The Feedback Loop That’s Breaking America
by u/MsAgentM
The Synopsis
On September 10th at around 12:20, Charlie Kirk was shot while debating a college student during one of his America Comeback tour events. About two hours after he was shot, President Trump announced that he had died.
There was initial confusion regarding the suspect being in custody when the Director of the FBI, Kash Patel announced on social media that the suspect was in custody but he was rebutted a few minutes later by local authorities denying the claim. Patel confirmed the suspect was still at large. President Trump in an announcement to the nation, called for an end to violent political rhetoric and attributed the incident on the radical left
On September 11th, the authorities released an image and video footage of a “person of interest” that his mother recognized as her son, Tyler Robinson. The family contacted police and convinced Robinson to turn himself in voluntarily. On September 12th, an official announcement was made that Robinson was in custody on charges of aggravated murder and felony discharge of a weapon causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice.
An early bulletin for law enforcement described the ammunition as engraved with phrases referencing “transgender and anti-fascist ideology” and noted it was used in the fatal shooting of Kirk. Justice officials later cautioned against drawing conclusions from the engravings, though initial media reporting highlighted them before further clarification.Subsequent reporting, based on text messages between Robinson and his partner, indicated the engravings did not reflect a clear ideological meaning.
The accused suspect in the case, Tyler Robinson, is a Utah resident. He excelled in school and was initially admitted to college on an academic scholarship, but dropped out after one semester. At the time of the Kirk shooting, he was enrolled in community college. Leaked messages from a Discord group showed that Robinson was known for his political knowledge, but reporting did not identify a consistent ideological alignment. Governor Spencer Cox reported at a press conference that Robinson’s family said that he had become more political and then on Meet the Press Cox said he “clearly had a leftist ideology” but refused to provide specifics. Before his arrest, Robinson was joking with his friends on Discord about how the suspect in the photos looked so much like him.
Robinson was formally charged on September 16th. It was reported that he was not cooperating with police. The text messages between Robinson and his partner, who is reported to be a male transitioning to a female, showed him confessing to the killing and describing details such as changing clothes after the incident, disposing of the weapon, planning alone, and engraving the bullet casings.
There has been no confirmation that there was a coordinated effort to kill Charlie Kirk nor has a connection been found between Robinson and other left wing groups that would confirm the radicalization claims that Governor Cox stated motivated him. No other motivation has been reported either.
Responses to Kirk’s death have been dispersed across the political spectrum. Initial proclamations denounced political violence and expressed sympathies for the Kirk family. Trump, in his announcement to the nation said the following:
“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst. Mass murderers and criminals, this kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we are seeing in our country today and it must stop right now.”
Public reaction to Kirk’s death included both condemnation and expressions of sympathy, but also some celebratory or critical posts on social media. Conservative groups and individuals organized campaigns to identify people posting negative content about Kirk and in some cases pressured employers, leading to job losses. Posts ranged from hostile comments about Kirk to expressions linking the incident to calls for gun control. A website briefly appeared under the name “Charlie Kirk’s Murderers,” soliciting submissions of social media users who posted negative content, but it was quickly taken down after misidentifications.
Several high-profile media figures also faced consequences. MSNBC dismissed an analyst for on-air comments, and Karen Attiah was released from the Washington Post following a post on Bluesky that discussed political violence and gun control, which included a misattributed quote about Kirk. The remark she referenced had been inaccurately generalized from comments Kirk had made about specific individuals.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was temporarily suspended after Kimmel said on air: “The MAGA Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” FCC Chair Brenden Carr later said on a podcast that Disney should take action regarding Kimmel’s comments, which prompted bipartisan criticism. The show was reinstated after public backlash, including from prominent figures in the entertainment industry.
Kirk’s funeral service presented two paths within the conservative movement for how they were processing the tragedy. Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s wife, forgave Robinson, citing her Christian faith and her belief that only love stops hate. Donald Trump countered that view by saying that he hates his opponents and does not want what is best for them.
On September 25th, citing events where conservatives or ICE officers were targets of political violence, Trump released a directive that empowered the federal government agencies to use counterterrorism, financial, and organized crime tools to dismantle entire movements of groups tied to “anti-fascism”. The directive described anti-fascism as an umbrella ideology that was an organized effort motivating political violence and stated that addressing the threat required targeting the actors, funders, NGO’s, and affiliated networks. The first organization named a domestic terrorist threat was Antifa that the administration defined as a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.
The Media’s Take
In this story, media and commentary in general was in the spotlight. In light of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the public is debating what speech is acceptable and where a commentator’s responsibility ends and a person’s actions, potentially motivated by those words begins. Are we a country that really has free speech, even when it’s inconvenient, or will the public tolerate these events being used as an excuse to remove the civil rights of certain groups.
