Wisdom of Crowds The Return of the Assassin
Sep 21, 2025
Geoff Shullenberger, managing editor of Compact and a political culture writer, dives into the disturbing rise of targeted political assassinations, spurred by recent events like the assassination of Charlie Kirk. He examines how the landscape of political violence has transformed, moving from mass shootings to precise hits. Historical comparisons to 1960s radicals provide context, while discussions around left- versus right-wing violence blur traditional labels. Ultimately, Geoff suggests much of this violence might be senseless, challenging our need for meaning.
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Assassins Defy Easy Ideological Labels
- Assassins are outliers and resist neat ideological categorization.
- Attempts to map single acts directly onto broad social causes often produce muddled explanations.
Media Shapes Forms Of Political Violence
- Media structure shaped the dominant form of political violence in recent decades.
- Centralized attention favored assassinations; decentralized 24/7 media favored mass shootings.
Recentralized Power Reorients Violence
- Political centralization can re-center violence on prominent figures.
- A recentralization of power makes targeted political assassination more logical than diffuse mass attacks.
