The ripples of the Kirk assassination
When a stone is dropped into water, it creates ripples that go outward from that center.
The work of Charlie Kirk and the aftermath of his public killing, plus the celebration of much of the left, is something that will have many effects that we are only dimly aware of at present. But just quickly, at this early date, I sense that his death is especially shocking to young student-age people who not only knew him from social media but who admired him even if they disagreed with him. It might wake at least some of them up to the danger of leftist thought and the truly hateful rhetoric that tried to make Kirk into some sort of demonic figure.
The left and the MSM are busy trying to spin this in any way possible to blame the right or to blame both sides. But I don’t think they’ll succeed with most people. The situation is too stark, and too many people can see for their own eyes.
From what we know of Robinson he, if guilty (and I very strongly believe he is) bears full responsibility for his actions. Discussing influences on a criminal is neither absolving him of responsibility nor making excuses. However, those people who killed no one but have been engaged in spreading the poisonous lie that Kirk (and Trump, and Vance, etc….) are fascists or Nazis or that sort of evil also bear some responsibility. It is an “and” situation rather than an “or” situation.
That does not diminish the adult perpetrator’s responsibility nor does it dilute it. It creates a separate and additional-but-lesser, responsibility on the part of those spreading the propaganda. That latter responsibility is probably not a legal one – barring actions that amount to incitement. It is, however, a moral one.
By the way, I give you exhibit K:
Where did Charlie Kirk's murderer learn to call conservatives "fascists"?
"Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?"
Kamala Harris: "Yes, I do. YES, I DO!" pic.twitter.com/RxDjgOYjKY
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 12, 2025
Some people who actually celebrated Kirk’s murder on social media are being reported and fired. I think a school or a hospital or any business has a right to fire such people, just as those people have a right to express themselves on social media or elsewhere. It’s a risk, and they took it.
The poisonous atmosphere has been apparent for quite some time. As Mark Hemingway writes:
I do not want to live in a society where half the country simply uses whatever power is available to them to go after the other half. I do not believe the average Democrat voter believes that successfully engaging in good-faith debates on college campuses warrants death. But, and I am hardly alone here, I am increasingly concerned that there are forces on the left that cannot be debated, they must be made to feel pain until they stop.
Perhaps not the average Democrat voter – whatever that may be these days. But many young people do believe exactly that – or at least, that it warrants violence. This is the sort of thing they’re talking about, from a survey of college students:
College students are growing more tolerant of using force to stop viewpoints they dislike, and less tolerant of campus visitors with viewpoints at either end of the political spectrum, according to an annual survey of nearly 70,000 students by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and College Pulse.
More than a third of students would “at least rarely” accept the use of violence to stop a campus speech (34%), 10 percentage points higher than its 2021 survey, while majorities would block other students from attending such a speech (54% versus 41% in 2021) and shout down a speaker (71% from 66%), all “record highs.”
“For the first time ever” since it started the surveys, expanding from 55 campuses in 2020 to 257 in this report, most students say their schools should block speakers who hold any of six views associated with the left or right on hot-button cultural issues, FIRE said Tuesday.
The view they are most willing to tolerate is “Children should be able to transition [identify as the opposite sex, socially or medically] without parental consent,” the only one of the six to command a majority in last year’s report. This year it’s 49%.
The least likely to be tolerated: “Black Lives Matter is a hate group,” at 24%. The others: “Transgender people have a mental disorder” (25%), “The Catholic Church is a pedophilic institution” and “The police are just as racist as the Ku Klux Klan” (both 38%), and “Abortion should be completely illegal” (40%). Each fell several points from last year.
It makes me think of a quote from Heinrich Heine: “Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder.”
NOTE: Here’s a post at Instapundit showing many beautiful ripples around the world. They may surprised you as they surprised me; I hadn’t realized Charlie Kirk’s reach was so international.
NOTE II: The Kirk assassination has been food for so much thought that I have drafts for many more posts on the subject. But they will take a while to finish.
