Against Magical Thinking

The Right has fallen prey to this mentality when it comes to Charlie Kirk’s murder

A specter is haunting American political discourse–the specter of magical thinking. The influencers and politicians don’t even try to exorcise it. They let it possess countless people, making political discourse absolutely retarded.

The Right, which prides itself on hard truths, is especially prone to this specter. It’s hard to claim you stand for truth when your side peddles insane bullshit on a daily basis.

Realism is the cure to the con artistry and fantasy. Reality is on our side. We don’t need to conjure up otherworldly hypotheses and impossible solutions to convince people we’re right. The truth is all we need.

Neither side is immune to magical thinking. The prime manifestation of it on the Left is wokeness. Woke is completely divorced from reality. It imagines men can become women, racism animates the justice system, and whiteness is a great evil. Woke serves as a faith for leftists, complete with its own high holy days and sacred celebrations. The Progress flag and “Hate Has No Home Here” signs replace the cross as the symbols of the Left’s faith. This magical thinking led to all kinds of irrational behavior, such as mandatory gender pronouns, boys in girls sports, white privilege training, George Floyd memorials, and other nonsense. The dictates of this irrational, insidious ideology outraged normal Americans. They didn’t want their kids to learn anti-white racism and gender theory in school, and they didn’t want to be subjected to this indoctrination at their workplace. Backlash against woke helped Trump win the 2024 election.

Now magical thinking is wreaking havoc on the Right. I noticed this trend a few years ago, dubbing it the Insane Clown Party (one could also call it Insane Clown Populism). It’s harder to define than wokeness. Woke’s irrationalism is driven mainly by ideology. Much of the ICP is driven by the need to entertain. It’s hard to discern what these people believe besides hostility towards the establishment. Unlike with woke, there isn’t a clear worldview here. But ICP does resemble woke.

Woke believes in Critical Race Theory, which imagines systemic racism underpins the entire country. ICP believes in Critical Pedo Theory, which imagines systemic pedophilia underpins the entire country. Woke accuses their enemies of being racists and Nazis. ICP accuses their enemies of being pedophiles and actual demons. Woke worries about the ill effects of unconscious bias on our society. ICP worries about the effects of mass demonic possession on our society. Woke believes rationalism is a bigoted artifact of western imperialism. ICP believes rationalism is a libtarded artifice meant to debunk their favorite conspiracy theories.

ICP has been far less harmful than woke. It never forced our country to worship George Floyd and pledge fealty to Black Lives Matter. It never infected school curriculum or business trainings. And it did not dominate an entire party primary like woke did with the 2020 Democratic presidential contest. It’s mostly been devoted to frivolous amusements on the internet and cringe-inducing MAGA raps.

But that’s beginning to change, as seen by the reaction to the Charlie Kirk assassination.

The TPUSA founder was killed by a trans-loving leftist. Tyler Robinson acted on his own, but he was possibly pushed into violence by other leftists in a discord. It’s a clear case of politically motivated violence. But much of the Right doesn’t believe this. They instead believe Kirk was assassinated by a sinister alliance between Israel, TPUSA, and Egypt–and the government is hiding this.

Candace Owens is the lead advocate for this conspiracy theory. There isn’t much evidence for this. Video footage demonstratively proves how Kirk was killed. Robinson admitted his guilt to his parents and trans lover. Despite Kirk sometimes bemoaning Israeli influence, he was a resolute supporter of the Jewish state. It’s unclear why Israel would kill a stalwart defender, especially when the American Right has become more anti-Israel since his death.

But Owens makes the most of what little evidence she has to appeal to magical thinking. The podcaster’s conspiracy theory is now a matter of faith. Kirk himself told Candace this–in a dream. The revelation is stronger evidence than what’s right before your eyes. You can’t allow libtarded reason and facts to delude you. That’s just what “they” want you to believe. But if you have faith, you know that Kirk was killed by his own friends, Israel, and apparently Egypt. And only Owens, a devout Christian mom of four, has the courage and belief to speak this “truth” (which is pure fantasy) and recognize her dream as divine revelation. No amount of evidence can dissuade people from the desire to believe. To even try is an insult to their faith.

This conspiracy theory possibly offers Tyler Robinson a legal defense. The assassin can become an ICP hero if he asserts he’s a patsy and insists TPUSA/Israel killed Kirk. The scant evidence likely won’t convince a jury, but it will thrill much of the Right. A conviction will just provide further proof he spoke the truth and the government is hiding the real story. He will also become a hero to maniacs on the internet.

What was once a clear story about left-wing violence has now become a tale of the Right’s idiocy. The focus is taken off Antifa to fixate on Egyptian military jets, hidden shooters, and braindead accusations. This is all due to the Right’s need to apply magical thinking to all current events to satisfy its yearning for faith and maximum entertainment.

Many of the Right’s leaders have to take this bullshit seriously. FBI director Kash Patel had to come out and deny TPUSA’s involvement in Kirk’s murder, a sign of how popular this theory is. An official denial, however, will only encourage more speculation the conspiracy is true. Patel also claimed the FBI is looking into Owens’s insane allegation that a French hit squad is out to kill her. This is what a political movement in power looks like when it falls prey to magical thinking.

We will continue to see stupidity triumph on our side unless we turn to realism. It’s incumbent on political commentators and lawmakers to stop indulging the magical thinking on our side. It’s fine to wonder about UFOs and other strange lore, but it shouldn’t serve as our political focus. Too many strive for entertainment rather than real-world change. It’s why magical thinking is more attractive than cold, hard facts. You get more viewers out of claiming demonic aliens are why kids are going trans rather than looking at the data.

Reason is not the enemy, nor is it the exclusive domain of Redditors. It explains why diversity is not a strength, why certain groups commit more crime than others, why mass immigration is a disaster, why censorship is wrong, why socialism sucks, and why we should put America first on the world stage. We don’t need to invent harebrained conspiracy theories or escape to the realm of fantasy to defend our worldview. The much-maligned facts and logic are enough for us.

Until we embrace realism, expect more dumb responses to events like the Kirk assassination. It’s what magical thinking dictates.