I think that if you wanna point fingers at how we got here, start with Charlie Kirk.
Turning Point USA is MASSIVELY influential. Its entire brand is circulating outrage-bait. The point is to make people mad and get them to identify and blame specific people groups for everything. This in turn lead to not only state crackdowns as we see troops in the street and people being kidnapped in broad daylight by secret police, but random acts of political violence like the killings of John Huffman and Melissa Hortman. This is not an accident.
At every turn, Kirk's entire game was to amplify the outrage, stoke the political division, and embrace and encourage violence. He did so through a mix of outrage bait, dog whistling, and leading questions. Charlie Kirk was a provocateur, and his provocations are a vital part of the movement that have led to deaths. He was literally trying to frame trans people as a social threat when he died. The message? Get rid of the trans people. Their lives fucking matter and he wanted them gone.
As someone who is extremely left wing and a union activist, I know full well that if I was killed, he would celebrate my death. He campaigned against empathy itself because his entire goal was to break the bonds that make us human in pursuit of raw power.
He was killed by his own creation. It's fitting and he deserved it. I see no need for me to manufacture some kind of concern out of decorum. Fuck that fake performance. I'm glad he's dead and that he died like he did.
Yeah, I'm not celebrating or laughing at his death, but I'm also tired of people acting like this is unique to the left (it's not--anyone who's spent time online has seen all kinds of violent, callous rhetoric from the right, even the center...especially when it comes to immigrants or people who are killed by police or bombs abroad), or that this is somehow indicative of the left broadly (has a single left-leaning politician done anything other than forcefully condemn the violence?), I've seen more leftists on Discord, for example, speak against violence than celebrate or mock. And anyone who saw the video was rightly shaken by it.
But this is the internet, where people do things for attention.
It's fair to call out people who agree with you for behaving badly. But I'm not generalizing about who is reacting to this. Internet edgelords are doing what they always do. And I'm very aware that Kirk is getting outsized attention because he was popular and he represents a movement, and kids who are shot at school, or "collateral damage" in our wars do not get the same attention. But it's all violence and it's all wrong. I will not mock or celebrate Kirk's death, but I'm not going to treat him like a martyr.
I'm not laughing at Kirk's death and I deplore violence. However, I am marveling at the irony of the shooting of a guy who found extra deaths acceptable in service of keeping gun laws lax.
"I think it's worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the 2nd Amendment. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe."
— Charlie Kirk at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church on April 5, 2023.
And Charlie Kirk did NOT want your empathy!
"I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that – it does a lot of damage."
— Charlie Kirk on 'The Charlie Kirk Show', Oct. 12 2022
Personally I deplore violence, but if Kirk is OK with it, what can I say??
@ElwoodBlues Of course he did. Charlie Kirk loved the idea of armed guards. He believed they should be in schools, to stop school shooters from blasting their fellow students away.
“Kirk is not like the others.”
What is this? Michael Jackson's Thriller? I'm not like other guys.
Most Second Amendment advocates claim that guns save lives. Kirk accepts that data that proves the opposite, and believes the deaths are worth the cost.
I hear what you're saying. Although I despise the use of "the left." What does that mean? It eliminates the individual and plays right in to "us vs. them." Being on a team. Which is the chief contributor of where we are today. It's immature, fear-driven and emotional. Not on board.
Political violence is ALWAYS wrong. Full stop. But I think what you might be responding to, while crass and inhumane, is predicated by "we reap what we sow." He was grifter who made money by selling division, oppression and hate. The people who are unfortunately responding the way they are have been in the crosshairs of people like him. So I'm not sure if expecting those who are seen as enemies to show compassion for someone who perpetrated that is going to happen.