The thing that can’t be underestimated is that for Gen Z, which is the target audience for Charlie Kirk, YouTube is by far the most popular source for news/entertainment etc. and that is world wide and Charlie Kirk videos are huge on YouTube.
With the algorithms the way they are it can be pretty easy for an older person (and that can be like 50) to totally miss the impacts that certain people have on culture and Charlie Kirk is a megastar in that demo.
First Harris couldn’t define Fascism if she says President Trump is a Fascist.
It shows the power the Marxist march through the education system has had converting students into Seminary Marxism religion.
I sadly watch entirely too much YouTube, but on other hand seen more Charlie Kirk videos in last few days than previously.
It’s not I avoided, seen some before, it’s just I am not his target audience and he would be preaching to the choir.
Yeah, I didn’t realize it was an international movement either.
We need to engage with the kids these days.
Though I’m a natural born “glass half empty” person, I’m going to go out on a limb, with Huxley-like optimism and suggest that the Lord is dismantling the construct of the Gramscian March.
The entertainment of abortive ideation prosecuted with liberal license planned following progressive principles is a first-order forcing of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change with collateral damage. #HateLovesAbortion
Yeah this is obviously a horrible tragedy for his family and many friends but I’ve got to say the response from the left and right has managed to be horrifying and encouraging at the same time and depending on my mood I’m either incredibly pessimistic for the future or hopeful that good will prevail like it has most of the time in this country’s history.
As time goes on I know this much I am becoming more strident in my belief that as many people as possible have to pay some price for the ghoulish celebrating of murder whether they are a judge, a teacher, a nurse, or some dude working at Office Depot. I don’t want anybody arrested or anything but there has to be consequences or else it will truly spiral out of control. I shudder to think what the reaction would be if a well known very high ranking elected official were killed if this is what we get for an unelected activist commentator.
Other fallout – some are going after Kash Patel for his supposedly mis-statement. I am not up on what they are on about, but it sounds to me like they are going after him because TRUMP.
Don’t know if they are on the Left or Right. Most likely both.
It doesn’t have to be a majority of the Democrats. It doesn’t even need to be a significant percentage. But it is clear that at minimum a motivated cadre of Democrats actively support the violent elimination of their political opponents. And there’s clear evidence that a majority of Democrats are perfectly fine with that.
The Democrat Party is a clear and present threat to Constitutional order. If we don’t start taking that very seriously, we will find ourselves very shortly on rail cars to correctional camps.
Until this political assassination I was only vaguely aware of Charlie Kirk, especially since Youtube is not on my daily view. However, the murder stirred such anger in this old gay man that I am shocked by the reaction. The left needs to be stopped, now, legally if possible, but stopped cold. No more “reasoned” debate, no more excuses, no more comparisons to past political assassinations. The left wants war and they will damn well get it.
The shooter must have thought the sign said “Prove me right.”
I wonder if YouTube will delete Charlie Kirk videos. After all, a big motive for killing him—or to rejoice that he was killed— was to shut him up. Not to say that YouTube honchos had anything to do with his being killed, but Google–or whatever the corporate umbrella is called—has previously shown it is quite willing to shut up dissenting voices. It could use a pretext like “ending divisiveness” for doing taking them down.
Don’t forget what Google did to No Pasaran.
n.n.
Taking lessons from Kamala Harris?
I was only vaguely aware of his university speeches and debates. I knew him as someone who posted constantly on X. I had learned that if I saw a post with his name on it, I was likely to find it interesting, so I looked forward to reading it. He occupied roughly the same spot in my attention as Christopher Rufo. I think I was aware that he and his wife had fairly recently had a new baby. I associated him more with mainstream conservative views than with orthodox Christianity.
Learning more about him only made me regret the murder more bitterly.
Morally complicit.
No one should shrink from making that charge against anyone who used the epithet, Hitler, Nazi, Fascist, etc. wrt to Trump or his supporters.
Here’s another ripple I am okay with.
Visas are a privilege, not a right, and IMO cheering Kirk’s murder indicates a person who is an imminent threat to the citizens of America.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5498992-foreigners-warned-charlie-kirk/
State Department warns immigrants against praising Kirk’s death…
“In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a Thursday morning post on the social platform X.
