The Normie Awakening: How Recent Events Shifted America's Political Landscape, By Charles Taylor (Florida)

In the past week, America witnessed two devastating events that have shaken its apolitical middle to the core: the brutal murder of a Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, and the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. These tragedies, amplified by the reactions they provoked, have ignited a seismic shift among everyday Americans, those "normies" who typically avoid the political fray. This post looks at how these events, coupled with the Left's perceived response, have radicalised millions of moderates, pushing them toward the political right and reshaping the nation's political landscape.

The Catalyst: Two Tragic Events Iryna Zarutska's Murder

The week began with the horrific stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, by a career criminal who had been released from jail 14 times. For many Americans, Iryna's death was not just a crime but a symbol of a broken system. Parents saw their daughters in her, and the outrage was palpable. The fact that her killer had been repeatedly released fuelled anger toward policies perceived as prioritising social justice over public safety. Many pointed fingers at progressive district attorneys and city officials who champion no-bail releases and lenient sentencing, often backed by liberal ideologies.

Charlie Kirk's Assassination

Two days later, the nation was rocked by the assassination of Charlie Kirk, shot in the neck while speaking to college students. The graphic footage spread rapidly, evoking sympathy from Americans across the political spectrum, many of whom had never heard of Kirk before. His death was seen as a senseless act of violence against free speech and peaceful discourse. For millions, it underscored the dangers of unchecked extremism, particularly when they saw some Left-leaning individuals, university types, nurses, teachers, and neighbours, celebrating or justifying the murder on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

The Normie Awakening

The term "normies" refers to everyday Americans, moderate, nonpolitical folks who prefer discussing sports or pop culture over policy debates. These are the people waiting in line at Dutch Bros, scrolling through social media, or chatting at the water cooler. Historically apolitical, they have now been thrust into the political arena, not by choice but by necessity. The murders of Zarutska and Kirk, combined with the Left's response, have convinced them that their safety and values are under threat.

Why the Shift to the Right?

1.Perceived Complicity of the Left: When ordinary Americans saw local professionals, teachers, healthcare workers, and administrators, cheering Kirk's death online, it shattered their trust in the Left. They viewed these celebrations as not just callous but morally bankrupt, reinforcing the idea that the Left harbors extremists who condone violence against those with differing views.

2.Frustration with Progressive Policies: Zarutska's murder highlighted the consequences of policies like no-bail releases and decarceration, often championed by progressive leaders. Normies, hearing stories from police officer friends or reading about unprosecuted crimes, began connecting the dots. They see these policies as prioritising ideology over the safety of their families, a betrayal of the social contract.

3.Spiritual and Moral Outrage: Many Americans, whether religious or not, began framing these events in terms of spiritual warfare. The celebration of Kirk's murder, in particular, struck them as unnatural, something no "normal" person could justify. This perception deepened their distrust of the Left, which they see as failing to condemn its own radicals.

The Left's Missteps

The Left's response to these events has been widely criticised as inadequate and dismissive. Instead of addressing the raw anger and grief, many liberals have resorted to what moderates perceive as "BS" defences:

Crime Statistics Misdirection: In response to Zarutska's murder, some pointed to reduced crime statistics, ignoring the lived reality of urban decay and unreported crimes. To normies, this feels like gaslighting, as they witness rising violence in their communities.

Whataboutism: Deflections like "What about January 6?" or "What about Paul Pelosi?" fall flat. Normies see these as irrelevant to the immediate horror of Kirk's assassination, especially when compared to the Left's failure to unequivocally condemn the celebration of his death.

Downplaying the Celebration: Claims that "not many" people celebrated Kirk's murder are dismissed when normies see their own social media feeds filled with such sentiments. This dissonance fuels their belief that the Left is out of touch.

The result is a mass migration of normies to the Right, not because they suddenly align with conservative ideology, but because they feel the Left has abandoned them. They see the Right as a bulwark against the chaos they attribute to progressive policies and unchecked extremism. This shift is not a slow drift but a sprint, driven by fear for their families' safety and disgust at what they perceive as moral decay.

The Right, in turn, has gained millions of new, righteously angry supporters. These normies are not just voters; they are activists-in-the-making, motivated by a sense of urgency to prevent further tragedies. Posts on X, like one from @exemplaragnitor on September 12, 2025, capture this sentiment: "What seems to have stuck with normies was seeing endless celebratory posts by Leftists immediately after watching Charlie horribly murdered on live... It radicalized a ton of people to some degree and that's not going away any time soon."

The murders of Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk have awakened America's apolitical middle, pushing millions toward the right in a phenomenon Robert Sterling (link below) calls the "normie conquest." Motivated by grief, fear, and outrage at the Left's perceived failures, these newly activated citizens are reshaping the political landscape. For now, the right has a mandate, and the normies are its newest, most fervent warriors.

https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-normie-conquest-millions-just-joined-the-right-overnight

"The 'normie conquest': Millions just joined the right overnight

Robert Sterling

My liberal friends are completely oblivious about how radicalizing the last week has been for tens of millions of normal Americans. Zero clue. So I am telling you, my liberal friends and leftists everywhere. This is what has happened.

I'm not talking about people who are "online." I mean regular, everyday Americans. "Normies." People who scroll through Facebook posts and Instagram reels from the Dutch Bros drive-thru line. Political moderates who have water cooler chats about Mahomes touchdowns and Bon Jovi concerts, not Twitter threads or Rachel Maddow monologues.

Millions of them. Tens of millions. They're logging on, they're engaging, and they're furious. And I'll be candid: They blame you guys. They blame the left. Regardless of whether you believe it to be justified, they think you're the bad guys here. And they are reacting accordingly.

