Incredibly, if you choose to believe a new YouGov poll, a plurality of Americans believe the alleged assassin of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is a Republican.

Several outlets and notable figures have made the preposterous claim that the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was a conservative Christian, when the truth is that he was a radical transgender man living with another transgender man whose own relatives admit he “hates conservatives and Christians.”

Federal authorities confirm that Robinson has been “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”

Yet, according to the poll, 24% of adults believe Robinson to be a Republican, while only 21% believe him to be a Democrat. Fifteen percent polled said he was neither, and 40% admitted to having no clue.

Tragically, fake news is still consumed by many. Speaking of which, most all mainstream media outlets — and many online sites -- seem to be trying to pass off the most preposterous lies imaginable.

“The transgender man who shot up a Catholic church in Minneapolis recently was actually a devout Christian nationalist and Trump supporter.” Never mind what he wrote on his bullets. Or what his family, neighbors the authorities, or his diary says!

The media has leaned left for a very long time now, but in recent years has morphed into a rabid pack of mudslinging liars possessed by Trump Derangement Syndrome and a vitriolic hatred of America and all things traditional.

If today’s mainstream media were around on Dec. 7, 1941, it would have reported that “Right-wing extremists have attacked Pearl Harbor!”

If the president at the time would have been Republican Wendell Willkie, instead of FDR, the media would have stated something like, “Willkie’s chickens come home to roost; regret your vote now, Americans?”

Fake news is very dangerous, if only because the perhaps 20%-30% of undecided voters in the mushy middle may well determine the outcome of many elections, especially in battleground states.

Free speech, whatever it is, must be defended. (Sorry, Pam Bondi.) But fake speech, deliberately used to indoctrinate, disarm, confuse … or foment violence, must be aggressively and routinely challenged, mocked, and corrected.

Image: Screen shot from Dr. G. Explains video, via YouTube