Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/charlie-kirk-assassination-maga/?nc=1&utm_campaign=SproutSocial&utm_content=The+Nation&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/charlie-kirk-assassination-maga/?nc=1&utm_campaign=SproutSocial&utm_content=The+Nation&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
31 comments
Oh they definitely had plans for him
You reap what you sow. That’s it. Poetic justice.
You have to give him credit for putting his money where his mouth was.
Does anyone remember when he said he’d make his 10 year old daughter carry to full term a rape baby? Or when he said MLK was an awful person, or this gem about black women not having the brain processing power to be taken seriously. In my opinion his legacy will be one of creating division and hate.
Judging by how kirk and Jones handled sandy Hook the best way to respect kirks legacy would be to call the whole thing a false flag accuse his family of being paid crisis actors and then use the whole thing to try and sell people overpriced supplements coffee and pillows
MAGA and the current administration will definitely do something to annually commemorate him. Fascists will fascist.
Charlie Kirk’s legacy is the United States government threatening to destroy the lives of anyone not sufficiently sad about him dying, while his free speech absolutist buddies cheer.
I couldn’t think of anything more fitting for him.
You can condemn the act (I do) but just because a person died doesn’t change who they were when they were alive.
The obvious attempts by MSM and the right to launder what Kirk actually was is repulsive.
Excellent article.
Legacy? The guy was a rabid christofascist. There’s a reason news media outlets aren’t showing clips of him speaking in detail about all his abhorrent views on society. If his views were so perfect and saintly, surely they would have his speeches running 24/7 like he was the new MLK of the right? No? Ok then.
Now, release the Trumpstein files. Thanks!
What legacy? Who is this guy? Nobody cares anymore. Even republicans are trying to move on now that his shooter turned out to be a white christian from the suburbs.
Mourning for what Amerikka has become.
Frankly never heard of him when he was alive, and bringing up his name in European Parliament was inappropriate and wasted our time. The reported “uproar”, if any, and probably only found in the foxnews comments section, was just delusional.
literally the only level-headed article I’ve seen on the subject, well written.
Kirk died of natural causes. It was a sore throat. Quit trying to blame the shooter.
Honestly it made me feel pretty uneasy driving around today seeing all the flags at half mast for a hateful, racist fuckin podcaster.
A vile podcaster who was killed by the fan of an even more hateful, racist podcaster.
This country has gone so far down the fucking drain it isn’t even recognizable anymore.
It was sold to the public as a hate crime by democrats to further the political agenda of a goddamn game show host, pedophile president.
Liberty and justice for all means nothing anymore unless you’re a white nationalist pretending to be Christian.
The speech from CK’s succubus of a wife was even worse but she’s still being sugar coated as some American sweetheart martyr who was just as complicit in CK’s vile rhetoric.
Exactly this. The fact we lowered flags to half staff for him is disgusting in itself. Melissa Hortman and her husband didn’t get that honor, even though she most likely positively impacted others life much more than Kirk ever did.
I don’t see why MAGA is getting so worked up for anyway. Once our slide into authoritarianism is done they won’t have 2A rights, or 1A rights for that matter. It won’t even matter if that dictator is from the MAGA movement or not, no authoritarian will allow any group, movement, or ideology to challenge their power.
He was one of the many right-wing-think-tank parrots. Just like Rush Limbaugh and the rest of those clowns. He was paid to help them spread their dangerous, traitorous rhetoric. An illegal immigrant that dies picking lettuce deserves more mourning.
Hear, hear 🥂!
Charlie Kirk deserves no legacy
I’ve already forgotten him.
The quote about gun deaths being worth it is being labeled as ironic, and while I think that’s true, one point that’s not being made is that for a person of such outspoken faith, openly claiming your condoning of human sacrifices to protect your weapons is a profoundly un-Christian thing to say.
Every Conservative: “How could someone that preaches division and violence for a living fall prey to division and violence? 🤷🏻♂️”
Forget him like that Limbaugh guy
The Vice President of the United States LEFT A 9/11 MEMORIAL ON 9/11 to fly Air Force Two to Utah. Then he personally carried the coffin ONTO AIR FORCE TWO.
Now they want him LIE IN STATE IN THE CAPITOL! One of our nation’s highest honors!
He was a *podcaster* for God’s sake! Not a decorated Veteran… Not one of our last, cherished WWII Vets… Not a person who dedicated their life to public service.
I predict people like Lee Greenwood will rush to write cheesy anthems about their “martyr.”
I disagreed with Kirk on just about everything—and I’m not going to sugarcoat it—he was a mouthpiece for this corrupt administration, a nativist, bigot and Christian nationalist who inflamed racial and political tensions. He was no hero of mine, and while I do not mourn the person, I can still believe that he did not deserve to die.
Instead, I can mourn our current state of affairs. I believe that what happened to Kirk was unjustifiable. Political violence begets more violence, it breeds division and chaos.
For instance, now that some information about the suspect has been released, Kirk’s supporters are jumping to conclusions about the shooter’s motive and ideology, but this was another young, white male, radicalized by a political environment that figures like Kirk exploited for clout and helped preserve.
The hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance is baffling. On the one hand, many conservatives are responding to this incident with charged rhetoric of their own and calls for swift, violent retribution against their political opponents who they’ve blamed for the horrific actions of a single individual.
