 pm • 1 0 • view
Strong possibility, yes.
sep 12, 2025, 5:44 pm • 4 0 • view
That and he’s a class compatriot. School shootings, well that’s a shame but they’re a statistic of anybodies. Charlie Kirk is One of Them whether it’s a media elite or a politician. He was in the club and a wake up call that they’re at risk too
sep 12, 2025, 6:35 pm • 10 0 • view
The language has varied, but the general idea has been stated quite openly by - any person hosting a podcast / vodcast. Even those who don't habitually go on tour for big live events.
sep 12, 2025, 6:47 pm • 3 0 • view
There was a leftish debate guy on TikTok that wept and lost a looooooooooooot of fans
sep 12, 2025, 6:52 pm • 2 0 • view
Something similar was often said about Trump, especially before 2021
sep 12, 2025, 5:49 pm • 12 1 • view
Absolutely! Being charismatic and likable in person is the secret sauce for politics
sep 12, 2025, 5:52 pm • 11 1 • view
Fuentes, meanwhile, lives with his mom and maced someone who rang his doorbell in the face once.
sep 12, 2025, 6:52 pm • 10 0 • view
Lol. But yeah, this is how you know that unlike Charlie, he doesn’t have serious political ambitions. Being king of the maladjusted edgelords is really his only goal.
sep 12, 2025, 6:56 pm • 9 0 • view
This is super work. He absolutely was the next in line. Vance has all the charm of a countertop, and couldn't carry the movement. Kirk helped JD get his current job, and would have ridden that relationship past him at some point.
sep 12, 2025, 7:12 pm • 10 1 • view
Yes and apologies to countertops.
sep 12, 2025, 8:23 pm • 11 1 • view
People completely misunderstand the role of $. Generally speaking, $ flows to people w/ a message $ likes. $ doesn’t create the message, it only platforms it. Sometimes it totally fails (Jeb! 2016.) And when you platform a ‘narcissistic, true believer’, $ control is always a tenuous illusion.
sep 12, 2025, 6:19 pm • 14 1 • view
To add a little more context, my uncle was an MD w/ $20-30m. He sat on an industry supported board in the 70s & 80s which ridiculed concerns re: DDT, Dioxins & global warming. It would be nicer to say he was paid off, but the reality is that he had shit views well before industry platformed him.
sep 12, 2025, 10:42 pm • 2 0 • view
I sure fucking hope you’re right!
sep 12, 2025, 9:56 pm • 2 0 • view
I don't think Tim Pool could win an election for dogcatcher
sep 12, 2025, 4:58 pm • 33 0 • view
He'd say something weird like, "Unlike my leftist opponent, I would never derive sexual gratification from all the dog strangling." And then get red and mad online when people point out that's not what dogcatchers do.
sep 12, 2025, 6:05 pm • 6 0 • view
Especially, God forbid, if he had to take off the beanie for a debate or press photo
sep 12, 2025, 4:59 pm • 27 0 • view
I think you're right, and it'd always been on the periphery of my awareness of how big a deal he was, but like, I never stepped into those circles, always looked from the outside in, so I only have the haziest awareness of the infighting.
sep 12, 2025, 5:27 pm • 4 0 • view
Didn't Loomer put the hit out on Chuckles for the Epstein files thing a while ago too?
sep 12, 2025, 11:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Hanania just makes my skin crawl in a very specific way. And your statements certainly mesh with what he was saying the other day.
sep 12, 2025, 5:58 pm • 17 3 • view
40 hours ago, I wrote a correct prediction, followed by a metaphor which you have just explained better than I could. bsky.app/profile/john...
sep 12, 2025, 5:54 pm • 13 0 • view
What shocks me is Thiel and Vance haven't tried
sep 12, 2025, 4:25 pm • 24 0 • view
Mr. Antichrist and trans aren't going TRANS enough because they lack creativity.
sep 12, 2025, 5:08 pm • 0 0 • view
Neither of them can code switch well enough between all three of those things and they may be self-aware enough to know that.
