1. I can't believe this journalist (someone who works in the culture industry) could be so obtuse about how culture works. Culture is a road map. It doesn't determine what individuals will do, but it establishes grooves into which individuals are likely to settle.
2. The Beatles wrote one dark song called Helter Skelter, which was scattered amongst a catalogue of songs about love, peace, justice, and the joys of getting high. Manson's twisted mind took one of those songs and turned it into a rationale for murder.
3. Donald Trump's *central* and oft-repeated message is that CNN is the "enemy of the people," that Democrats are socialists who will violently destroy the country, that Obama is not really an American and that he and Hillary founded ISIS.
4. Trumpist political culture intentionally sends the message that Trump's opponents hate America, are violent mobs, and pose an existential threat to the nation's future. When you say that repeatedly, is it any surprise that one of his fans would take that literally & act on it?
5. This is not the same thing as saying the #MAGABomber's actions are "Trump's fault" as Rubio says here. No one is saying that.
6. Manson took one Beatles song and twisted it to his purposes. The #MAGABomber immersed himself in MAGA-culture &, as a strong patriot, took it very seriously & acted on it. He sought to destroy the "enemies of the people & the violent Democrats," like any good patriot should.
7. Here's the part I don't get with these anti-anti-Trump conservatives like Rubio. If asked to explain why certain problems exist in the US (poverty, crime, drugs, etc.) they almost always resort to culture to explain it. It's Hollywood's fault, or "the breakdown of the family."
8. But when the political culture nurtured by the leader of their party fosters hate crimes (like what seems to be occurring right now in P-burgh) or targeted assassinations, they fall back on "this has nothing to do with culture, it's personal responsibility or mental illness."
9. If Rubio really believed what he claims to believe about culture, then he would be doing everything he can to push back against the toxic MAGA culture his party has embraced. But instead he prefers to absorb zero responsibility, and allows Trump to absorb zero responsibility.
10. By acting as if Trump has to be either "entirely responsible" for this or "not responsible at all" for it, Rubio & other complicit GOP members refuse to look in the mirror, to reckon with what their cowardly capitulation to Trump's hostile takeover of their party has enabled.
