It feels as depressing as it does inevitable that Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teen who shot and killed two social justice protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, would emerge from his high-profile trial even more of a hero to America’s militarized right-wing than he was before. From a Fox News interview with the network’s chief propagandist, to a pilgrimage to kiss the ring of former President Donald Trump, Rittenhouse’s re-entry into public life since he was acquitted of murder has been both grotesque and jejune — just another day in a country where killing people is one of the quickest ways to establish your conservative bona fides.
And now Rittenhouse is prepared once more to reap the benefits of those bona fides, with a prime speaking slot at one of the most high profile proto-fascist conferences in the United States: Turning Point USA’s upcoming “Americafest” (great name, guys). There, he’ll share the stage with a murderer’s row of far-right senators, seditionist members of Congress, Nazi-adjacent talk show hosts, enthusiastic theocrats, disgraced fabulists, and even the former president’s eldest failson.