sep 12, 2025, 4:38 pm • 56 0 • view
Thiel doesn't want to be the leader, he wants the leader to do what he tells him to. Vance is just woefully brimming with inauthenticity that he can't code switch because nobody believes that he believes any of it. He's a toady.
sep 12, 2025, 4:41 pm • 94 1 • view
JD Vance wants to be Charlie Kirk so bad it is physically painful to watch
sep 12, 2025, 4:46 pm • 83 3 • view
The pall-bearer bit loading him onto Air Force 2 was almost too much. Like goddamn JD, have at least a little self-respect, you're the Vice President!
sep 12, 2025, 4:49 pm • 16 1 • view
but he is just so very bad at it which is great!
sep 12, 2025, 4:46 pm • 44 1 • view
like maybe if Vance's career goes differently and he has time to develop as a public presence, whitewash his sketchier associations, etc, maybe he DOES become a real threat.
sep 12, 2025, 5:24 pm • 17 0 • view
But he accidentally fell ass-backwards into the vice presidency while he's still a thirty-something repellent dork who tries to be earnest and affable but has a nasty streak he can't hide. And now America hates him. A lot! It's a happy ending, really.
sep 12, 2025, 5:24 pm • 40 0 • view
I don't think he ever had a shot. He's always been so to his bones desperate to seek the approval of others, such a vessel of emptiness that he could never foster the charisma needed to charm people. Having the endless backing of capital can get you the VP, but it can't maintain a movement.
sep 12, 2025, 6:23 pm • 6 0 • view
Thiel is smart enough to know his views are wildly unpopular and so he works through puppets like Vance. Vance's problem is that he's so deeply unlikable and devoid of a sense of self that everyone just inherently wants to give him a swirly.
sep 12, 2025, 6:21 pm • 11 3 • view
Thanks for the detail here. I just said to my son that this was probably related to the Epstein files.
sep 12, 2025, 4:45 pm • 8 0 • view
coda, more than a correction: bsky.app/profile/did:...
sep 12, 2025, 6:13 pm • 767 35 • view
@skyview.social unroll please this thread on Kirk being stochiastic-killed by Fuentes for not yielding on Epstein.
sep 13, 2025, 12:03 am • 1 0 • view
Can I share this elsewhere? It's really good and helpful and a reminder that all the best journalism for my purposes is done informally or in small newsletters and podcasts these days.
sep 12, 2025, 6:59 pm • 452 3 • view
p.s. directly below your excellent thread in my feed:
sep 12, 2025, 7:02 pm • 27 0 • view
Absolutely! If I'm writing stuff on here it's because I'd like it to be helpful to other people. OR I am howling at the moon. Honestly a lot more of the latter than the former but this thread was definitely the former! =D
sep 12, 2025, 7:03 pm • 392 3 • view
Very helpful to this civilian normie who doesn't want to know more but also does, or at least wants to "understand" what's going on! Thank you!
sep 13, 2025, 12:52 am • 3 0 • view
Messaged you.... More thanks.
sep 12, 2025, 7:14 pm • 72 0 • view
I follow you on fb but am can't be one of your friends on fb. Therefore I'm taking this opportunity to say that I've been enjoying reading your material for a few months now and am really glad that I've found you! Thanks for your work, Rebecca, to help save our precious democracy.
sep 13, 2025, 1:42 am • 8 0 • view
Holy moly and thank you for going down the rabbit hole for the rest of us
sep 12, 2025, 8:16 pm • 13 1 • view
Thanks for sharing this! Can't wait for it to be a @joshjohnsoncomedy.bsky.social hour in a couple months.
sep 13, 2025, 12:42 pm • 0 0 • view
Your theory certainly explains why JD Vance is in deep mourning, enough to fly Kirk's body in a military jet and have military dress uniformed pallbearers. [Kirk never served in any military of which I am aware.] Just another self-promoting Christofascist going for the $$.
sep 12, 2025, 8:23 pm • 30 2 • view
How do you incorporate Fuentes antagonising Alex Jones on InfoWars though over Alex's defence of Trump's handling of Epstein? Fuentes is really explicitly against Trump on Jones show, they've been arguing it for a good couple of weeks; is it just posturing on IW?
