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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 15, 2025

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But we are told that this represents a small fraction of the left, only the most politically deranged. But a random person in the crowd didn't just cheer on Kirk's death, he was willing to risk arrest, possibly death (if you claim to have a gun during an active shooting, you can't really be surprised if you wind up shot.)

https://web.archive.org/web/20250911013626/https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/09/10/george-zinn-what-we-know-about-man/

Often, Gill said, Zinn was arrested on suspicion of trespassing. He said Zinn was politically conservative, leaning libertarian, and would “give me a hard time for being a Dem.” Zinn had a curiosity about politics and “almost every political event you can think of, there was always George somewhere in the background, listening.”

It's very, very common for conspiracy obsessed loons to have an idiosyncratic hodgepodge of beliefs that look like the far end of whatever side of the spectrum you find most distasteful.

Yeah it's like the whole 'somebody's entire political ideology is whether they voted Blue or Red at the latest election' thing when there's a large population who'll zigzag wildly across the border on vibes or random pet issues.

Not for nothing, but the Salt Lake Tribune is pretty notoriously one-sided in its political slant. Think New York Times or Washington Post, but without all the attempts at balance and editorial oversight. The article lists a bunch of things tying Zinn to republicans and sort of glazes over the things tying him to local Democrats. For example, the 2019 protest where he was arrested was a left-leaning protest over environmental issues. If I had to put money on it, I’d say he’s an opportunistic loon.

Even if the salt lake tribune is "one sided", the quote comes from.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told The Tribune on Wednesday that his office had prosecuted Zinn, whose criminal history dates back to the ’80s, numerous times.

They have a lot of direct experience with this man, and it seems they've talked on numerous occasions. Unless you think the DA is just making it up out of thin air (and "no true conservative could ever do anything wrong ever" is not a rational argument). there's little reason to distrust it here.

I would also guess opportunistic loon, mainly posting it as a reply to the idea that Zinn was uncontroversially a representative of the left / acting as he did for specific leftist reasons.