Kyle Rittenhouse abruptly departed the stage during an appearance at the University of Memphis on Wednesday, after he was confronted about comments made by Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk.

Rittenhouse was invited by the collegeā€™s Turning Point USA chapter to speak at the campus. However, the event was met with backlash from a number of students who objected to Rittenhouseā€™s presence.

The 21-year-old gained notoriety in August 2020 when, at the age of 17, heĀ shot and killed two menā€”Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, as well as injuring 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutzā€”at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He said theĀ three shootings, carried out with a semi-automaticĀ AR-15-style firearm, were in self-defense. TheĀ Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest where the shootings took place was held afterĀ Jacob Blake, a Black man, was left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot by a white police officer.

  • ZK686@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    If this kid was black, youā€™d all be praising him for killing two white people who were attacking him. The reason Lemmy and Reddit hate this dude is because you associate him with some kind of ā€œwhite privilegeā€ for going to help defend businesses from being destroyed (at the request of the cityā€™s businesses who had enough of the rioting and torching) he ends up defending himself against criminals who were there just to cause problems.

    • Ragdoll X@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      He actively sought out confrontation and killed two people after he got the confrontation he wanted. The right idolizes him because heā€™s a murderer and buddied up to white supremacists, and now heā€™s pandering to them for money and affirmation, and runs away as soon as he faces any criticism.

      So no, we donā€™t dislike him for being white. We dislike him for being just like any other fascist grifter who fetishizes violence.

    • squid_slime@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      heā€™d have been arrested straight away for brandishing a firearm whilst being underage and crossing state line.

    • Eggyhead@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Had a cheeky peek at your comment history and it sure seems like youā€™re at war with reality, friend. You do you, but that fight is never going to end.

      • ZK686@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        ā€œWar with realityā€ is your way of saying ā€œwe must all think, act, and feel the same. If weā€™re not all liberals voting Democrat, than our country is doomed!ā€