sep 12, 2025, 7:45 pm • 7 0 • view
For reference the @knowledgefight.bsky.social gents have covered Fuentes' recent appearances on IW over the past month.
sep 12, 2025, 7:54 pm • 2 0 • view
We want to offer you a Netflix deal, 2-3 seasons
sep 12, 2025, 9:39 pm • 10 0 • view
Ok I get Groyper Wars now www.newsweek.com/groyper-char...
sep 12, 2025, 7:07 pm • 16 2 • view
Further recommended reading choices: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperre... www.thenerdreich.com washingtonspectator.org www.instituteofunreality.com nafoforum.org apnews.com/article/russ... pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
sep 12, 2025, 7:51 pm • 3 0 • view
This is brilliant. I saw it because of @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social request to share. I hope you will write it in an essay where it can reach far beyond Bluesky. While you are at it please explain Groyper Wars for us non-cognoscenti
sep 12, 2025, 7:05 pm • 15 0 • view
Kirk was an absolute "kingmaker" for lack of a better phrase. I doubt he could unify a coalition. Just as Vance is seen as this future as well, but they are (obviously) not as in control of the world as they think they are.
sep 13, 2025, 1:05 am • 0 0 • view
@skyview.social unroll please
sep 12, 2025, 7:39 pm • 2 0 • view
@unroll.skywriter.blue unroll please
sep 12, 2025, 7:07 pm • 1 0 • view
Excellent thread, thanks. When I saw this, I thought: Ah. Let's try not to read into this too much – but it sure is interesting for the people who know the context.
sep 13, 2025, 7:54 am • 5 1 • view
Only one of Kirk or Fuentes could fit the frame of a 21st century William F Buckley – in his presentation as a moderating force or in his practice as an accelerant.
sep 13, 2025, 7:56 am • 3 0 • view
This is super interesting! Thank you! Please @unroll.skywriter.blue
sep 12, 2025, 11:42 pm • 1 0 • view
The thread as a shareable webpage: https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:dgnvlsiinly3i2waxoltdbyl/post/3lynns5iuu22f.
sep 12, 2025, 11:42 pm • 3 0 • view
“Code-switching” is a great way to describe this talent that the disingenuous have culturally appropriated from POC. If you don’t know the term, it describes how Black or Hispanic people will use their “white voice” in mixed professional formal settings where speaking naturally would threaten ofays.
sep 12, 2025, 7:24 pm • 45 0 • view
& his code switching abilities is why you have so many elite pundits declaring Kirk did politics “the right way”
sep 13, 2025, 5:42 pm • 3 0 • view
”Ofay” is a pejorative term that some Black people used for white people ca. 1960s-70s, I assume because it’s Pig Latin for “foe.” I used it because it takes up 1 less character than “whitey.” If you appreciate my glossary style, I could do Pig Latin next.
sep 12, 2025, 8:48 pm • 8 0 • view
This is a really helpful & insightful thread thank you.
sep 12, 2025, 6:25 pm • 29 0 • view
+1✔️
sep 12, 2025, 6:33 pm • 7 0 • view
This cast a light on a tangle of stuff that truly didn’t make sense for me so thank you. Invaluable.
sep 12, 2025, 8:41 pm • 9 0 • view
I hope you're right, because that will mean the movement managed to sabotage not only itself, but the whole MAGA bloc, and all due to being full of egotistical assholes trying to outdo each other.
sep 13, 2025, 1:12 am • 0 0 • view
Andy Ngo standing in the corner wondering why no one's asking him to step into the limelight...
sep 13, 2025, 4:38 am • 2 0 • view
I'm still confident the moneymen have someone they're keeping tabs on and possibly "grooming" for a shot at the spotlight. Or there's someone inside CPUSA who we don't know about who can carry the tiki torch of hate But these personas take time to build. You can't DC universe this.
