Utah governor snaps back at 'conflict entrepreneur' Steve Bannon over Kirk shooting response
Source: The Independent
Sunday 14 September 2025 16:45 EDT
Utahs governor is firing back at Steve Bannon and other Trump allies who are working to inflame passions and encourage rage among Republicans in response to the shooting death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Governor Spencer Cox appeared on CNNs State of the Union Sunday, where the Republican responded to criticism leveled against him by Bannon on his War Room podcast last week.
Formerly Donald Trumps chief White House strategist, Bannon remains an insider in Trumps orbit and continues to hold many connections to the White House. Hes a fixture at the annual CPAC event in National Harbor, Maryland, and is a leader of the populist and strongman-friendly wing of the Trump-allied conservative movement.
This past week, Bannon derided Cox as a national embarrassment as the Utah governor whose own ties to the GOP fall under more traditional conservative lines through the influence of Mormonism in the state called for peace and respectful dialogue across the aisle in the wake of Kirks assassination on a college campus on Wednesday.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/spencer-cox-steve-bannon-charlie-kirk-b2826329.html

DFW
(58,941 posts)On his own, he calls for peace and respectful dialogue across the aisle. One call from Trump later, and he does a 180°
I would ask which is it, but being a Republican, I'd get a different answer depending on the time of day, and which way the wind is blowing at that moment.
johnnyfins
(2,904 posts)MaineBlueBear
(305 posts)Takes one to know one.
gopiscrap
(24,460 posts)is a national embarrassment
OldBaldy1701E
(9,075 posts)BBWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAWhat? 'Strong-man'??
(I hope that was a joke. Because it is, whether the writer knows it or not.)
Bernardo de La Paz
(58,502 posts)The truth is not tRump. tRump is not a strong man, he is a "strongman" to some degree. He wants to be autocratic, a dictator, and he is behaving autocratically with limited success and a lot of push back. Desire and reality are not the same thing. tRump is a little senile and not strong.
The truth is Bannon wants him to behave more like a "strongman", despite tRump's physical weakness. Bannon wants tRump to be more authoritarian, more fascist. The Kirk / Bannon wing of the Con moment is very definitely "strongman-friendly".
OldBaldy1701E
(9,075 posts)What I was referring to was the idea that any of them are 'strongmen'.
I think the term they were looking for is 'delusionalmen'...
Bernardo de La Paz
(58,502 posts)Along your lines, I sometimes write "wannabe strongman".
OldBaldy1701E
(9,075 posts)jfz9580m
(15,958 posts)Last edited Thu Sep 18, 2025, 09:09 AM - Edit history (1)
Gov Cox..he seems like one of the nicer Republicans. He reminds me of the Republicans I have met irl..different views but generally nice people.
He is not wrong about social media or the net.
I downloaded and read parts of The Society of the Spectacle on a rec from this journalist I respect called Yasha Levine and it really fits what politics is by now and its so bad for reality:
https://files.libcom.org/files/The%20Society%20of%20the%20Spectacle%20Annotated%20Edition.pdf
It certainly explains why irl conflicts are so much rarer than they are online. And irl there is usually some dispute over specific tangible issues-say property rights or men being creeps.
Almost all of my ire is directed at specific wealthy creeps who are trying to (in my book) make free with my stuff. Wtf..I am not a bloody oligarch. I cant afford that..
But the riling up for no reason is a gift of social media which I agree is a cancer. Ai angers me. It will pick up where social media left off..I saw this thing in Quanta Magazine that was kinda cool..Ai designing physics experiments. I didnt read it with care but unlike chatbots, that actually looked like cool and realistic use of Ai. I think brain rot is likely to become the overused catchphrase of the year..well
I am taking a holiday from the net and cloistering myself up with work, books, my garden and birds and not thinking about the net or rubbish like ai/politics for a few months. Though I may pop on rarely if the sky falls or something..
I wrote a bunch in my journal just in case I ever need it for a complaint.
Maybe not..but I hate being annoyed in my home. I mean come on
I already put up with hideous crap outside my home in societies whose tastes, inclinations and impulses on average make scant sense anywhere. And try to find some common ground. But my home is the one place I go to in order to avoid most people and it really ticks me off when theres some inexplicable, annoying new drivel in ones own damn home. Yeesh. Anyway I deleted or will delete any internet trollish posts.
I just keep these in case some day I need them legally -I dont know some sort of prisoners dilemma- I have no patience with the social web or the line between anonymous internet use and ones actual life blurring. Its really annoying and creepy for the most part and really annoying-the lack of any sort of sane regulatory structure in this hyperlibertarian creepscape
But I didnt and dont want to contribute to the spectacle and will take down any needless vituperations.
Sometimes if I get started on the contemporary tech environment
eh its the net..
The thing is while I always liked science, I just use tech-computers, phones, internet, social media-these are the least interesting and most boring uses of tech. I hate having a phone..that means people can reach you and probably make extortionate demands for unclear reasons ha ha ;-/. I an so glad I am anon. I sp dont get people who are on social media under their own identities..
The internet is dying..wth is an influencer? Thats not a thing..she got it (shes also from the old school net) so 20 years ago. I have posted it elsewhere but it really gets it:
https://plork.blogspot.com/2005/09/i-am-become-famous.html?m=1
Now everyone wants to be famous. Wth? Not irl. Whatever you do online you cant bring Facebook to peoples lives and streets. Thats weird and creepy. Some sort of world citizen? That would be crazy.