The elevation of Kyle Rittenhouse to poster child for the NRA and folk hero for the gun culture is uniquely American and uniquely mentally ill. It would arguably be best for him to pursue some kind of a normal life now, get an education, enter a profession or trade, but instead he’s on a meteoric rocket ride towards being a right-wing media star. It’s not going to end well, but this is the ride that we’ve bought, or at least the MAGAs have bought and the yous and mes are watching, so strap in. What a long, strange trip it’s going to be. Here’s the roadmap.

Philosoraptor is a Zoomer, just by the by.

Is it new information to you that Tucker Carlson brought in a film crew to the Rittenhouse trial? The footage they shot will be part of the documentary airing on Monday night. This is pure media spin, folks. This is Martin Scorcese’s King Of Comedy come to life. If you missed that flick, and you definitely will want to see it, Robert DeNiro plays a sociopath who’s an aspiring comic. He kidnaps Jerry Lewis and then becomes a media star, book deals, talk show appearances, the works. It was meant as social satire back in the early 80’s, today it is the blueprint for how this mania manifests.

Go to 2:20 in this seven-minute clip. Cuomo asks Mark Richards, the defense attorney, about Tucker Carlson’s film crew.

This is a must-see film clip. This is Kyle Rittenhouse, larger than life, his image juxtaposed against a backdrop of flaming automobiles. He is the child hero, the modern day David who slew Goliath.

“Were you worried that your client was becoming an agent of animus?” Cuomo asked. “I mean, Fox News is one thing. I used to work there. Tucker Carlson is a different animal. You know what he means in the political dialogue. Were you worried that Rittenhouse was going to become a stooge of that fringe of our political spectrum?”

“I had a talk with Kyle,” the attorney said. “All I can say is what I say. And Kyle’s going to have some hard choices in his life about the direction he goes and what he stands for. Those will have to be made by Kyle eventually.”

Methinks Kyle has already made his choice. And who can blame him? To any 18-year-old, what is happening would be intoxicating. To have this kind of fame and fortune accompany a controversial trial where he might have gone to prison for most of his life for murdering two men, had the pendulum swung the other way, is pretty much unthinkable. Only in this polarized political climate is such a thing possible and the right-wingers are making the most of it. Rittenhouse will benefit, sure, but at what cost?

And all this puts me in mind of yet another cult film, Natural Born Killers. The protagonists in that became media heroes, just as Rittenhouse is doing. And that film was the favorite of the two teenage shooters who killed their fellow students and then themselves in the Columbine Massacre.

This is not going to end well.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. In five years he’ll still be two years too young for Congress. Unless they make an exception because reasons. And I agree this is not going to end well. Just look at those dead eyes.

    • I don’t think they can-isn’t it a constitutional amendment that one has to be a certain age? That would take a lot more than just a bunch of idiot pols wanting to put murder boy in congress. Plus, I do not think he’ll be able to serve in congress from the grave and I do think there is a target on murder boy’s back.

    • That would only be his first strike. If American justice is applied he’ll be able to do it 3 times before its prison with no chance of ever getting out again – if a prosecutor willing to take on that national hero is found and if he’s convicted.

      Land of the free roaming killers indeed.

  2. yeah a couple of years from now the spot light moves on to the next right wing nut job. little kyle will be stuck at home like the high school football hero who blew out a knee that ended his career, except little kyle will have the murders at his hands running like a film loop in his head. He could always join the military, but even there are not many opportunities to just kill without consequences left any more.

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