sep 13, 2025, 4:32 am • 1 0 • view
as others have said... *will* the space be filled? sure. will it be filled in a way that lets the conservative machine execute as competently as it has been? nope
sep 13, 2025, 4:34 am • 3 0 • view
Absolutely agree.
sep 13, 2025, 4:40 am • 0 0 • view
In general, people think this is a lot easier than it is. Look at the transition from Carlson to Watters. Watters, while still awful, doesn't have nearly the clout Carlson had.
sep 12, 2025, 5:21 pm • 20 0 • view
This is a really solid comparison. I honestly had never been entirely sure if the new Conservative Talking Heads were less of a Big Deal than the old Conservative Talking Heads or if I'm just out of the loop because I'm (deliberately) paying less attention. Nice to know it IS a diminishing thing.
sep 12, 2025, 6:30 pm • 3 0 • view
And that was on Fox, where you literally could just give someone else Carlson's slot! Kirk's position in the fascist firmament is way harder to replicate.
sep 12, 2025, 5:22 pm • 21 0 • view
So, you're saying we might have caught a lucky break?
sep 12, 2025, 7:43 pm • 2 0 • view
Too bad he’s dead then, oh well!
sep 12, 2025, 5:41 pm • 3 0 • view
we'll see... the rubes are pretty stupid, the money is fucking insane and the motivation is sky high to find a mediocre white guy who can speak with different, but very similar groups of jizzstains while keeping a small number of whopping lies straight - not hard
sep 12, 2025, 4:17 pm • 30 0 • view
So it’s not that he’s irreplaceable because of some inherent talent, he’s irreplaceable because of the experience he’s gained cannot be directly taught, and the situations that form that experience are rare. He was personally mentored by Montgomery for this, and now they’re both gone.
sep 12, 2025, 4:54 pm • 24 2 • view
Being able to code-switch is extremely difficult, and can’t be taught, and the people who do it have no idea how to even begin to teach it. It comes from being embedded in two different cultures and learning how to explain one to the other, and it’s hard.
sep 12, 2025, 4:55 pm • 29 2 • view
The communication you're describing doesn't seem to match the definitions and discussion about "code switching" that I've seen before, although it is a complex topic, and definitions of "code switching" include some different things with some overlap. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-sw...
sep 13, 2025, 6:14 am • 1 0 • view
When you say "the situations that form that experience are rare", do you have any examples? Separately, do you know anything about Montgomery mentoring Kirk with this, or any other experiences that might have contributed to Kirk's skill with it?
sep 13, 2025, 6:16 am • 1 0 • view
I will admit I haven’t looked up the formal definition of code-switching before, and it looks like people here were using it informally? But people are using it basically to say that genuinely being able to talk in multiple cultural contexts is difficult, often looks like the fellow kids meme
sep 13, 2025, 1:03 pm • 3 0 • view
I hope these questions aren't rude. The topic interests me quite a bit.
sep 13, 2025, 6:17 am • 1 0 • view
Nah you’re fine
sep 13, 2025, 1:03 pm • 1 0 • view
Social media incentives make this even harder. You can be quite successful by jumping into a silo.
sep 12, 2025, 5:03 pm • 7 0 • view
it's hard for folks who've never needed to, but a LOT of folks are great at code switching because their lives required learning to do it effectively to avoid catastrophe... admittedly that group skews HARD towards minority/disadvantaged folks who probably don't want to be Charlie Kirk, but...
sep 12, 2025, 5:07 pm • 8 0 • view
I’ve been told my whole life that I “could talk to anybody”, and only recently have I learned that it’s saying I “code switch.” I have no idea how to explain what I do, and I wasn’t even consciously aware that it was a thing I did.
sep 12, 2025, 5:09 pm • 9 0 • view
(I’m a little self-conscious here that I described the thing I unconsciously do as “extremely difficult”, the difficulty is in learning/being taught how to do it)
sep 12, 2025, 5:20 pm • 3 0 • view
it's definitely impossible for some folks... but not for others
sep 12, 2025, 5:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, if you had to move between mutliple groups of people who speak/communicate differently in your life, you figure it out or you withdraw from them. I'm not sure I'd call every bit of commuicationg tailored to different groups "code switching" but if you have empathy, you can learn...