Left Wing Media | Right Wing Media |
Framing Bias | |
Left wing media frames Kirk through his more divisive commentary, highlighting his controversial views. They reported the contrast between the left and right with the right blaming the left and the right’s immediate assumption that Robinson was a radical left with no evidence. When discussing Robinson, they highlight his Republican origins and the lack of direct link to any leftist groups or ideology. | The right wing media describes Kirk as a leader of the youth movement within MAGA and now a martyr. If any of his controversial statements are addressed, it was to say that Kirk was taken out of context. Most of the reporting was framed as though the left was attacking the right, and any comments about violence toward the left as the right fighting back. Robinson is portrayed as a leftist that was radicalized and his male to female transgender partner is often cited as evidence. |
Omission Bias | |
Left wing media outlets initially focused on Kirk’s activism and the shock of the assassination, not addressing his more controversial claims, which led to a significant response from readers and allowing the creation of a more sympathetic image of Kirk to take shape for people just learning about him. Left wing media was also slow to focus on motive or while right-wing outlets quickly pushed the narrative of leftist and trans influence. | Right wing outlets avoid discussing the inflammatory language from Republican leadership, how there are attacks on Democrats, or how most of the political violence has come from right wing extremists. |
Narrative Bias | |
Tyler Robinson is a lone and troubled man who declined from an academically promising student to being isolated and incel-like. He was radicalized through personal instability and online isolation, not by some organized movement. | Tyler Robinson is a product of left wing extremist culture. He is part of a larger movement that is organized against the country and requires state power to investigate and dismantle. |
Balance Bias | |
Democratic leaders respond to political violence by universally condemnation without blaming “the right” and calls for policy such as gun control and increased mental health, but often the focus is on if the left is condemning violence on their side since Robinson has been left coded. | Republicans immediately blamed radical leftist before anything was known about the killing and have cited the left’s tendency to call Trump and his policies fascist. Coverage often either focuses on past instances of the left doing this, or how both sides do this. |
Authority Bias | |
In reporting the wave of people fired or disciplined for posts on social media about Charlie Kirk, left wing outlets have reported on the new conservative cancel culture and highlighting the free speech hypocrisy at the campaign that has been mounted against people that speak negatively of Kirk. | Right wing outlets often reported that it is legal for private employers to fire employees for their online conduct in most states. They also reminded, like many left wing outlets used to, that the first amendment protected against government’s effort to prohibit speech, not employers and that speech still had consequences. There was a more mixed reaction to the FCC Chair's involvement in getting Kimmel removed from ABC, with many right wing outlets speaking out against the action. |
The left wing argues that political violence is a systemic problem to be addressed through better mental health, gun control legislation, and regulation of social media. The Trump administration's effort to blame the radical left is an excuse to expand executive authority and violate the civil rights of political opponents.
The right wing argues that the rhetoric has gotten too heated and must stop. Calling people “Hitler” and “Nazi” will motivate fragile minds to do radical things and it dilutes the meaning of the terms. While the left wing may not like Trump’s processes for dealing with immigration, they must respect that he is the elected president and he is enacting the platform he ran on.
My very biased take:
The Charlie Kirk Assassination has started a valuable discussion on political rhetoric, but not the one that needs to happen. The discussion devolved into fingerpointing about who radicalizes more and the left getting the emphasis.
In psychology, learning theory, specifically operant conditioning, provides a useful lens to explain our spiraling politics. Basically, we behave like we do because when certain things are rewarded, those behaviors increase. When behaviors are punished, we do those things less. Right now, we are stuck in a destructive feedback loop that punishes moderation and rewards divisive behavior.
What is that loop? It’s where a conservative commentator is rewarded through views and donations when they promote conspiracy theories or attack institutions. It’s getting a job you’re not qualified for because of your loyalty to MAGA. It’s when people who commit crimes for Trump are pardoned and treated like patriots. It's losing in your primary when you go against Trump. It’s having to deal with frivolous lawsuits for negative political commentary on Trump. It's not having your crime investigated at all. It's losing viewers to more Trumpier stations when there is criticism of Trump shown.
This is not a problem with the leaders. This is ground up from the base. It's sturdy because, right now, it’s the foundation.
And it’s depressing to think about. The shock that it will take to correct this will likely be painful for all of us. I think that’s why so few focus on the actual problem. I see people bitching at left wing commentators for not denouncing political violence hard enough, I’m reminded of those Palestinian protestors at Kamala’s book tour. All they are doing is yelling at someone they think they can get a win from. Is this cathartic? They are doing nothing about the actual problem.
People concerned about bad optics think that the public is an audience waiting to pick a side, but this is the source of the problem within our country. We are not bystanders watching a show. We are citizens that actively decide the path we want the country to take. What our country does, what Trump does, he does in all our names. We have to deal with the fact that a significant portion of our country is angry, disillusioned, and wants the country to be something drastically different that what our Constitution envisions.
At some point, the loop has to be broken. Patience has not worked. Trump has never been nice, and he is winning.
There is a historical parallel here. In 1972, the first black woman voted to Congress, Shirley Chisholm, went to visit Governor George Wallace after a lone shooter’s attempt to assassinate him left him paralyzed. Wallace was running for president as a hardline segregationist and she was a fierce critic. They prayed together, he wept, and she almost lost her seat at the next election for her compassion. Governor Wallace’s politics changed after that and he went on to speak out against the segregationist past and apologize for his mistakes.
It's tempting to look at this story and think that we should continue to reach out instead of call out, but it took a bullet in Wallace’s back to make him open to repent. Chisholm’s, the incentive, just came when he was ready to hear it.
That is what will hopefully happen here, but I think we are past the point where we can avoid the consequences. In the meantime we aren’t helping anyone by taking all the responsibility and allowing them to avoid it. That just allows the divide to get worse. We need to pull them in, and have the fight now. We can’t keep rewarding the very behavior that is tearing the country apart and then act surprised when we get more of it. The loop only breaks when we decide to break it.