Thanks Melissa. Great points about the absurdity of how we all dissect these supposed clues to try and put shooters on some long-outdated political spectrum. And of course it’s very scary the degree to which our virtual society is so alienating and alienated.
Having stumbled across this months-old post in my inbox, reading it now and seeing your mention of how MAGA will certainly leverage the murder of Charlie Kirk to attack trans people, regardless of whether the shooter was meaningfully connected to any trans person — I feel called to post an update.
Last month, the late Kirk's organization Turning Point found a new rising grifter: an undergraduate student who wrote a terrible two-page paper (Bible moralizing where what was called for was understanding of empirical data). It got a failing grade from a teaching assistant who is trans. The paper deserved the zero it got; it just wasn't good. (I say this as someone who has gotten a zero on a paper before, even when I tried hard and wasn't insulting my teacher. Zeroes are a thing that can happen.) The student was undoubtedly put up to it by her mother, Kristi Fulnecky, a lawyer for January 6 defendants. Anyway, in response to the media stunt, Chris Elston, aka Billboard Chris, said on X: "Individuals who identify as trans should be automatically disqualified from holding any position as teacher or professor." The elder Fulnecky replied: "Agreed! Proud of my daughter!"
So yeah, that's how Turning Point is attacking trans people now. One trans teacher gave a (deserved) zero to a MAGA student on a tiny writing assignment, and their rallying cry is that no trans adult should be allowed to have any teaching position anywhere, even at a university where they teach other adults by the consent of those adults who have enrolled in their course.
I'm guessing that Turning Point in particular feels that few people will dare argue with them on this, given their narrative through which they tie the mere existence of trans people to the murder of their organization's founder. It's an obviously fallacious argument — Kirk's murderer allegedly was dating a trans person, therefore the murder is the fault of all trans people, therefore all trans people should be automatically disqualified from holding jobs — yet here we are.
There's been rampant political violence since inauguration day. Almost all of it is political violence inflicted by the elites on the working class. It looks like masked paramilitary ICE agents violently arresting immigrants and citizens alike, jailing and deporting them without due process. It looks like the continued funding and political support for the genocide and famine in Gaza. It looks like the extortion of students, colleges, and universities over students protesting the genocide in Gaza. It looks like cutting healthcare payments, medical research, and treatments such as vaccines, all of which harm vulnerable people. It looks like the military occupation of cities run by black mayors under the guise of fighting crime. It looks like the criminalization of the houseless, the scapegoating of the mentally ill, and the dehumanization of LGBTQ people. It looks like attacks on our free and fair elections through gerrymandering and voter suppression. All of this political violence is part the Trump/MAGA/Project 2025 agenda, fully supported by tech billionaires. The media doesn't denounce any of this political violence, because the victims aren't elites.
Thanks Melissa. Great points about the absurdity of how we all dissect these supposed clues to try and put shooters on some long-outdated political spectrum. And of course it’s very scary the degree to which our virtual society is so alienating and alienated.
Having stumbled across this months-old post in my inbox, reading it now and seeing your mention of how MAGA will certainly leverage the murder of Charlie Kirk to attack trans people, regardless of whether the shooter was meaningfully connected to any trans person — I feel called to post an update.
Last month, the late Kirk's organization Turning Point found a new rising grifter: an undergraduate student who wrote a terrible two-page paper (Bible moralizing where what was called for was understanding of empirical data). It got a failing grade from a teaching assistant who is trans. The paper deserved the zero it got; it just wasn't good. (I say this as someone who has gotten a zero on a paper before, even when I tried hard and wasn't insulting my teacher. Zeroes are a thing that can happen.) The student was undoubtedly put up to it by her mother, Kristi Fulnecky, a lawyer for January 6 defendants. Anyway, in response to the media stunt, Chris Elston, aka Billboard Chris, said on X: "Individuals who identify as trans should be automatically disqualified from holding any position as teacher or professor." The elder Fulnecky replied: "Agreed! Proud of my daughter!"
So yeah, that's how Turning Point is attacking trans people now. One trans teacher gave a (deserved) zero to a MAGA student on a tiny writing assignment, and their rallying cry is that no trans adult should be allowed to have any teaching position anywhere, even at a university where they teach other adults by the consent of those adults who have enrolled in their course.
I'm guessing that Turning Point in particular feels that few people will dare argue with them on this, given their narrative through which they tie the mere existence of trans people to the murder of their organization's founder. It's an obviously fallacious argument — Kirk's murderer allegedly was dating a trans person, therefore the murder is the fault of all trans people, therefore all trans people should be automatically disqualified from holding jobs — yet here we are.
There's been rampant political violence since inauguration day. Almost all of it is political violence inflicted by the elites on the working class. It looks like masked paramilitary ICE agents violently arresting immigrants and citizens alike, jailing and deporting them without due process. It looks like the continued funding and political support for the genocide and famine in Gaza. It looks like the extortion of students, colleges, and universities over students protesting the genocide in Gaza. It looks like cutting healthcare payments, medical research, and treatments such as vaccines, all of which harm vulnerable people. It looks like the military occupation of cities run by black mayors under the guise of fighting crime. It looks like the criminalization of the houseless, the scapegoating of the mentally ill, and the dehumanization of LGBTQ people. It looks like attacks on our free and fair elections through gerrymandering and voter suppression. All of this political violence is part the Trump/MAGA/Project 2025 agenda, fully supported by tech billionaires. The media doesn't denounce any of this political violence, because the victims aren't elites.