1. Orígenes y Financiación: Un Proyecto Astroturf.
Los comentarios describen a TPUSA no como un movimiento juvenil de base, sino como una organización artificial ("astroturf") creada y financiada por donantes multimillonarios de derecha. Se señala que Charlie Kirk fue reclutado a una edad temprana para ser el rostro de esta iniciativa, diseñada para promover los intereses de sus patrocinadores.
- Kirk never had anything close to a grassroots youth movement. Tpusa is a billionaire-backed fever dream that allows dying, reactionary suburbanites to feel like their beliefs have serious purchase with the youth and in turn with the future.
- His whole grassroots podcaster narrative is false. Kirk’s father was an architect involved in trump tower. At 18y he was recruited by b. Montgomery, 72y marketing /tea party activist to form tpusa. At the 2012 rnc he met f. Friess, 72y investment manager/christian right donor, who bankrolled tpusa.
- In all the kirk discourse nobody is putting tpusa in the context of the long history of astroturfed big money right wing student organizations.
- I dunno, last i heard anything about tpusa as an org they were generally better at attracting money from rightwing megadonors than influencing their target audience?
- To call him the “founder” of tpusa without putting the koch brothers front and center in the lede seems to be missing a big part of the story: we know kirk’s name because he was useful to reactionary billionaires.
2. Misión y Estrategia en Campus Universitarios.
La estrategia principal de TPUSA en los campus universitarios es descrita como una táctica de provocación. En lugar de fomentar un debate genuino, el objetivo era incitar a estudiantes de izquierda para grabar sus reacciones, editarlas fuera de contexto y crear contenido viral que ridiculizara a sus oponentes, sirviendo así como una granja de "clout" para Kirk.
- He grew his org in the late 2010s by showing up on college campuses and baiting protests from left wing students for young conservatives to jeer, yell at, and record for sjw youtube compilations.
- Good article. "kirk was 18 when he cofounded tpusa in 2012 after deciding that his teachers were all rabid marxists. The business model was elegant in its cynicism: set up a table on campus. Put up a sign: “men cannot get pregnant” or “build the wall." wait for someone to get angry.".
- The whole shtick of tpusa was to target college students to generate video clips. Talking to kirk was a one way ticket to having your face posted online with a slanderous tagline.
- Tpusa preys on college age students, same as the moonies, hare krishnas, etc. What you're looking at is maga / tpusas 'actualizing rhetoric' materializing. It's an enduring subtext.
3. Ideología: Nacionalismo Cristiano y Vínculos Extremistas.
Los textos asocian a TPUSA con la promoción del nacionalismo cristiano, el racismo y la intolerancia. Se menciona que la organización atrae a supremacistas blancos y que sus representantes han hecho comentarios despectivos sobre minorías y la comunidad LGBTQ+, funcionando como una plataforma para extremistas.
- Since founding tpusa, kirk moved further to the right & promoted conspiracy theories about election fraud & covid. He also promoted a form of christian nationalism.
- Tpusa continues to attract racists. Numerous tpusa representatives have made bigoted remarks about minority groups & the lgbtq community. White nationalists attend tpusa events. Kirk has created a vast platform for extremists.
- Make no mistake, kirk was a fucking nazi. And tpusa is a terrorist organization—which infiltrates colleges, universities, & high schools, indoctrinating kids to inform against others.
- In his role as founder of tpusa kirk's as close to trumpist hitler youth as it gets.
- Your reminder that kirks organization tpusa with very close associations with white supremacists and xtian nationalists has a k-12 curriculum at the ready and clubs in some middle schools almost every high school and on every college campus in utah.
4. Percepción como Culto y Maquinaria de Propaganda.
Una percepción recurrente es que TPUSA funciona como un culto a la personalidad centrado en Charlie Kirk, similar al de Trump. Se describe como una maquinaria de propaganda bien financiada, diseñada para "lavar el cerebro" a jóvenes impresionables y culpar a otros de sus dificultades, en lugar de ser un movimiento político legítimo.
- The only people who seem to be celebrating kirk today are his rwnj maga followers tpusa is nothing but a cult.
- Tpusa was simply a cult. That's all. College kids searching for identity and kirk gave them someone to blame their difficulties.
- And tpusa was kirk's baby; a cult of personality not unlike trump's own. Those looking to jump into his grave both in terms of money and ambition aren't going to want to carry on a legacy or any such thing.
- Tpusa was a well funded propaganda organization. Its mission was to find persuadable young people to sign on to warmed over jim crow and dipshit christian apologetics. Kirk was performing to a susceptible audience.
5. Legado y Futuro de la Organización.
Tras la muerte de Kirk, los comentarios especulan sobre el futuro de TPUSA. Se debate si la organización podrá sobrevivir sin su carismático líder, si sus patrocinadores encontrarán un reemplazo adecuado, y cómo se intentará convertir a Kirk en un mártir para recaudar fondos y mantener vivo el movimiento, a pesar de su cuestionada efectividad para influir en el voto juvenil.
- All the big money supporting tpusa is going to do their darndest to find some tame telegenic 20-something to fill kirk’s chair. They may figure they can keep the movement going just based on devotion to the great martyr.
- They lost an asset. Unfortunately, kirk was actually a brilliant propagandist and turned tpusa from a 3mm blip to a 92mm media juggernaut. His death stings to the right bc charisma is a nonrenewable resource, and now trump (dying) and kirk (dead) were/are their strongest pieces.
- Tpusa is “generating a lot of content which lionizes kirk. They’re doing that to raise money and organize kids on college campuses. They’re trying to figure out how to continue the mission of kirk," coughlin told ..
- Trying to keep tpusa together after kirk's death will prove too difficult. It always does after the loss of a charismatic leader.
- I don't see it lasting. The right has so very few people with any remote amount of charisma and they lost one of their biggest ones last week. Without kirk tpusa is on borrowed time imo.