Blackcap Blog

Published at 12:54 on 11 September 2025

First, what I wrote yesterday still stands. I normally just link to my past posts, but this one was so concise and so important it bears repeating:

Everyone seems to be assuming this is a politically-motivated killing. This is not necessarily so. Until we learn who the perpetrator is, and what their motives were, we simply do not know.

Of course, hardly anyone on the Right is saying that. Of course not. When your country’s governing Right is a fascist Right, things operate according to fascist principles. Dissent always exists to be demonized and crushed. So instead, it is (according to them) certain that the Left (not just a leftist, or a violent leftist group, the entire Left is collectively guilty) did it, even though we still have no idea who did it and why they did it. And of course the remedy must be repression against the Left.

There is already no small amount of speculation that the assassination being a success despite the distance the shot was fired from, that it took only a single shot, and that the killer got away all “prove” the assassin must have been a trained professional. Not so. As I wrote after the almost-successful attempt on Donald Trump’s life in July 2024:

Assuming that it simply “couldn’t” have happened the way currently it appears, that the Secret Service “couldn’t” neglect to properly secure a rooftop, and some random loser “couldn’t” almost prematurely end an ex-president’s life as a result, is assuming into existence, due to indoctrination into authoritarian values, attributes which humans do not in fact possess. It is the authoritarian mindset at work.

I recommend reading the whole essay. And in this case, we already know more particulars which cast further doubt on this theory:

1. Kirk’s assassin missed. Yes, missed. Nobody aims for the neck; it is just too small a target. The killer was aiming for Kirk’s head or chest, hit his neck instead, yet by random chance the bullet still managed to cause a lethal wound. The shooter missed, but it didn’t matter.
2. Deer hunting is a very popular pastime in Utah. (I know this by personal experience. I once lived there.) As such, Utah has a lot of experienced rifle marksmen.
3. It is not hard for an untrained random person to initially evade capture. (Luigi Mangione initially avoided capture.)

Given the current state of American politics, we may never know who did it or what their motives are. Utah is a ruby-red state. Yes, it is one with an LDS-inspired version of conservatism that differs substantially from Trump fascism, but it is still a right of centre state that is willingly going along with Trump fascism, whose governor has already labelled this a “political assassination.” Moreover, Trump is certain that the Left is to blame. Therefore, there is pressure to find a leftist to blame. The already-politicized FBI is assisting the State of Utah and local authorities in attempting to locate a suspect. Finally, it is well-known that police lean to the Right politically.

People are to this very day arguing over whether or not Marinus van der Lubbe really lit the Reichstag on fire, and if he did, whether or not he did it on his own or if he was put up to it by Nazi agents provocateurs. It may well be similar for whomever ends up being blamed for shooting Kirk.

As with the Reichstag fire, some sort of attempt at an Enabling Act seems likely. Because of course such a thing was bound to happen.

After the events of 6 January 2021, there was a historical imperative to deal Trump fascism a death blow. The Biden Administration was not up to this historical imperative. Therefore, instead of the old democratic order dealing a cautious and measured death blow to fascism, we are probably now going to have fascism attempting a vigorous and sweeping death blow on the old democratic order.

The choice was always such, and was precisely the reason I found the complacency of the Biden Administration so upsetting.

Finally, even if it was a leftist that did it, this in no way proves the Left is exceptionally or unusually violent, and in no way justifies any sort of Enabling Act.

There has been plenty of right-wing political terrorism in recent years. The assassination of one Minnesota state senator and the attempted assassination of many more. The attempted kidnapping of the governor of Michigan. The 6 January coup attempt. And so on. And that is just non-state terrorism. We also have the latter: masked secret police kidnapping people, filthy concentration camps holding them, and a premeditated strike on 11 Venezuelan civilians. Any left-wing political terrorism in the USA must be seen in this context.

Something like what just happened in Utah was bound to happen sooner or later in a country as large, polarized, and heavily-armed as the USA. It was only a matter of time.

As I wrote last April:

To sum up: If fascists try to take freedom away, some people will attempt to resist it. The resistance will not be 100% coordinated and optimized. Some elements of it might choose tactics you (or I) disagree with and/or regard as unstrategic. The root problem is, however, not the resistance. It is the fascism.

I don’t know what to do about this other than to point it out. To fall for the whole “the Left provoked fascism” garbage is basically the same thing as a battered wife falling for her abusive husband’s lie that she is forcing him to hit her, and that she needs to try to be a better wife.

Hopefully, this one blows over and the fast-moving news cycle quickly buries it. But I have a feeling that this time it might not. And even if it does blow over, there is always more where that came from.