BTW...here's where the big MAGA influencers stand on it. Thoughts?
https://similarworlds.com/politics/5393090-Finding-Groovy-Again-in-a-Mix-Up-Modern-World thank you all for commenting everybody even though I do have left rwng views I don't hate right-wing people in fact I welcome my right wing brothers and sisters because we're all humans anyway I made this other article just now because I want to try to do something that will hopefully make a world somewhat a better place and I think it starts with our entertainment I won't get too much away here cuz I put it on this article but I think entertainment needs to I know there's a lot of factors but I think it starts with our entertainment but I put it all in there please read it tell me what you think and what's to say I'm hoping to start a movement out of this
There is nothing toxic about supporting the Constitution, meritocracy, or Christianity. The fact that libs could not debate him and win drew all the angry condescending comments from you socialists. He was a huge proponent of the First Amendment and invited others to exchange ideas with him. If it was his opinion, he said so. Nor was he cruel. It seems a bit cowardly and opportunistic of you to throw barbs at a man who was just murdered for sharing his conservative views to college age in kids.
As a husband, father, and conservative speaker… he is irreplaceable.
As for those responsible for his death…no punishment…even death, is severe enough!
In the time I have followed politics, there have been two British MPs killed while attending working functions in their constituencies; Jo Cox in Batley and David Amess in Basildon. One Labour, one Tory. Both horrifying.
It's quite simple. It's not even a matter of right or left, it's a matter of right and wrong. It sickens me to see the people waving their hand and saying 'well, he had bad opinions, so...'.
If 'he thinks differently to me' justifies murder, why not 'he looks different' or 'he has a different religion'. Those who can't seperate their opinion of the man with the concept that political violence is wrong, to MURDER a person because you don't like what they say or believe... yet still see themselves as the moral superior, and 'anti' tyranny and fascism... what sort of world are they advocating for.
A young man, a husband and father, was shot through his throat while sitting there and TALKING to any and all people who had something to say.
How do you know it was the left? . There’s an interesting interview of him and his thoughts on the Epstein files. It could almost appear that it was in order take out by the Republicans.🤷♀. again, it’s super sad that a father two was sacrificed regardless of who did it. Gun violence in America is crazy. You need gun control.
The problem is that many people are conflating indifference with celebration. Kirk isn’t owed any empathy, especially from the groups to which he offered none.
I wouldn’t choose his death, and political violence doesn’t work. Further, Trump’s FBI will refuse to investigate when someone on the left, or anyone who criticized Trump, is assassinated. So, really not a good idea. And the absurd martyrdom going on, of course.
So, not laughing, but I don’t have anything good to say about him, either.
The best way is to vote the radical left out of office! Get some moderates in there that will not resort to the vile insults that have been flying around in recent years, and the "lawfare" being used against political opponents! This us what that has led to!
@fanuc2013 What is "radical left"? People who fling this phrase about have little or no idea what it is, and use it to take attention away from the radical right.
@Julien How do you propose to control crazy people getting guns ? They can be bought on any street corner or bar or hood . They can be stolen even made with 3 d printers. Even a total ban on guns won't stop the killing
I imagine that, when the assassin is captured, it will turn out to be someone connected to Kirk's organization in some way. It would not surprise me if this was a staged assassination attempt that went wrong, but that's looking unlikely.
Charlie Kirk's murderer was an extreme right-wing MAGA-Republican just like Charlie, as were his entire family who strongly supported Trump and the Trump MAGA movement. Charlie Kirk got taken out by one of his own followers, not by a registered Democrat, just for the record @weirdbeatnik.
@weirdbeatnik He advocated for the death of EVERY non-MAGA and non-white in America. No man marries anyone-------until they are BOTH on the same wave length. What he believed.....she believes. You preach hate..........don't be shocked if you get hate.
@anythingoes477 You know what, I’m just going to say it: the real problem in America isn’t just someone saying dumb or even hateful things. What’s worse is how our system is set up to make us hate each other just for disagreeing. That’s the real poison. It’s like a spider web—we’re falling right into the trap while they bait us to turn on each other. The words themselves aren’t the biggest danger; it’s the way the government (and the powers behind it) push us to divide and fight instead of seeing through the game.
@weirdbeatnik We have 5 generations of FOX to thank for our division..........and the GOP who funds them. The poison is the rhetoric trump and Kirk and others like them spread. Sooner or later those seeds of hate will sprout. This time they sprouted on Kirk.