@ Sharon W > [I] suggest that the Lord is dismantling the construct of the Gramscian March.”
Or inviting us to do so, with a little administrative support.
And then waiting to see what each person does with their moral agency.
@ SHIREHOME > “some are going after Kash Patel for his supposedly mis-statement. I am not up on what they are on about, but it sounds to me like they are going after him because TRUMP.
Don’t know if they are on the Left or Right. Most likely both.”
GP had some complaints, and they are definitely on the Right.
I’m willing to cut Patel some slack here; he was probably working from prior information and not the update. He’s “performing” where it counts in revamping the internal structure and pruning personnel at the Bureau.
However, I hope he takes a lesson from this and double-checks his info, or defers to the people on the ground.
Not everyone is cut out to be a political PR person.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/just-fbi-investigating-possible-accomplice-charlie-kirk-shooter/
bof on September 13, 2025 at 8:32 pm said:
The shooter must have thought the sign said “Prove me right.”
Well-played.
Brevity is the soul of wit, even if it’s enlisted in dark humor.
@ Oldflyer > “Morally complicit.
No one should shrink from making that charge against anyone who used the epithet, Hitler, Nazi, Fascist, etc. wrt to Trump or his supporters.”
John Hinderaker agrees with you.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/09/why-do-they-call-trump-hitler.php
Other ripples. The post makes some very good points.
Maybe everyone will have to start campaigning from their basements.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5501473-charlie-kirk-assassination-political-violence/
Kirk assassination has chilling effect on campaign trail
Professor Turley, as usual, hammers home the message, although he doesn’t say it in so many words: If Democrats didn’t have double principles, they would have no principles at all.
I wonder how much longer he will formally remain a member of the D-Party?
https://jonathanturley.org/2025/09/13/when-words-no-longer-matter-nancy-pelosi-and-politics-of-violence/
Dershowitz officially left the D’s last fall, otherwise I suspect the current unhinged hatred by Democrats would cause him to do so now.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/alan-dershowitz-announces-he-leaving-democratic-party
Hard words from Dersh on The Moynihan Report about the Left, universities, Obama and others who glorify and legitimize violence. Talks about his own safety precautions while speaking, especially at schools. And much more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AKFm-yC-R8
I usually don’t listen to podcasts, but Moynihan is a respectful and well-prepared interviewer, and Dershowitz has a lot of insights, and insider information, to share.
Another possibility for the accusations of “fascist” and “Hitler”; the point is to get normal people so wrapped up in a maze of shifting definitions that no other subject has room for discussion.
Leftists: Hey! Hold on there, keep your balance!
Kirk Supporter: It’s next to impossible to stay balanced with you constantly shoving me over.
This is the comment that I left to a post at Chicagoboyz –
“That’s the thing, actually – he was a decent, intelligent and charismatic young man, who turned out to be widely followed and watched by a lot of the younger cohort – and world-wide, at that. (Which really surprised me. Fans in Korea? New Zealand? Well, I’ll be…)
I knew of him, but really didn’t follow his doings, as I’m well out of the age cohort who were his biggest fans. My daughter and one of her schoolfellows, who also joined the Marines knew a good bit more – the schoolfellow was very much a fan, it seems.
Those legions of Charlie Kirk fans were mostly on the conservatish side of things – and it’s my guess that all those who came out loudly approving in person and on their social media of his assassination had no freaking clue in the world of exactly how popular he was, outside of their progressive bubble. They also didn’t have a clue that killing someone for voicing an opinion isn’t generally approved of by most folks. So there they went, mouthing off about the murder of Charlie Kirk, assuming that everyone else agreed, and that he was just one of those marginal fascist fringy commenters … only to get brutally schooled otherwise.
I have to admit that I was really surprised to see that people like Kim Kardashian and Coldplay came out as — if not Kirk fans, at least having the sense to speak out against political murder.”
