"Or how about those eighteen in Siloam, who were killed when the tower fell on them--do you suppose they were any guiltier than the whole population of Jerusalem? Hardly. However, let me tell you, if you don't have a change of heart, all of you will meet your doom in similar fashion."
Luke 13:4-5, SV
Political violence disproportionately hurts people with less power, not people with more power. Political violence will disproportionately hurt people of color and women and LGBTQ people. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it works. Celebrating political violence means at best indifference to that.Celebrating, or not, are hardly the only options here. I don’t condone the violence. But political violence is as American as cherry pie. I can be sorry Charlie Kirk was a victim of it, and appreciate the irony of “thoughts and prayers,” but Charlie Kirk was not Mahatma Ghandi or MLK, Jr.
/2 We can, and should, discuss whether political violence is inevitable, or whether we’re fooling ourselves because we’ve been swimming in it for a long time. You can note that political violence against the Left (like Melissa Hortman) is treated differently than political violence against the right
/3 We can also call out who has encouraged and normalized political violence and made it government policy. We can note the irony of it in many cases. But celebrating it — yelling “hooray” — is like celebrating going to war. People will die and it won’t be fun.
/4 But it’s perfectly reasonable to point out that the people who will wave the bloody shirt over this — the people who support Charlie Kirk — are evil hypocrites who endorse and excuse violence every day. Refraining from celebrating doesn’t mean tolerating bullshit.
“Those to whom violence is done,/do violence in return.”—W.H. Auden
Lamenting violence at this point, on this occasion, is like lamenting that the barn has burned down before all the animals got out.
That said, this is not wrong:
Awful. May his memory be a blessing to his family and to those who loved him. https://t.co/HmZQf2T0Va
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) September 10, 2025
I just love how everyone seems to think they know who shot him and why when nothing seems to have been said about that by anyone who would know. I didn't pay that much attention to him so I don't know who among the most likely to kill he may have upset, though I do know that it's the insane right wing who talk the most about doing that.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he was an unintended victim of gun violence aimed at someone else, the kind of thing that happens routinely with no one much noticing or caring, least of all the Republican-fascist right.
The story is he was shot from a building 200 yards away. In the neck. This was clearly premeditated. He pretty clearly stirred somebody up, and, as I say, it wasn’t for preaching peace, love, and understanding. He pretty much promoted intolerance, hatred, and violence against groups he didn’t like (which was most of the world). I don’t condone the violence; but I’ve seen too many condemnations of political violence that are as empty of meaning as “thoughts and prayers.”
ReplyDeleteKirk was living in the America he wanted and worked to maintain. He likely would have said those three school kids who were shot in Colorado today are a fair price to pay for his rather loose interpretation of the second amendment. The most appropriate way for those of us who are not his friends or family to deal with their tragedy is to just go on about our business. Just another day ending in "y" here in the U S of A
ReplyDeleteI'm old enough to remember when Elon Musk called for someone to assassinate Kamala Harris while she was on the campaign trail and not only did no one do anything, no right wingers condemn him much but Donald Trump handed him the keys to the federal government. Where's the right-wing outrage over that or, going back, when the R:epublican-fascist governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer talked about "Second Amendment" solutions to political grievances.
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