Kyle Rittenhouse: Gen Z Hero to the MAGA Right Is Growing in Influence and Danger
*Small Correction: In the last article, I noted that the Biden files were a problem, but there was an easy solution. The title and tone describing the issue focused primarily on the political problem. The solution I proposed was limited to a prosecutor’s response, and the two should not meet unless Jack Smith doesn’t want to prosecute (yet) Trump on a charge that is also being examined by another special counsel.
It is not Jack Smith’s job to help Biden politically. It’s his job not to charge something that is a fairly common problem (if it is).
JM
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Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero to the entire America First, MAGA movement. Despite the fact that his “past due” date has come and gone. He remains a huge influencer: Almost one million followers, and more paid speeches than Obama.
Who and what does he influence? Amateurs arming themselves and patrolling the streets, people who fantasize about killing liberals while getting away with it, and pouting about the media censoring him and treating him like some kind of murderer. All while getting rich.
First things first:
The Left on Twitter repeatedly refers to Kyle as a murderer. We can’t do that. If we want a country of laws (threatened now by the Right), we have to respect the jury’s verdict. Murder is a legal term of art, killing with malice aforethought, and he was acquitted due to self-defense. Rittenhouse had a traditionally pro-defendant judge. Many of the rulings that seemed to favor Kyle for political reasons were rulings quite typical for that judge. In most cases, we want a judge that acts to prevent the defendant from a gift-wrapped conviction. If we sat in that jury box and swore to follow the facts presented in court (only) and follow the judge’s instructions, we - too, might have acquitted him.
He is not a “murderer.”
He is a homicidal maniac. “Homicide” is simply death at the hands of a human being, and there is no question that Kyle put himself in a position where he might commit homicide against either a black American or a liberal sympathizer. It established him as a hero on the Right:
Kyle had no idea about the background of the people he killed. The MAGAs are more than willing to point out that his victims had records as one of the benefits, evidence of tolerance for vigilante justice generally, both at Kyle’s hands and in hindsight. The victim must not have been too violent a pedophile, or he wouldn’t have been on the street… not that logic matters, nor does after-the-fact justification.
Too many on the Left are mad at Rittenhouse for the wrong reason. We are back to the murder thing. The truth is, we didn’t see all the evidence presented, nor could we have put ourselves in Rittenhouse’s shoes. But there are two legitimate reasons to be angry:
One, he traveled all the way to Kenosha, picked up a gun from a family member there, and took it upon himself, at 17 years of age, to carry a weapon of war. He chose to carry it amidst the chaos, all in order to protect property (his words after the fact). His motives look and sound a lot more like someone who may have been looking for a situation to fire that gun or - at the very least, a shocking degree of recklessness. The police are never perfect, but they are far better able to judge the chaos occurring on the streets.
Two, no matter how obvious one must kill in self-defense, there are very few situations that a normal person would not show some remorse or sadness that a situation developed to the point that one had to take a life. Kyle’s lawyer told him to lay low for a year and slowly reemerge into a normal life. Kyle did the opposite. He kept the bail money (Over a million dollars) and went on “tour” with the Right to all their biweekly conventions, Turning Point, CPAC, Family This or That, all carefully stage-managed rock shows.
He was loved as the embodiment of a fantasy. He got to use one of those assault rifles, ubiquitous on the Right, against liberals, protesting the killing of an unarmed black man.
But no degree of love from the MAGAs can exceed Kyle’s view of himself. He is the persecuted hero. Ask him. We can allow for the fact that a troubled 19-20 year old isn’t likely to have the maturity or perspective needed to navigate his situation, but his next move seemed choreographed by hangers-on to continue the self-promotion train. He went after the media, another means to the MAGA heart.
Kyle doesn’t have the education required to wrap his mind around “government censorship,” media fact-based reporting, and people who want nothing to do with him:
The event was canceled by the brewery, which simply didn’t want to be seen as political. The brewery didn’t even state it didn’t want Kyle. They simply didn’t want to be political. But the Right reacted typically. It acted as though it had a constitutional right to hold events on private property. It got ugly and dangerous. From San Antonio’s Channel 4:
A Conroe brewery says it’s been inundated with harassment and some threats after announcing Friday that it would no longer allow a “rally against censorship” featuring Kyle Rittenhouse to be held there later this month.
“It’s been kind of a shitstorm,” Southern Star Brewery CEO Dave Fougeron said in a Saturday morning interview. “But now I’m more certain than ever that I made the right decision.”