I was aware of Charlie Kirk from the beginning of his rise. He made many appearances on Fox, where I was always impressed by his manners, his knowledge, and his wisdom. Yes, he was a young man with great wisdom. He also had a gift for explaining his principles and beliefs.
I knew he was going around to campuses all over the country, but I had no idea of his YouTube videos or X posts, and his massive influence there.
I am amazed by the international following he had. For sheer impact his assassination ranks up there with JFK. The emotion generated is very powerful, and I hope it leads to an awakening by many more people of the ruthlessness of many who support authoritarian government.
The essence of our republic is to resolve differences with debate and reasoning, followed by free and fair elections. Those who
would silence that debate are the enemies of freedom. If more people understand this now (And I think that is happening.), Charlie’s legacy will be huge.
Here’s a story about a military officer being “suspended” for making comments about Charley Kirk’s death.
Spent some years in the military and, while I’m not anywhere near an expert in this area, if the picture in the article is supposed to be this officer, his uniform looks WWIIish to me, and the placement of the various medals and insignias don’t seem to be placed correctly either.*
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/department-war-suspends-army-colonel-scott-stephens-saying/
The ‘Largest Firing Operation in History’ Gets 50,000+ Submissions of People Happy That Charlie Kirk Died
Some of these miscreants have called for more killing. They have extensive hit lists that include the rest of Charlie Kirk’s family. Strange, but clearly they mean it. Many are Antifa sympathizers.
This act of political violence was also an act of terrorism. It’s goal was to silence opposing viewpoints.
It appears from online scrutiny that at least 6 others had foreknowledge of Charlie Kirks assassination.
Foreknowledge is not guilt, of course, but it opens the door to possible accesories or even conspiracy to Tyler Robinson’s murder.
“The investigation into the attempted assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has expanded to scrutinize pro-trans online communities, including the Steam group that The Gateway Pundit reported on early Sunday morning, to determine if others were aware of or involved with the plan to kill the conservative icon.
“As TGP reported, Robinson appears to have been a member of a bizarre Steam group named ‘Read This If Your Gay,’ a title that eerily mirrors the mocking inscription ‘If you read this, you are gay LMAO, “which was etched on a bullet casing at the crime scene.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/breaking-investigation-charlie-kirk-assassination-attempt-widens-probe/
At the top, TPG links to a New York Post story and shares trenchant excerpt:
“Law enforcement sources said that investigators are examining leftist groups both in Utah and online to figure out if they helped him with the shooting — or at least heard it was going to happen.
“The probe includes groups in online gaming community Steam, as well as a pro-trans organization called Armed Queers SLC, which took down their Instagram after Kirk was killed, the source confirmed.”
TPG rounds this out with terms and explanation.
“Steam is a video game platform that lets you play, discuss, and create games on your computer.
“Incredibly, members of the group were issued a frantic warning to switch to encrypted chats just hours after the fatal shooting but before Robinson’s arrest, indicating that they may have had information about the shooter.”
QED.
J.J. writes, “I am amazed by the international following he had.” Me too.
Charlie was a “Rush baby”(ie, hisparrnts played Rush Limbaugh’s broadcast commentary),growing up to be a mainstream controversialist conservative. My differences with him are several, but too few to engage with him.
He used free speech on campus, and this made him admirable to me.
His advocacy for Christianity and a moral world view meant he was defending the West as an exceptional civilization and a force for good — the complete opposite of today’s far Left.
17 nations have seen memorials to Charlie’s inspiring, outspoken life.
In addition to a moment of silence at Poland’s Parliament, perhaps the most unusual one I’ve seen was from London. There a group of Moari Christians gathered at the memorial to perform the national dance of New Zealand, the Haka — which is a warriors dance! Loud and suitably threatening.
I’m sure Charlie would be surprised but happy…
I bet his wife Erika sure is.
“The Democrat Party is a clear and present threat to Constitutional order. If we don’t start taking that very seriously, we will find ourselves very shortly on rail cars to correctional camps.” (from David Lawler, above).
