46: The Martyr Machine: Charlie Kirk and the Politics of Stochastic Terrorism

Update: 2025-09-16

Description

On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on stage at Utah Valley University. The media asked, “How did we get here?” But the truth is—we already know.

In this special episode of The In Between, host Mel Barrett, breaks the mold of the series to trace the long road that led to Kirk’s assassination: Donald Trump’s decades of violent rhetoric, the rise of Nick Fuentes and the Groypers, Kirk’s own pivot into conspiratorial territory with the Epstein files, and the online ecosystems where memes become manifestos.

We’ll look at the shooter, Tyler Robinson, his bullet casings engraved with anti-fascist slogans and internet jokes, and the instant wave of conspiracy theories—about security guards, hand signals, and martyrdom—that followed. We’ll also confront the political aftermath, where Republican lawmakers blamed Democrats instead of guns, and where stochastic terrorism—the unpredictable violence seeded by years of hateful rhetoric—became undeniable.

This isn’t just the story of one man’s death. It’s the story of how rhetoric turns to blood, how violence is normalized, and how a democracy erodes when cruelty becomes identity.

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