We don’t have confirmation on all of his motives yet; however what we do know about the shooter, his upbringing, lifestyle, etc. is that the poster responding to OP in the image above is largely correct.
There are indeed conflicting accounts that his roommate was trans, or his partner was, or similar. None of that’s been verified yet, and even if so, it doesn’t explain the shooter’s motivations.
What we do know about the shooter is that he largely fits the model of a deeply conservative republican, and that fits with how he was raised, his family, and as his grandmother puts it: “Their family was all MAGA”.
Going off that, and a lot of other circumstantial details/evidence, it’s clear that he was at one point a deeply MAGA character.
Beyond that or what his current motivations are? We can only extrapolate. Those extrapolations largely lead in the direction that he shot Kirk because Kirk didn’t back some of the same extremist beliefs he held. Those beliefs are similar to what Nick Fuentes believes in, which is also why he’s currently being labeled a Gyroper.
Fair enough, but I think we shouldn’t be basing our inferences about the shooter from his family’s political leanings. My feeling is that somebody who does something so drastic is likely enough to be an outlier from their family that we can’t really know one way or the other.
A big reason why that’s important, as long as it’s done with care, is because conservatives rely on the rhetoric that purely white, conservative communities would be without crime. This kid grew up in a prime setting to show how amazing their way of life is without any “evil leftist” influences and yet here we are. The US has been given every opportunity to show how great theocratic conservative capitalism is and yet it keeps failing because the reality is that it fucking sucks rocks.
According to some right-wing spaces (r/conservative on Reddit), there is apparently evidence to suggest that the shooter was an outlier within their otherwise hard-right family.
Nobody has direct evidence of the shooter’s motivations or political affiliation today. Nobody.
That could change, but today this is true.
Any evidence we have is circumstantial. Most of that circumstantial evidence points in the direction of an extreme right winger.
I’m sure there’s some circumstantial evidence pointing in the opposite direction, but it pales in comparison to the circumstantial evidence pointing in the far right direction.
Much of the circumstantial evidence pointing away from the far right came from a mis-attribution from the FBI to a trans rights marker that was debunked as categorically untrue. Or statements from the Utah Gov which are (AFAIK) not backed up by any actual evidence other than how he “wishes” it was. Or from Trump who is known for lying and making things up.
I’d be curious what evidence they have that hasn’t been announced/released yet that makes them think that.
I suspect they want it to be true that he was left leaning and they may be assigning too great a weight on the debunked FBI claims, the Utah Gov claims, and Trump’s claims; despite most of the circumstantial evidence that’s been released so far pointing in the direction of him being far right.
To be clear, this could change later today if the investigators were to release evidence about the shooter’s motivations. Until then, all we’ve got to go on is what circumstantial stuff has been released so far, and that’s largely pointing in the direction of the far right.
We don’t have confirmation on all of his motives yet; however what we do know about the shooter, his upbringing, lifestyle, etc. is that the poster responding to OP in the image above is largely correct.
There are indeed conflicting accounts that his roommate was trans, or his partner was, or similar. None of that’s been verified yet, and even if so, it doesn’t explain the shooter’s motivations.
What we do know about the shooter is that he largely fits the model of a deeply conservative republican, and that fits with how he was raised, his family, and as his grandmother puts it: “Their family was all MAGA”.
Going off that, and a lot of other circumstantial details/evidence, it’s clear that he was at one point a deeply MAGA character.
Beyond that or what his current motivations are? We can only extrapolate. Those extrapolations largely lead in the direction that he shot Kirk because Kirk didn’t back some of the same extremist beliefs he held. Those beliefs are similar to what Nick Fuentes believes in, which is also why he’s currently being labeled a Gyroper.
According to The Onion, he once had a trans Uber driver so that obviously makes him a leftist.
Fair enough, but I think we shouldn’t be basing our inferences about the shooter from his family’s political leanings. My feeling is that somebody who does something so drastic is likely enough to be an outlier from their family that we can’t really know one way or the other.
A big reason why that’s important, as long as it’s done with care, is because conservatives rely on the rhetoric that purely white, conservative communities would be without crime. This kid grew up in a prime setting to show how amazing their way of life is without any “evil leftist” influences and yet here we are. The US has been given every opportunity to show how great theocratic conservative capitalism is and yet it keeps failing because the reality is that it fucking sucks rocks.
if he’s a leftist, then of course he had “evil leftist” influences. The internet exists.
According to some right-wing spaces (r/conservative on Reddit), there is apparently evidence to suggest that the shooter was an outlier within their otherwise hard-right family.
Is there any evidence to the contrary?
Nobody has direct evidence of the shooter’s motivations or political affiliation today. Nobody.
That could change, but today this is true.
Any evidence we have is circumstantial. Most of that circumstantial evidence points in the direction of an extreme right winger.
I’m sure there’s some circumstantial evidence pointing in the opposite direction, but it pales in comparison to the circumstantial evidence pointing in the far right direction.
Much of the circumstantial evidence pointing away from the far right came from a mis-attribution from the FBI to a trans rights marker that was debunked as categorically untrue. Or statements from the Utah Gov which are (AFAIK) not backed up by any actual evidence other than how he “wishes” it was. Or from Trump who is known for lying and making things up.
I’d be curious what evidence they have that hasn’t been announced/released yet that makes them think that.
I suspect they want it to be true that he was left leaning and they may be assigning too great a weight on the debunked FBI claims, the Utah Gov claims, and Trump’s claims; despite most of the circumstantial evidence that’s been released so far pointing in the direction of him being far right.
To be clear, this could change later today if the investigators were to release evidence about the shooter’s motivations. Until then, all we’ve got to go on is what circumstantial stuff has been released so far, and that’s largely pointing in the direction of the far right.