"Kirk, who was a cheerleader for the cult of Trump, embodied the hypermasculinity that is at the core of fascist movements. This was perhaps his primary attraction to youth, especially white men.

He claimed there is "a war on men," fetishized guns and sold Trump to his followers as a man's man.

"There's a lot you can call Donald Trump," he wrote. "No one has ever called him feminine. Trump is a giant middle finger to all the screeching hall monitors that attacked young men for just existing.

He's a giant F YOU to the feminist establishment that was never challenged before he came down the golden escalator. Most of the media missed this. Young men did not."

History has shown what comes next. It won't be pleasant.

Kirk, elevated to martyrdom, gives those seeking to extinguish our democracy the license to kill, just as Kirk was killed.

It lifts what few constraints still exist to protect us from state abuse and vigilante violence. Kirk's name and visage will be employed to accelerate the road to tyranny, which is as he would have wanted it."