So, I suppose this is a long time coming, but I might as well speak my mind. Charlie Kirk died by gunshot to the neck, killed by a right-wing, white, Mormon extremist. The entire GOP is demanding people mourn him…or else.
I am not a fan of Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was racist, sexist, and incredibly anti-freedom. He was also a man who preached against banning guns, saying that gun deaths were a “necessary” thing for us to have the 2nd Amendment.
Ironically, he was talking about guns when he died.
Kirk said a lot of awful things that should have gotten him deplatformed. Instead, it got him cult-like followers, demands for an international moment of silence, and the White House grieving him as if he were a head of state.
I don’t agree with the mandatory grieving of a man whose life was squandered spreading hate.
People who spoke out about Charlie Kirk’s death are now being targeted online, losing jobs, and more. The dude was a Nazi. He wasn’t a good person and I’m not sorry to say that I don’t feel any type of way about him being gone.
The truth is that he quite literally “lived by the sword, and died by the sword.” He died while encouraging people to keep the very same conditions that sparked so many mass shootings before his own death.
Kirk was a man who openly warned people against having empathy for others. So, all that many of us are doing is showing Kirk the exact kind of behavior he asked us to do: no empathy, no sympathy.
“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
But if you want to grieve him, fine. Have at it. His shooting death shouldn’t have happened. He should have had a redemption arc where he learned to empathize with others, but that didn’t happen. Or maybe, he should have been given a Nuremberg trial.
I’m not condoning what the shooter did, but damnit, I’m also not going to bend the knee to fascists. I’m not going to act like this was a tragedy when what happened was a direct result of Kirk’s own rhetoric encouraging gun violence.
What worries me more is the selective empathy that’s increasingly commonplace in America.
I’m a believer in avoiding hypocrisy. Part of the reason I am not going to pretend to be sad about Charlie Kirk is because I remember exactly how the GOP behaved when a Democratic lawmaker and her spouse were killed in their own homes.
They did not call the act an act of terrorism.
They didn’t have a moment of silence.
They didn’t decry the act or demand that people be sympathetic toward their families.
People didn’t lose their jobs when they made fun of the deaths of Melissa and her husband.
We all noticed how silent they were. We also noticed how oddly silent the media was about the entire ordeal. The same can be said when Nancy Pelosi and her husband were attacked in their home — once again, by a right-wing Nazi.
The GOP is not a party that fights fair, and it’s so apparent when we see how often actual white nationalists and fascists are celebrated while Democratic lawmakers are mocked for paying the ultimate price while in office.
If life matters so much to the GOP, why aren’t they decrying the deadly violence the left has experienced? Why is it always the left that has to bend the knee toward the GOP’s losses — losses that are often caused by right-wing extremists?
It’s because leftist lives don’t matter here in America.
But we’re supposed to grieve for the guy who used stochastic terrorism against minorities, LGBTQIA+ people, and more, right? Well, I’m going to grieve that the same way the GOP grieved for their left-leaning colleagues.
The wildest part is that the GOP is struggling to try to tie the shooter to a leftist cause.
It’s not working because he was a right-wing man.
They tried to make him into a trans shooter. It didn’t work. Then they tried to say he was leftist, but his social media print already showed that was a lie. They tried to say he was a minority, but he was a white, straight, mormon male.
The facts don’t seem to matter, though. Many right-wing people are already claiming that this is “war” for them to go against leftists. Their politicians, who are supposed to have some kind of decorum, are doing nothing to stop the hate speech.
Tone-policing doesn’t work with fascists.
I’m seeing a lot of people on the left treat Kirk’s death with baby gloves. They’re pulling all the PR stunts out there and it just needs to stop. Tone policing yourself only makes you look weak to fascists.
You can never appease fascists with tone-policing. Every time leftists take the high road, right-wing fascists will go lower. It’s quite literally a part of the fascist playbook and it’s the part we keep falling into the worst.
Fascists do not want to play fair. They are expecting you to handle them with kid gloves because they are bending the rules to make themselves win. This is why I stopped trying to tone-police or try to remain affable on leftist causes.
To fascists, my silence is a greenlight for them to continue doing what they’re doing. The same goes for everyone who stays silent or “goes with the program,” and that includes how Charlie Kirk’s death is being discussed.
They’re at the point where they are basically telling us, “Grieve for this man who advocated for the erasure of your rights, or else.”
Most of us are still falling into the trap because we’re the nice guys who don’t want to make waves. So when do we stop playing by the constantly-changing, goalpost-moving rules made by the people who want to kill us?
You do not owe your oppressors empathy, sympathy, or grief. Period. Stop acting like it’s the “basic” thing to do. If they want to grieve, let them. But don’t let them force you to bend the knee to those who hurt you.
When they show the same respect for human life for the immigrants and LEGAL CITIZENS in ICE camps, I’ll pay my respects to people in the GOP. But so far, they have every excuse in the book to avoid being decent to those who need the most care.
Man, I’m just tired of this shit.
I’m tired of seeing people act like I’m a monster for not being sad that someone who helped take away peoples’ rights died. I’m tired of being told to “act decent” because someone who was a categorically bad person died — especially knowing those same people would piss on my own grave.
I’m tired.
I’m not going to comply.
I’m going to resist, even when it’s scary to do so.
Nothing about these times are normal. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were two of our most sacred documents. They have no meaning anymore. They’re just pieces of paper, because our Supreme Court made them to be totally useless.
So much of our country ran on common decency and decorum. Those days are over and I’m tired of pretending they’re still here only when it’s convenient for people who want to harm me, my loved ones, and my friends.
Our country needs to address its hate problem, but I don’t think most people are ready for that. Do you?
