Free Speech Crackdowns, Megachurch Scandals, and the Price of Fried Food. From The Barbed Wire

Happy fall, y’all — or whatever we’re calling this season where pumpkins melt on the porch and your car seat brands you like cattle. I’m Brian Gaar, senior editor of The Barbed Wire, and while the rest of the country is sipping cider, Texas is over here hallucinating crisp weather while watching our attorney general use Charlie Kirk’s death to justify hunting down "leftist terror cells." Let’s dig in.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton kicked off the week by comparing Charlie Kirk to Jesus, which feels like a cry for help from a man who’s currently getting divorced on "biblical grounds." Speaking at a Turning Point event in Lubbock, Paxton called Kirk’s death a "turning point" and announced new "undercover ops" against "leftist terror cells" — also known as college students who think women should vote.

Meanwhile, Texans are about to vote on 17 constitutional amendments that mostly read like a billionaire’s Christmas list. No capital gains tax, no inheritance tax, and new bail rules to keep poor people in jail longer. It’s a hell of a message: The rich get eternity, the rest get detention.

Disgraced megachurch pastor Robert Morris got six months in jail for sexually abusing a 12-year-old, prompting followers to say "God has forgiven him," which is …not legally binding. The rest of us are left wondering why divine mercy seems to scale with net worth.And finally, at the Texas State Fair, inflation is the true main attraction. Folks are posting $25 turkey legs, $16 tacos, and empty rides. Big Tex is still waving, but mostly in distress.

Ken Paxton Compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus — Then Used Him as an Excuse to Crush Free Speech

Hours after announcing ‘undercover operations’ into leftist groups, Texas’ attorney general Ken Paxton compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus at a Turning Point USA event.

By Steven Monacelli

In the conservative Christian movement, Charlie Kirk was more than a far-right activist — to many, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, the self-described free speech advocate who founded Turning Point USA was a martyr who died for his cause. 

That sentiment was on full display Tuesday night at an event organized by the Texas Tech University chapter of the youth activist group, where Paxton gave the keynote speech — just hours after announcing the launch of "undercover operations to infiltrate and uproot leftist terror cells in Texas." 

Texas Tech’s newly elected chancellor, former Republican state Sen. Brandon Creighton, also spoke at the event, on the same day the Texas Tribune reported that the university issued new requirements that faculty remove words like "transgender, "DEI," and "affirmative action" from their curricula.

The announcements of the day — and the seemingly contradictory free speech heralding at the Turning Point event — made it clear that the Republican leaders in attendance think speech should only be free when it aligns with conservative Christian values. And Kirk’s death is being used to justify power grabs.

"Charlie only had 31 years," Paxton said at Cooks Garage, a car-themed bar and venue in Lubbock. "It doesn’t matter that he only had 31 years, even though we’re sad that he’s gone, some of our most impactful people in the history of the world lived about the same amount of years. Matter of fact, Jesus Christ. 33 years…Look at history after Jesus." 

Paxton continued: "The turning point was the death and resurrection of Jesus. The turning point, I believe, for Charlie Kirk’s life, was not the 31 years. The turning point was the horrific death of Charlie Kirk."

For whatever reason, Paxton did not mention his new initiative against the "clear and present danger" of "leftist political terrorism." But Paxton’s bombshell statement from earlier in the day cited "the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk" as a leading example of the sort of alleged leftist terror cell violence he intends to root out, despite there being no evidence Kirk’s assassin was a part of a broader left-wing conspiracy.

"Corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people," Paxton claimed in the release. "The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk marks a turning point in America. There can be no compromise with those who want us dead."

Despite the fact that far-right extremists commit ‘far more’ violence than other groups, including those on the left, the news was welcome for many in the crowd on Tuesday night.

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