sep 12, 2025, 5:12 pm • 4 0 • view
of course, having empathy and wanting to be the next Charlie Kirk or things that are pretty much mutually exclusive
sep 12, 2025, 5:14 pm • 3 0 • view
Well, it's not that I don't hope you're right
sep 12, 2025, 4:55 pm • 5 0 • view
It’ll be extremely hard to replace him, if not impossible. But the gap that he left behind will be filled, just with something differently shaped.
sep 12, 2025, 4:58 pm • 9 0 • view
And fwiw, this is not a defense of Kirk or saying he was some genius lol. He played with fire and got burned.
sep 12, 2025, 5:03 pm • 5 0 • view
Should've become the flame then he would be doing the burning!
sep 12, 2025, 5:20 pm • 1 0 • view
I am less optimistic about his ability to be replaced, but it may have none the less brought us time.
sep 12, 2025, 8:25 pm • 2 0 • view
So one thing Kirk could do that will be hard to replace was his ability to be affable to the Religious Right, who are extremely racist but care about looking respectable. This it’s important because this is where the money is; Kirk had a lot more money at his disposal than the other groups.
sep 12, 2025, 9:07 pm • 4 0 • view
TP USA raised a lot of money (and spent a lot of money) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning...
sep 12, 2025, 9:09 pm • 4 0 • view
I hope you're right.
sep 12, 2025, 9:27 pm • 1 0 • view
oh i'm sure there'll be any *number* of tryhards milling about the space in Kirk's wake. they're not going to be *him*, and everyone's going to know it. this was, like, the RFK getting shot of the right-wing hyper-online neo-nazi clade. he was their future.
sep 12, 2025, 4:19 pm • 72 5 • view
One lesson from the past two decades should be that actual, real-life charisma is insanely powerful but very rare. Obama took over the Democratic party in like four years and we've been struggling to find someone like him since. Trump took over the Republicans despite all the power hating him.
sep 12, 2025, 4:49 pm • 30 0 • view
Dude. Charlie Kirk had the charisma of brussel sprouts.
sep 12, 2025, 4:54 pm • 2 0 • view
There's so many people with big followings that I think are absolute incoherent morons that I cannot trust my personal judgement on these things anymore. A lot of people seemed to like him, that's close enough for me.
sep 12, 2025, 5:04 pm • 19 0 • view
the other thing is that Kirk performed VERY different roles for different audiences. i've seen footage of him one-on-one with a friendly / curious audience and the man actually *did* have charm; his public Debate Me Bro persona was deliberately offputting & it's the only one MOST of us ever saw
sep 12, 2025, 5:14 pm • 42 6 • view
Tucker Carlson, until only recently, pulled off the same trick.
sep 12, 2025, 5:32 pm • 3 0 • view
I figured it was something like that when I saw the photo of him with Trump and RFK Jr. He had showered and washed his face until it was shiny. He was wearing a good suit. He was smiling brightly. Those are important traits to evangelicals.
sep 12, 2025, 5:42 pm • 7 1 • view
Poor little Nicky Fuentes
sep 12, 2025, 5:25 pm • 3 0 • view
wow... he could seem human in front of adoring fans in an adulatory setting... do you want to dig the hole a little deeper before you stick the bar in it? that's NOT a description of a guy with charisma... it's a barely functional narcissist managing to pass
sep 12, 2025, 5:16 pm • 0 0 • view
your judgement seems sound, honestly...
sep 12, 2025, 5:08 pm • 1 0 • view
It’s like replacing the frontman in your band. Unless you’re AC/DC it probably won’t work.
sep 12, 2025, 4:34 pm • 18 0 • view
it works for groups like "The Temptations"... and in this case is the fan base more like a rock band's or a label inspired brand?
sep 12, 2025, 4:35 pm • 7 0 • view
I hope so. But when RFK Jr. was shot, there wasn't money to coalesce behind a single replacement.