I will agree that the Democrat Party, as currently structured, operated, and staffed, is indeed a threat to Constitutional order. How, exactly, that gets corrected, I do not know, but corrected it must be.
As for the “on rail cars to correctional camps,” I will also agree that such is, and has been, the fervent wish for many in the Democrat Party for years as a solution for “the others.” Were such to be attempted, however, or even seriously hinted at with observed preparations, however small, to initiate, I am confident in the immediately resultant Civil War we non-Democrats would write new chapters about the direct application of violence.
America, if one hasn’t noticed, has been poised precariously close to the edge of that Civil War for a while now, thanks to, mostly, Democrats and the company they keep, and the combination of Iryna Zarutska’s horrendous and preventable stabbing death and Charlie Kirk’s assassination have brought us several steps closer to the brink.
I’m not one to preach too hard on the topic of forgiveness, because when there is a direct and immediate threat to one’s life or severe bodily harm one neither negotiates nor turns the other cheek, one destroys the threat as rapidly as possible by any means necessary.
So far, we’ve avoided application of that, but “The Left” – especially including the Democrat Party and its associations – should understand there are those among their opposition who are barely containing the urge to Cry Havoc ! and let slip the dogs of war. Should such occur, the phrase “no quarter given” will be an inadequate description; Doc Holiday’s statement regarding “a reckoning”, from Val Kilmer in the movie Tombstone will be much more accurate.
Kurt Schlicter recently penned a novel about a second American civil war, and in it our Republic, or rather only the major part of it, barely survives. I think Mr. Schlicter has the gist of it, bloody and destructive beyond belief, to individuals, to families, to institutions and to our Republic. I am among those who deeply, deeply, with all my being, desire Democrats and their fellow Travelers, agents and assigns, to reign themselves in, to understand the forces and dangers they are playing with, and tempting. Reality, sometimes, isn’t the most pleasant place to live, but it is a consistently reliable one. The Democrats should join us there. And, “Now” would be a very good time.
Before my first day of classes as a Freshman at the University of Illinois I had to sign a document explaining what cheating and plagiarism were and informing me that if I was caught doing either my actions could be cause for my immediate expulsion, and, likely would cause me to be immediately expelled. My signature acknowledged I understood this important fact.
Turning Point USA should encourage every Dean of every College and University to write a similar contract where students acknowledge that myriad viewpoints will be present on campus and should they physically prevent anyone from sharing a viewpoint their actions could be cause for immediate expulsion. The same applies for verbal disruption (shouting, chanting, singing, etc…) in an attempt to silence someone from speaking*. Interfering with the free exchange of ideas while at a campus event is cause for expulsion.
*I believe the University of Chicago already does this, and perhaps other schools do also?
I just posted this on Sarah Hoyt’s thread from 9/12:
@ sarathered
(1) Agree that the minister was very likely his bishop.
(2) Disagree on the death penalty. Yes, it is possible, but because of his youth and surrendering without additional violence, I suspect a Utah jury and judge will cut him some slack. Life imprisonment with parole, especially if he shows repentance in court, and lives up to it in prison. However, that is still an excruciating decision his parents had to make.
@ Dorothydimmock > IF there was a professional (killer? activist?) who arranged and incited Tyler, I think he might have a harder time getting any mercy from the court system.
In re other accomplices, or at least people aware of his intentions, I don’t know what their legal position is. There may be no legal duty to report (although there is certainly a moral one, outside the clerical confessional), but that would depend on their degree of culpability.
See this report today (h/t TJ at TheNewNeo, who has posted several insightful analyses of the situation):
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/breaking-investigation-charlie-kirk-assassination-attempt-widens-probe/
“The investigation into the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has expanded to scrutinize pro-trans online communities, including the Steam group that The Gateway Pundit reported on early Sunday morning, to determine if others were aware of or involved with the plan to kill the conservative icon.”
A second comment further down the same thread (note they seem to be in moderation over at Hoyt’s, which is typical of WordPress). I’m saving myself the trouble of retyping them.
@ Clark in re taking Kirk’s comments out of context.