I can already hear some of you racing toward the comments to start screeching in moral indignation, so I'm going to be blunt: Shut up and listen to what I'm telling you. Your movement will lose any semblance of relevance if you don't develop some small measure of self-awareness, and — absent someone force-feeding you bitter medicine — you guys collectively lack the humility to do this on your own.

1) Tens of millions of Americans started the week seeing a 23-year-old blonde woman — a young woman in whom virtually every parent watching pictured their own daughter — stabbed in the neck by a career criminal. These people then found out the murderer had been released from jail 14 times over.

2) Two days later, tens of millions of Americans saw on video Charlie Kirk get murdered speaking to college students. Millions of these people knew who Charlie was; millions of them didn't. Upon seeing the video, however, these normal Americans from across the land and across the political spectrum agreed that he was the victim of a terrible, fundamentally unjustifiable crime, and their hearts broke in sympathy for his family.

Good people who had never even heard the name Charlie Kirk before wept.

3) Immediately after seeing the footage of a peaceful young man getting shot in the neck, these same people logged on to Facebook and Instagram (remember, we are talking about regular Americans, not perpetually online Twitter or Bluesky users) and saw some of their local nurses, teachers, college administrators, and retail workers celebrating this horrific crime. Not just defending it but cheering it.

These are all facts. You may not like the implications of these facts, and we can certainly debate the underlying causes thereof, but, indisputably, they are factual statements nevertheless.

Here's what it means for Democrats reading this: These normal, middle-of-the-road, nonpolitical citizens just become politically active. They realized that politics cares about them, even if they don't particularly care about politics.

After watching Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk both bleed out from the neck, they think their lives and the physical safety of their families — the bedrock of human society, the foundation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs — depend on political activation, whether they desire it or not. These people are now sprinting — not jogging, not walking, but racing — to the right.

Because they blame you guys for everything that just happened.

When they see footage of Decarlos Brown stabbing a Ukrainian refugee to death, they don't see just one demon-possessed man. They picture every university administrator, HR bureaucrat, and DEI apparatchik that ever lectured them about systemic racism, the "carceral state," or the need to release violent crime suspects without bail in the name of social justice.

They then think back to conversations they've had with their cop friends — their buddy from high school who quit the force after getting tired of being called a racist, their friend at the local YMCA who vents about having to release career criminals because Soros-funded prosecutors aren't willing to file charges — and they realize everything the left has told them over the last five years has been utter BS.

And they blame you. Because even if you count yourself as a moderate Democrat, your party supported the district attorneys, city council members, and mayors that let fictitious concerns about mental health and racial justice supersede very real concerns for their families' safety.

When these Americans see blood erupt from the side of Charlie Kirk's neck, they don't see just a martyred political activist. They think of every extreme leftist they've ever met who calls anyone to the right of Hillary Clinton a fascist and constantly jokes — "jokes" — about punching Nazis and "bashing the fash."

They realize that there really do exist people who wish to see them dead for their moderately conservative political beliefs, their Christian faith, and even the color of their skin.

They ask themselves if the violence visited upon Charlie might one day show up on their own doorstep.

And they blame you. Because even if you're just a center-of-the-road liberal, you lacked the courage to police your own ranks. You let modern-day Maoist red guards run loose across every facet of society, and what started with social media struggle sessions has now turned to .30-06 bullet holes.

When these Americans log on to social media and see their neighbors justifying, celebrating, glorifying murder, they realize that some who walk among them are soulless ghouls at best, literally demon-possessed at worst.

These people — whether they faithfully attend church every Sunday or only attend with relatives once a year, on Christmas Eve — start talking about things like spiritual warfare. They implicitly understand that no normal human casually celebrates the mortal demise of a peaceful person.

And they blame you. Because even if you condemned Charlie Kirk's murder, they probably haven't seen you condemn those in your own movement who cheered it on. They view you as complicit in allowing heartless fellow travelers to celebrate death, and it repulses them.

For all of these situations, what has your response been? Nothing but BS.

In response to Iryna Zarutska bleeding out on the floor of a train, you post nonsensical statistics about reductions in reported crime. In reality, anyone who's been to a major urban center in the last decade knows that actual crime has skyrocketed, and victims do not waste their time reporting it to cops who don't have the manpower to respond and prosecutors who seek to downgrade as many felonies as possible to misdemeanors.

In response to a 31-year-old man taking a bullet to the neck in front of his family, you post nothing but nonsensical whataboutism. "What about January 6?" Honest answer: After you let Liz Cheney spend two years operating a star chamber in the House, combined with countless other failed attempts at "lawfare" against Trump, no one cares any more.

"What about Paul Pelosi?" That's not comparable to Charlie Kirk getting shot, and we all know it. Also: Paul who?

"What about regulations on assault rifles?" That's not going to get you very far when one of these killers used a knife and the other one used a common hunting rifle.

In response to teachers, health care workers, and thousands of other liberals cheering on Charlie's murder, it's nothing but more BS and misdirection.

"It's not THAT many people celebrating!" Yes, it is. Everyone has seen it on their Facebook and Instagram feeds.

"I thought you guys didn't support cancel culture." We don't cancel people over their opinions; we're more than happy to see people lose their jobs — especially their taxpayer-funded jobs — for actively cheering on murder, though. If you can't see the difference, that's your own shortcoming.

All BS. Not even smart BS, but stale, mid-grade, low-IQ BS. Ordinary Americans see right through it, and they don't like how it smells. You probably don't like hearing this. But you need to hear it. Because I'm right, and as you reflect on this, you know I'm right.

The ranks of my political movement gained millions of righteously angry new members last week. We have a mandate to ensure that these crimes never happen again, and that's exactly what we are now going to do. If you want to keep a seat at the table as we do so, you'd better clean house and start policing your own."