I think an essential fact about America right now is that the people who are seethingly, viscerally angry that these protests are being allowed to continue live nowhere especially near them and have never known anyone personally affected by them

In this respect it makes perfect sense that Kyle Rittenhouse is their hero - like him, they don't live in the affected communities, but believe fervently - furiously - that something must be done to "restore order" to them.

This is why hucksters like this can flamboyantly, blatantly lie about easily-checked conditions on the ground - their target audience can't and won't check.

In many ways I think Chicago was the right's test case for this strategy - the city's problems with violence are real, of course, but if you set foot in literally any part of it for even a second you'd see that the twisted hellscape of reactionary fantasy is just that.

But the belief right-wing media figures have cultivated that Chicago is a stage from Gears of War is very real; I've encountered it myself, among otherwise thoughtful people who have just never heard differently.