That is a well-known characteristic of the Left and Democrats in general (and conservatives and Republicans but less often, because so much of it is down by the press and broadcast media, which the Right does not control).
Snopes did a fact check (yeah, right) of 6 of the most commonly made claims about Kirk’s statements and concluded they were True: that is, he really did say that (usually) one sentence or phrase. They then belabor the point for many screens.
If you hold on until the end, they finally give the quote in context, which (as Clark said about the cars and guns) completely reverses the alleged meaning of that excerpted sentence, and thus the imputations of the complaints are invalid. (Think: “Romney keeps women in binders” for a particularly egregious example.)
Another thing I’ve noticed is that the anti-Kirk postings repeat the same claims ad nauseum, often in the same words (except for one which expanded on them with absolutely no backing). The indication to me is that they are repeating boilerplate they obtained second-, third-, or fourth-hand and have never read or listened to anything Kirk said.
This is also a well-known characteristic of internet communications (a much too dignified name) from all but a few distinguished bloggers and their commenters (ahem).
Regarding my comment above:
I don’t think a signature on a piece of paper will halt a motivated assassin. But for too long College Presidents and Deans have advocated the duty of protecting debate on their campuses. Far too many allow violent leftists to disrupt speakers they do not like and many events are cancelled due to their threats. There are many, many examples, but the recent treatment of Jews and Janitors during campus-wide, pro-Palestinian protests are a case in point.
I saw a lot of fiery, impassioned debate during my Undergraduate years. I think if anyone destroyed property or prohibited debate from occurring they would have faced discipline, no matter what side of a debate they were on.
Foreknowledge is not guilt, of course, but it opens the door to possible accesories or even conspiracy to Tyler Robinson’s murder.
==
Four people were prosecuted for the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and a couple named Fortier. The bombing was primarily the work of McVeigh; Nichols helped him manufacture the bomb. IIRC, the Fortiers were prosecuted for not informing the authorities of what they knew. If I’m not mistaken, there is no provision in the Penal Law of New York (to take one example) for prosecuting someone for foreknowledge of an event. I wonder if it’s something you see only in the U.S. Code.
Rufus, I recollect Purdue explicitly doing so under Mitch Daniels’ insistence: https://www.purdue.edu/senate/documents/meetings/Purdue%20BOT%20resolution%20on%20the%20Chicago%20Principles.pdf
If Robinson was not himself trans, as appears to be the case, he had far too close an acquaintance with some who are, and who now seem to be implicated in the murder to some degree.
Now that the internet media has published the widening connection to these transgender circles, the Regime Media will have a serious dilemma.
Because of the victim and the venue, the Leftist media cannot bury the story, or declare it insignificant, as they have done (or attempted to do) with the increasing number of mass killings committed by gender-dysfunctional people.
This trend alone ought to be enough to shut down all transgender “gender affirming treatments” and societal support for them (aside from the fact that they should be eliminated anyway for other reasons).
Which is, of course, why the media, and some law enforcement agencies, have been at such pains to cover it up.
If Anderson Cooper was a real “reporter” or TV “journalist” he would have asked the ignorant and dumb moron Kamala Cackling Harris, ” what is the definition of a fascist?”
I will stick my neck way out here and surmise she would not have been able to answer the question because she does not have the foggiest idea what the answer is.
Anyway, the best definition I have found of fascism, was uttered by the founder of fascism, Benito Mussolini;
“Everything within the state; nothing against the state; nothing outside the state.”
So here we have Trump, trying to dismantle the regulatory state where possible and attempting to deregulate the economy, and yet, his deadly enemies – the demonkrats / socialists / communists – are calling him a fascist.
“However, I hope he takes a lesson from this and double-checks his info, or defers to the people on the ground.” I agree, but Sundance at CTH, no Patel fan, thinks he was set up by the deep FBI-ers.
John Tyler
Compare this to a well-known phrase of Fidel Castro:
This is not mere coincidence. In her biography of Castro, Guerrilla Prince, Georgie Ann Geyer points out that schoolboy Fidel was a fan of Benito Mussolini. From an early age, Fidel was thinking about how to acquire total power. He succeeded very well. Regarding what he accomplished with that total power, not so well.