On the other hand, these same people have downplayed or ignored countless other similar tragedies in the past involving culprits that have been radicalized by far right conspiracy theories, propaganda, and online extremist networks.
The fact remains—acts of domestic extremism in the US are committed disproportionately by right wing offenders.
But conservatives overlook this fact in favor of making wild presumptions about these incidents and the people involved to control the narrative.
It seems they are more interested in politicizing deaths like Kirk’s to reinforce their hatred for their perceived enemies; exploiting Kirk’s death to portray him as a martyr and a victim of “radical left violence” and “rhetoric” without considering the broader systemic issues or without acknowledging the role that right wing extremists, influencers, and prominent conservative voices have historically played in stoking political violence and schism.
They conveniently ignore the impacts that Donald Trump, alt right movements, online conservative platforms and activists, media personalities, right wing militias, extremist groups and religious fundamentalists have had on this widespread culture of division, distrust and radicalization.
Among other things, this has led to extremist rhetoric and conspiracy theories becoming mainstream. The use of inflammatory language has become normalized and has emboldened many far right fanatics.
These groups have laid the groundwork for more extreme behavior and violence inciting rhetoric. They’ve popularized racist conspiracy theories and contrarian, anti-government sentiments that constantly pit them against their perceived enemies.
Far right militia groups, online radical networks, and white supremacists have also normalized political violence while suing social media to recruit young men and spread racist, conspiratorial, white nationalist and misogynistic ideologies.
Evangelicals and religious extremists are disproportionately aligned with the Republican party. They also promote conspiracy theories and support political violence as a means to an end; touting the narrative that conservative Christians—and especially conservative men—are more commonly discriminated against than all other demographics.
That said, it is without question that this culture and political climate of hostility, violence and extremism is also a primary consequence of Donald Trump’s frequent use of inflammatory and divisive rhetoric, his cruelty and antagonistic messaging, his assault on democratic norms, his constant politicizing of every issue, his normalizing of revenge as a political tool, his weaponization of the federal government, and his faux populist appeals to hate groups and their many grievances.
In other words, MAGA conservatives have no ground to stand on. It’s audacious of them to suggest that they are mere bystanders or even victims of this political landscape of violence and extremism when they are, in fact, its chief caretakers.
In response to Kirk’s assassination, these groups of people will refuse to see this as an opportunity to address the underlying causes that contribute to gun violence in America.
> “Charlie Kirk… said during an organizational event on Wednesday that gun deaths in exchange for the preservation of Second Amendment rights is part of America’s reality.”
Surreal…
And while this act alone was indefensible, Kirk represents just one of a chilling number of gun deaths in this country. He is not the first victim of political violence, nor will he be the last.
When a white male radicalized by far right doctrine attacks and/or murders a democratic lawmaker and their family in their own home; opens fire on school children, federal buildings or minorities in a supermarket, the response is to downplay widely recognized systemic issues while decrying “mental illness.”
But when a transgender gunman or a black man is involved in a high profile crime or shooting, it’s an issue of race, gender or leftist ideology, even though these individuals have obvious mental health problems that transcend race, gender or politics.
I’d argue that these hypocrites don’t have much sympathy for the victims. They’d prefer to politicize these attacks to justify their hatred and their bigotry towards the communities of people they demean on a daily basis.
They exploit these incidents to perpetuate certain stereotypes and push narratives that associate immigrants, minorities, the LGBTQ community, Muslims and their political opponents with violence, “domestic terrorism” and criminality.
But the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination is not an immigrant, nor is he a minority, a Muslim, transgender, gay, a democrat… He was not raised in a “radical left” or godless household. He was, however, another young, white male, brought up in a religious home, introduced to guns early on in his life, given unfettered access to these weapons—and at some stage in his life—became radicalized by a climate of division that people like Kirk were invested in.
Nevertheless, conservatives will not accept any other narrative than the one they’ve invented—and a narrative that will continue to fuel this cycle of political violence.
They thrive on manipulating the plot and capitalizing off of these victim’s traumatizing experiences or deaths to incite violence and validate their grievances; resorting to stigmatizing and fearmongering language that fans the flames of division.
They take excessive liberties in these situations to demonize and scapegoat out-groups and marginalized communities of people; ignoring systemic issues and the growing number of incidents of political violence and extremism committed by the far right.
At the same time, the Republicans that they continue to elect have done next to nothing to address the underlying, root causes of crime, widespread gun violence and mental health problems among Americans especially.
In fact, Republicans are actively defunding and dismantling the programs, community support structures, social services, agencies, organizations and operations that monitor, manage and try to address these issues.
And let’s make something clear. Federalizing the military and local law enforcement to occupy the streets of cities around the country where Trump’s political opposition is most prevalent, is *NOT* how you even begin to address the root causes of crime and gun violence.
Live by the sword die by the sword I guess. I feel genuine sorrow for his kids and family, but I do not empathize with the man himself, and we cannot whitewash his life just because his death was a tragedy.
Trump got the attention off the Epstein controversy. That shooter was an expert. A hired gun. No one can tell me different
There is absolutely NO way to hammer this into the republican voter.
Our only hope is to engage those who do not vote, to register.
But before that happens, I think they have to suffer to consequences of sitting out.
But when I claim that, I’m supposedly an unsempathetic vitriolic asshole with no regards for human dignity.
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