Hey, everyone. It's Michael Shermer. Time for another episode of the Michael Shermer show. This one, a solo commentary on political violence and its causes, for obvious reasons, the assassination of Charlie Kirk and its impact on the public discourse, which has been substantial already. I learned about it like most people just on social media. I just landed in New York

City, flipped open X, and it was all over the place, including the video, which I mean, I didn't

think I was going to even see what I saw, and then watched it a second time, and that's enough.

So gruesome, I mean, it reminded me of the Zabruder film headshot of JFK.

Just you can't unsee it.

Anyway, the assassin's name was Tyler Robinson and he was charged today.

I'm recording this on Tuesday, September 16th by the state of Utah with aggravated murder, and they are seeking

the death penalty, which they have, and I've been told or heard that they use the firing squad.

Robinson appears to have been raised in a conservative Christian home, so that seems like an unlikely

place to be radicalized to killing a leading public voice of conservative Christian home, so that seems like an unlikely place to be radicalized

to killing a leading public voice of conservative Christian values. So the search has been on

for, you know, where did he get these ideas and become radicalized? The Utah governor and the FBI

currently suspect that he was probably radicalized online through several far-left sites,

they mentioned, and also this bizarre furry community of people who are apparently sexually aroused

by dressing up as furry animals, although I don't know how much to make of any of that.

He was only in college one semester, so it seems like he would not have been

radicalized by far-left professors in only a few months. Much has been made about the fact that

his roommate and his apparently romantic partner, Lance Twigs, is a male-to-female trans person,

and since Charlie Kirk was outspoken on the trans issue,

some have been speculating that anger at Kirk's attitudes might be a motive.

However, it does not seem to be the case for Twiggs himself, as evidenced in this text exchange shortly after Robinson murdered Kirk.

The state of Utah just released this text exchange shortly after Robinson murdered Kirk, the state of Utah, just released this text exchange.

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