Aesopfan, at 1:26 pm, on Jonathan Turley:
“I wonder how much longer he will formally remain a member of the D-Party?”
Ain’t that the truth??
And I’m glad that Derschuwitz (sp) quit the Dems, as well Tulsi Gabbard.
I have mentally connected Charlie Kirk to Jordan Peterson.
Such a good influence on young adults! Plus teens, & older people, too.
Obviously, Kirk’s was a very different style, and he was an unwavering Christian.
But still, he reminded me of Peterson in both intention and ability to help lead people to think deeper, and embrace morality.
Such a huge loss.
Even the Democrats need some support (no matter haw fictitious) for their cries that all Republicans are Nazis, and that is one reason the Left has worked so assiduously at reversing history so as to leave people with the impression that the Republicans were the Evil Slavers (despite all actual evidence to the contrary) and the Democrats (coasting on LBJ’s support for the Civil Rights Act) the party of emancipation.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, including the Congressional voting record on the CRA.
And because academia has been so thoroughly corrupted, many people believe that alternate-history.
I don’t think they are ever told that Lincoln was a Republican.
(cross posted at Hoyt’s blog)
I am beginning to seriously worry that the Right is going to throw too many rocks in the pond and start some ripples of their own. Most of the posts at PJ Media since Kirk’s death have been heavy on rhetorical emphasis about how we are being confronted with what is now undeniable evil thinking by way too many leftists/Democrats (the sets overlap, although not completely*).
Some of it is heated enough, and general enough, that it would not be hard for an unstable conservative to decide that the Leftists deserve what they are doling out to the Right, and engineer a life-for-a-life scenario.
Which we should not, and most conservatives do not, want.
I understand that a lot of pent-up indignation has been ignited by Kirk’s killing, but it’s possible to call for righteous retribution aka justice without veering off into inflammatory language.
*They have been working on that:
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/09/14/john-fetterman-said-trump-isnt-hitler-and-his-party-is-angry-about-it-n4943706
Some support for my concern shows up in a comment on that post:
Maximus Decimus Cassius
6 hours ago
“At some point, it will be absolutely necessary to confront the left in ways that conventional political methods cannot resolve.
Anyone who can’t see that reality refuses to see, is intentionally obtuse, or is a committed leftist.”
Anyway, the best definition I have found of fascism, was uttered by the founder of fascism, Benito Mussolini;
==
See Stanley Payne’s work, or Zevedei Barbu’s.
==
The essential features are constitutional authoritarianism and the party-state, revanchism (which may be internally-directed or directed outward); cartel formation w/ sectoral collective bargaining under state supervision; and aspirations to autarky. None resemble Trump’s objects in any way. I don’t think you can find an example of an inter-war fascist leader who came out of the business community and one of the curios about fascist leadership is that their success as electoral politicians was inversely associated with their professional accomplishment outside the world of politics.
Anderson Cooper was a real “reporter” or TV “journalist”
==
What’s disconcerting about Cooper is that he got his start as a freelance foreign correspondent. He used to be a reporter.
==
He could have departed CNN after Jeff Zucker took over what was left of the network and returned to freelancing or landed a program on Sirius XM. CNN had (by all accounts) paid him exorbitant sums of money over a period of ten years, so he had an ample private income. He’s never married and the ‘children’ he has are those assigned him about ten years ago by social workers and family court judges. (His inherited wealth is modest. His mother was a poor steward of the family assets and her bequests to Cooper and his brother Stan amounted to about $1.5 million each). He’s Regime Media by choice.
I find it pretty ironic that Lefties who were stupid enough to go on the Internet and to gleefully “vent,” and say how happy they were that Charley Kirk was assassinated (I guess they figured that pretty much everyone agreed with them, and in their Leftist echo chamber they were probably right) then cry and whine about being fired when their employers got wind of their comments.
As the say, “turn about is fair play.”