sep 12, 2025, 4:20 pm • 3 0 • view
thanks for the checkpoint
sep 12, 2025, 9:15 pm • 8 0 • view
This is, btw, why i was never "celebrating", as the accusations ran- i was *relieved*.
sep 12, 2025, 7:39 pm • 26 0 • view
yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
sep 12, 2025, 7:46 pm • 8 0 • view
So it sounds like you're saying the Conservative Billionaires put all their egg in one basket, and then another conservative broke that egg?
sep 13, 2025, 12:57 am • 0 0 • view
There are a lot of grifters out there, a lot of whom are quite good at it and make a lot of money telling billionaires and the right wing mob exactly what they want to hear. But there aren't many that can get Ezra Klein to give them a posthumous blowjob in the Times.
sep 12, 2025, 6:52 pm • 104 12 • view
This feels to me like it's part of the balkanization of the unraveling of the Court of the Mad Emperor. bsky.app/profile/jess... Various factional groups vie for the musical chairs and the role of Heir Apparent, and the knives come out as they fight for legitimacy. +
sep 12, 2025, 10:46 pm • 2 0 • view
In the case of Kirk vs. Fuentes, Fuentes' side is the True Believers, the total loyalists. But to the mad emperor, the total loyalist is only good because he needs to kill or be killed at the emperor's command, for any reason or no reason at all. +
sep 12, 2025, 10:46 pm • 3 0 • view
By positioning himself as the reformer who was going to topple the corrupt emperor, Kirk became a threat to the true believers, and they prove their total loyalty by being willing to do anything to protect the emperor. These power moves play out further as the court (and emperor) disintegrates.
sep 12, 2025, 10:46 pm • 4 0 • view
Hanania seems to hate the low class magas more than he does non white people. I doubt he's going that direction
sep 12, 2025, 4:38 pm • 36 0 • view
lol yup if anything Hanania has been libbing out (which i predicted as his ultimate path, like, a decade ago lol. it'd piss him off SO MUCH to know that)
sep 12, 2025, 4:40 pm • 55 0 • view
Hanania is to the left of the NYTimes on this issue 💀💀
sep 12, 2025, 4:55 pm • 25 0 • view
it's, uh, it's EXTREMELY funny to me, as someone who literally beefed with him YEARS ago and then got bored and decided to wait and let him figure it all out lol
sep 12, 2025, 4:59 pm • 40 0 • view
Oop nvm I’m being told he was just executed again by the Malaysian government
sep 12, 2025, 5:28 pm • 9 0 • view
Yep. Plus, authoritarians by their very nature need a Prime, an Alpha, someone they can follow, who will tell them how to think. They are not easy to replace
sep 12, 2025, 5:47 pm • 58 3 • view
The Right has always used Fear to grab their following and when they get afraid enough they lose control of their wits and cling to some Big Daddy figure who will claim "only I can fix it".
sep 12, 2025, 9:14 pm • 2 0 • view
The ensuing power vacuum is going to make things pretty chaotic for a while. Even if somebody immediately steps in to fill it, there’s no guarantee the Hitler Youth Lite are going to respect/follow the new guy as unquestioningly as the original guy.
sep 12, 2025, 9:52 pm • 8 0 • view
Given that a lot of the younger adherents are nostalgia-poisoned nerds and Gamers™️, “They Changed It So It Sucks” Syndrome will probably factor in here. Their own reactionary tendencies coming back to bite them by making them inflexible toddlers who can’t handle change or put their feelings aside.
sep 12, 2025, 9:54 pm • 7 0 • view
Jesus Christ, I hate that I know what all of the words in this thread mean.
sep 13, 2025, 12:04 am • 2 0 • view
Excellent thread. I have two mea culpas: 1. I thought it’d be Vance who shivved Trump once it was perceived he’d outlived his usefulness busy using Epstein against him 2. If the Kirk-Fuentes rift is true/real then I apologize for saying this is not Night of the Long Knives w/ Kirk as Rohm
sep 12, 2025, 5:07 pm • 25 0 • view
I think Vance will/would have no hesitation about shivving Trump. What he lacks is the personal power base to get the job done.