Almost more importantly, the owner said that “contrary to the MAGAs assertions,” he didn’t cancel the event when threatened by a mob of “wokesters,” he never heard from any. He canceled it when he learned Rittenhouse was the speaker and - again, not because he wanted to make a statement but because he wanted his brewery to be a non-political place to eat and enjoy craft beer.
A week later, the same thing happened at the Venetian in Las Vegas:
The article above comes from a far-right local Las Vegas site. Its summary will reinforce all of the above:
As radical left-wing protestors target the SHOT Show in Las Vegas this week, the Venetian Hotel and Casino has sided with the pedophile-supporting WOKE mob and forced one of their tenants to cancel an event that featured a talk with Kyle Rittenhouse – a teenager who defended himself from a child rapaist (SIC) and BLM terrorists during the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.
(Is the danger setting in?)
Las Vegas was the site of the country’s worst mass shooting which is saying a lot. In a matter of minutes, a man shot and killed 60 innocent people. He stopped shooting only as the guns got too hot and started to ripple. The shooting occurred just down the street from the Venetian at Mandalay Bay. Perhaps they didn’t want Kyle there because he’s become the “gun hero” of the Right, per the article above.
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All of this offends Kyle to no end. He is offended that he didn’t get into Texas A&M, offended that people don’t let him live a normal life, loves that he’s wanted to give talks and be around people (and is well-paid to be there), loves being rich, then offended if someone shuts him out. Like everyone on the Right, he blames the media. So he has people send him money to “fight the media!” Sound familiar? This is his pinned tweet:
Every night Kyle reads the income total. Why not get in on the grift? Everyone else is.
Last, Kyle hates freedom:
Let’s all say it together. The First Amendment protects people from government-controlled speech. The First Amendment also provides people freedom of expression, and a private business is 100% free to boot Kyle out for impersonating a cherub. So long as a private company doesn’t violate the civil rights statute, it can keep you out. Freedom. And you can watch it in action if I carry a “Pride Flag” into Hobby Lobby with a sacrilegious sign. Private company.
** Summary **
The only reason any of this matters is that Kyle Rittenhouse continues to matter. He has one million followers on Twitter (You can make a lot of money off just that). He is literally on the front lines of about three critical battles that the MAGAs desperately want to fight.
He got to shoot his assault rifle into liberals, bad ones (to the Right), and is thus the walking fantasy of so many gun-obsessed MAGAs who are increasingly violent in their words and actions. (The brewery was threatened with violence). They are also violent about elections. At times it feels like they’re looking for a reason to explode, kinda like Kyle looking to go to the protests.
Kyle says he was mistreated by the media, which dared to report that he might have committed murder on the streets of Kenosha. Some media reporting is better than others. Ask Tucker Carlson and Rachel Maddow. Kyle doesn’t get to pick and choose the “appropriate media coverage” of him, and yet he acts as he does. So do MAGAs generally. “Where is all the coverage of Hunter? Huh? All those billion-dollar deals with China…”
As Kyle and Newsmax see the world. I recall hearing the defenses and charges and evidence. The assumption of guilt came from members of the left, not the media.
And now he gets to carry the “I am censored and persecuted” flag - which should sound familiar and is extremely lucrative. The more that he is turned away, the stronger his cause - but not his legal claim. The Right has “censorship” all twisted in knots due to suppression of COVID disinformation (coming from the Right) and suppression of political disinformation prior to an election. (Often coming from the Right but not exclusively).
Oh, and the grift. He’s worth millions now. He pulled in a fortune when he pulled the trigger. He doesn’t have the time or inclination for any remorse. Lack of even a hint of remorse, no acknowledgment that human life has value, is what upsets me more than all the above.
He is dangerous. He will remain dangerous so long as he remains a hero. It certainly feels like he’s being handled by a Right-Wing publicist with a special talent for turning MAGA grievances into money (The House always wins). And so expect to see Kyle and his message of hate, persecution, and self-satisfaction, along with just a shitload of uneducated immaturity for a long time. MAGAs’ first Gen Z hero is here to stay.
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Thanks to all who have pledged. I’m inching my way up.
I desperately want suggestions for topics to cover, whether in mini-quick posts (for pledges) or the longer specials - at least half of which will be pledged only.
Time for the beach: Even though I love the allure and romanticism of the “South Pacific,” we’re going to St. Kitts today because why wouldn’t we?