There is a phrase uttered about the dead when those left behind try to live up to them in some way, or are startled by mortality and seek to organize their lives to improve it: “That’s what he/she would have wanted.”
It sometimes rings hollow. The speaker is maybe guessing, or is expressing what they themselves wanted the person seeking to improve to do.
But young men and women are turning from violence, churches are filling up, and I saw several people on X saying they were going back to church after years or even decades.
Having only watched Charlie Kirk’s videos, his interviews, and listened to a few of his podcasts, it doesn’t seem hollow to say:
“That’s just what he would have wanted.”
The facts are not the point, incitement is the point ive encountered some of these baldfaced liars on other platforms
There has been much hope but there has been much vileness expressed not only against charlie but against his wife and children
Then there is the bland equivocation by possum governor cox and senator lankford thats not surprising considering their record
I’ve enjoyed watching Charlie Kirk in his discussions with the college kids. Enlightening. But I am absolutely gobsmacked at the international reactions. Some of it may be due to the timing–the UK’s take back our nation march, for example. But…South Korea?
A haka in London in his honor?
I had no idea about his international impact.
But I suspect it required much domestic outrage to cross the oceans. And I have a feeling that it started earlier.
The murder of a Ukranian refugee on a train had all the factors requiring it to be hushed up; racial lineup, no excuse, deliberate result of progressive law enforcement (see the judiciay’s racial lineup) , no help from fellow passengers.
Yet it had the ingredients for being explosive; racial lineup, former model curled up on horror as she died, judicial system’s deliberate efforts. Available in full-color with stop-action. And that caused it to “smash though the gatekeepers” whose efforts were themselves inflammatory.
And then….we had an equally horrible execution of an innocent and early attempts to smooth over the obvious…..JUST LIKE WITH IRYNA! imho, domestically, the Kirk reaction got a boost from the simmering rage about Iryna and the treatment by the gatekeepers.
It will be a long time before people quit looking for further examples.
Comment and question for neo and the group: My old college roommate I’ll call Z,age 67, is basically immobile due to Parkinson’s. He is divorced twice and estranged from his only son. We were all liberals back in college but most all except Z grew up into traditional Christians and all with marriages over 40 years and mostly happy from what I can tell. Z has become a smug, bitter liberal and his Facebook posts over the last few days are all vile posts basically saying CK deserved it. No compassion for the wife and children. Questions: 1. What is the source of the smugness? I know that vice affects non liberals as well but it seems almost universal in the liberal community.2. I engaged with him over his vile posts but know it did little good. Is the better strategy a) morally: Continuing to be Jesus hands and feet b) working for a mid term win for Conservatives
Mark
I’ll try. As our hostess has suggested, going back to her Change, for many leftists, their political/cultural views are part of, support their self-image. Thus, any objective contradiction to the factual basis of one or another viewpoint is an attack on the person’s personhood (permission to use without attribution).
Thus, your old friend cannot accept that something which has supported his self-image to himself and his social image to others as he wished to be seen was not only incorrect but morally suspect.
I speak of a general view, a particular view, which predated Kirk but into which Kirk was placed immediately and with malicious enjoyment. Can’t kick that prop out from under the house.
In fact, it demands extra defensive efforts.
Sucks to be him, Parkinsons notwithstanding.
@mark:Z has become a smug, bitter liberal and his Facebook posts over the last few days are all vile posts basically saying CK deserved it. No compassion for the wife and children.
If you haven’t read The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, you might. There is more than one passage relevant to such people, but here is one you might think about, and then read the book with your friend in mind.
“Children should be able to transition [identify as the opposite sex, socially or medically] without parental consent,”
This is of course impossible. You can’t change your sex by an act of will. Years ago, I read a book (yes, I have read a book) on the psychological origins of political correctness, The author pointed out that the PC (now woke) deny reality and live in fantasy land. It’s magical thinking.
let’s be honest, they killed kirk because he helped trump win and will help future republicans win, has nothing to do with his views or his words or whatever, it is about chopping off trump’s right hand, period.