shouldn t have been having an ar-15 or whatever other semi-automatic weapon he had on the streets. but now, you know, he has become a cult hero and my guess is, you know, we re going to see more of this. i think it is a real tragedy. it is a tragedy for rittenhouse as well as for the conservative movement. jolani, you have written a lot about gun culture and the role of the gun and the fetishization of the gun as an instrument of politics. what do you see when you see this rock star introduction? well, i mean there are two things, chris. you know, the first is i want to be consistent. you know, i have written a lot about juvenile justice and the way that our system treats young people who have not psychologically developed into adulthood and cognitively developed into adulthood. in order to be consistent with that, the thing i have to say,
i m horrified there is this fetishization of guns and this valorization of killing people under the circumstances under which they were killed. but the other thing that strikes me is this is profoundly unhealthy for a young person. yes. i mean we just know about the psychic toll and the emotional toll that celebrity takes on young people. it is a well-known story of the child star who is very poorly adjusted as an adult. compound that with being a celebrity for killing two people and shooting a third. i just think that this is wrong. i think it is immoral and unethical in ways that go across partisan lines. about the firearm part of it specifically though, this is about him realizing an objective, which has been fairly well-stated on the right for a long time. there s a great book on this, you know, gunfighter nation
next, lib. the right s celebration of violence, their fetishization of guns, which there s a lot to say about where that is coming from, but the fetishization of guns and the celebration of violence is one of the most ominous developments in american politics, and sometimes it has been happening for a long time but they re putting it now on full display. joe lawnie cobb is a staffer at the new yorker, professor at the columbus school of journalist. linda chavez joined as the highest ranking woman in the reagan administration. they join me now. linda, i want to start with you because i noticed something in interactions with people on social media about kyle rittenhouse that it is a little bit of a wedge among conservatives, similar in to ways to the vaccines. a lot of conservatives are like, i m a trump person, i hate liberals, i hate fauci but i got the vaccine. then some people are like, no, it is a secret plot by george
adored. it is the fascinating thing to watch at some level. that s the recipe, the secret sauce of this current version of right-wing politics. it is not just rhetorical. this is key. it is not just rhetorical. it is not just saying stuff that makes people upset. as you saw with the welcome for kyle rittenhouse, i mean he is known for one thing. they are literally celebrating killing people. now, all of this comes in a larger context and that s the broad fetishization of guns and violence on the right. a recent poll from the public religion research institute found 30% of republicans agreed with this statement. because things have gotten so far off track, true american patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country. we know there are more and more guns in america and they are held in fewer and fewer hands. we have more guns than people. about 121 firearms in circulation for every 1200 residents, making the u.s. by far the most heavily armed society in the world. m
the michigan shooter s family used to take family photos like mine. nicolle, you know, i fell like doctor kevorkian here on the show today, i am dr. death, dr. doom. but i have got the say, mayor dinkins used to say about new york as a gorgeous mosaic. and i feel like all the stories today are creating a horrific mosaic. they are all connected to each other. i don t want to suggest that all americans who have guns are violent or insurrectionists. most are not, most of them are law-abiding citizens. within the party, the fetishization of guns of this kind is part the picture that you have been painting today on