sep 12, 2025, 5:33 pm • 11 0 • view
Exactly. He also has to walk a very fine line on this bc MAGA & even more so the groypers can & will easily turn on him simply for the fact he has a non-white wife & kids. The coalition of people he has to pull and keep together to remain in power is very delicate.
sep 12, 2025, 5:57 pm • 6 0 • view
i've said this before, but charlie kirk was who jd vance desperately wishes he were to a point that's physically painful to watch and, i mean, gosh, maybe he's rethinking that this week! love that for him. love that for all of us.
sep 12, 2025, 5:12 pm • 113 13 • view
I think your first point is still not wrong, really. Vance would let someone else do the actual shivving but he would ally with them on it (secretly, until the deed is done, then overtly once Tr*mp’s out of the way)
sep 12, 2025, 5:53 pm • 5 0 • view
The Koch brothers money should have been used as tax payer money
sep 13, 2025, 12:26 am • 0 0 • view
The Koch brothers money should have been used as tax payer money
sep 12, 2025, 11:58 pm • 0 0 • view
I wasted my teen years on imageboards and I desperately want people to understand that neo-Nazis and the alt right are actually like 20 personality cults in a trench coat and will absolutely engage in inter-faction violence over sleights nobody on the outside could ever understand.
sep 12, 2025, 4:53 pm • 366 76 • view
That's one reason the Unite The Right event was so hideous. It legitimized their little factions as part of the GOP, and set up lines of communication btw them. Talia Lavin has tracked these chuds and does a good job of exposing their internicene fights.
sep 13, 2025, 4:35 am • 8 1 • view
genuinely one of the most important follows on here, yeah.
sep 13, 2025, 4:37 am • 6 0 • view
Lavin and Amanda Moore have been on this beat, extraordinarily competently, for a really long time (and Moore cautioning *against* certainty that the guy is a groyper and pointing out nuance in the semiotics is part of why I'm being more cautious myself even after my thread)
sep 13, 2025, 4:38 am • 7 0 • view
Because I took a nap and woke up to like 210 notifications, here's an anecdote for levity: There is a legitimate schism between Esoteric Hitlerists who believe Hitler became a heel for the sake of hiding dangerous knowledge (hollow earth etc) and actual Neo Nazis who simply think fascism is good.
sep 12, 2025, 8:38 pm • 51 7 • view
Esoteric Hitlerists is a phrase i really never thought I would encounter on this earth in 2025....
sep 12, 2025, 9:16 pm • 7 0 • view
Stuff like that is why people on the alt right can accuse others of fascism while still being fascists. Nazism is a moving target, being at once a political ideology, an aesthetic, a thing invoked ironically to scare "da libs," a failed state, and a utopian society depending on which faction you ask
sep 12, 2025, 8:42 pm • 37 5 • view
Put simply, kids like the shooter never stood a chance. If you have fascist sympathies, there's some weird offshoot made just for you, but this also means it's hard for them to meaningfully coalesce beyond big vague marches where nobody asks deep questions about why you like the moustache man.
sep 12, 2025, 8:45 pm • 28 4 • view
If you want to see a knife fight, ask whether Slavic people are white, or whether it is Race Science or Cultural Darwinism that separated whites from everyone else. The most seemingly inconsequential deviations from enforced ideology makes you an existential threat to the group.
sep 12, 2025, 4:56 pm • 154 10 • view
sounds like a lot like the history of Christianity. I'm sure there's no connection though.
sep 12, 2025, 7:52 pm • 4 0 • view
I mean they still can’t agree on if Italians are white - even after Italian Americans propped up Christopher Columbus and his racism to say, we are like you…see?
sep 12, 2025, 5:31 pm • 53 0 • view
exactly. it's one of the true defining features of fascism: a constant hate for anyone who isn't in the "in group." and if you don't have an "in group," you find one.
sep 12, 2025, 5:55 pm • 10 0 • view
Well, see, Genoa is basically Switzerland, Sicily is part of Africa, therefore Cuomo is genetically a criminal, just look at the shape of his skull, it’s why Harlem has gone cuomosexual, and goddamn it, irony poisoning makes it impossible to make this actually funny, doesn’t it?
sep 13, 2025, 3:54 am • 8 1 • view
Pretty muchhhhhhh
sep 13, 2025, 4:15 am • 3 0 • view
If the culture that surrounds you is hierarchical, from homes, institutions to govs, you’re more susceptible to enter into (& not know how to extricate) groups that depend on “othering” (eliminating an everchanging (definition of) other, have a scapegoat in fam) the systems reinforce each other.
sep 12, 2025, 10:24 pm • 4 0 • view
Legitimately said the other day that the new right is too confident they won that they can cannabalize MAGA like it did the old GOP
sep 13, 2025, 12:11 am • 2 0 • view
Long story short, Nazis ate Nazis. Then, for some reason, Republican voters got mad at... Democrats
sep 13, 2025, 11:57 am • 0 1 • view
This is fascinating. I hope you’re right, and - even more - I hope Kirk’s band of followers also reach this conclusion.
sep 12, 2025, 6:34 pm • 7 0 • view
#THIS !!! the consolidation & usurpation of the unpopular extremist factions to create a monster that scares away as many voters as it can withstand on a ballot. they're all lying all around & using each other & #US
sep 13, 2025, 1:32 am • 0 0 • view
The code switching comment is very helpful. I can't or don't want to see a lot of these details but this makes so much sense of the internecine warfare.
sep 12, 2025, 11:52 pm • 6 0 • view
I didn't realize this about him until I spent part of my afternoon yesterday unfollowing quilters on Instagram for posting about what a lovely young man he was. Some were small businesses who kept politics to themselves all the way through the election and since, but they had to talk about this
sep 12, 2025, 6:07 pm • 28 0 • view
Kirk was good at giving perception he wanted discourse, but if you watch him, he opened with genial look or smile along with question but then immediately shut down the answer to swing immediately in to his MAGA propaganda. His ‘let’s discuss’ was total bullshit. But he was good at it.
sep 12, 2025, 11:15 pm • 56 5 • view
mmmhmm! and, I mean, that's a performance for a very specific audience that I could write an entire LONG essay about if I wanted to, and it's a performance he was *exceptionally* good at, and it was good at convincing young disaffected white guys that he was cool and strong.
sep 12, 2025, 11:17 pm • 35 2 • view
Would read that essay immediately
sep 13, 2025, 12:12 am • 2 0 • view
I don’t think it was just the disaffected guys he was good with, there were enough young women in his audience too. Kirk had replaced their parents preachers those kids were no longer listening to.
sep 12, 2025, 11:21 pm • 8 1 • view
This is the best analysis of this I have read today
sep 12, 2025, 6:09 pm • 61 2 • view
I’m interested in the theory, and not dismissing it out of hand, but are there examples of 1) the beef and 2) Fuentes egging things on towards the end result? I don’t have the stomach for wading through the Xhitter so hoping you’ve got receipts available. Wild but plausible is where I’m at now.
sep 12, 2025, 7:52 pm • 14 0 • view
www.isdglobal.org/digital_disp... is a decent starting point. i do not have usefully-citable citations for (2) because it would involve a bunch of scrubbing Fuentes' videos and I'm less-certain Fuentes *himself* was the relevant player than I was when I wrote the thread.
sep 12, 2025, 7:59 pm • 38 1 • view
1. Please ignore the typo in my previous response; left off the d at the end. 2. This article echoes your theory and was a good read as well: bsky.app/profile/edit...
sep 13, 2025, 1:00 am • 0 0 • view
Thank you, much appreciate!
sep 12, 2025, 9:49 pm • 2 0 • view
My scorecard had Kirk headed for the RNCC chair "soon," since he used a lot of influence to have Ronna removed (kicking and screaming). Once the Trump family grifter was done replumbing the funding pipes to fill Dad's coffers on demand, Kirk would bring actual expertise to that role. He deserved it.
sep 13, 2025, 1:35 pm • 4 0 • view