I weep for the breakdown in democratic discourse that the murders of Jo Cox, David Amess, Heather Heyer, Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk exemplify, that the attacks on Steve Scalise, Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump, and the calls for the execution of Mike Pence, represent, of which even the censures of Sarah Jama and Zooey Zephyr and the ejections of Justin Pearson and Justin Jones are a symptom.
I do not especially weep for a man who said, "I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new-age term that does a lot of damage."
That does not mean I condone his murder; it does mean that I look with skepticism upon a society which continued to allow him to participate in its mainstream discourse.
Exactly. All this talk of “political violence” against Kirk while not acknowledging the rhetoric he espoused that helped create this violent atmosphere in the first place.
I’m tired of liberals defending hate/incitement speech as “free speech”. There’s a very dark and well known reason such speech is criminalized in Germany.
The sentiment I've seen from many trans people in the wake of Kirk's killing can be boiled down to "I see no reason to respect the right to exist of someone who denies mine, so I will gleefully dance on his grave. Good riddance to bad rubbish".
I’m not at quite the dancing on grave point, but I take solace in the fact that my lack of *empathy* for his death is what he would have wanted, because, y’know, he hated empathy.
They're working quickly at their agendas, most certainly. When Miller appeared on Fox News and called the Democratic Party a "domestic extremist organization", that was the warning shit. Now, with their Golden Child gone, its only going to escalate.
The longer I live, the more I see that Gramsci was correct. It's been building at least since the 70s. I'm expecting to see posts of his picture labeled "Avenge Charlie!" all over social media tonight, if they haven't already appeared.
I'm hoping that this isn't our "Horst Wessel" moment.
I'd say to also look from a bigger frame. As my household eats lovely dinners and watches some news on TV before the evening's shows, something is horrifying about being so comfortable as we see wars and famines and all the depravity going on in the world. So, I want to put in a word for the zeitgeist, and that we are moving deck chairs unless we make a massive shift to become a cooperative world instead of a combative one. I dare say that is the challenge of our time, and it will determine whether humanity makes it or not.
I knew this would start this summer. It is the beginning of the second American Civil War. The world at large has been on fire; the chickens have come home to roost
Well, don’t worry. The enemy-of-the-people media on our TV is running continuous coverage of the “reactions” to the Kirk assassination. Far more coverage than when Donald Trump assassinated 11 people on a boat in the Caribbean. Maybe we need some Big Cheese to claim Charlie Kirk was a drug dealer, and then it will be all OK.
Pretty much, sadly, the first thing I realized. Unfortunately it also reminded me how minimized Hortman’s death was and now, they have their Reichstag fire. The dichotomy of what happens next is not difficult to imagine. I hope we’re both wrong.
Exactly correct sentiments as usual, Mike, but can we at least wait to see if this murder might <not> have been politically motivated? If that's the case, I'm a bit loathe to label the incident an "assassination" unless we go ahead and label <all> murder as "assassination."
I choose to call it a religiously-motivated murder, since Kirk was all about denial of constitutional separation of church and state (christian nationalism). It doesn't warrant the label of "political assassination", in my book, since Kirk was indoctrinating young people into his religious cult.
But it really is a shoe that we’re waiting to drop.
I’ve not looked, and do not feel curious really, But are you presuming a political motive because the decedent was an anti-democracy activist? Or is there some evidence who did it and why?
My immediate assumption is that it’s an internal, internecene struggle among the rights bearing fruit. More power hunger and madness. Did Kirk have power or significance outside his own shallow pool.
Perhaps he ran afoul of Vance, or Cheung… or Peewee German sacrificed him.
even Don Ding Dong probably has a guy he calls and drops hint
Couldn’t it just be a spurned lover or a cuckold husband? isn’t that all in line for the decedent?
There's only one side trying to preserve democracy. For the other side, political violence is routinely celebrated and institutionally absolved, as we saw with January 6. People violently assaulted the Capital and our system of government, with zero consequences: set free and glamorized. Democratic alternatives are being systematically eliminated as we speak: when you prevent people from voting, or you approve a masked militia to terrorize Democratic cities and violate citizen rights, we're well past having a debate. We're having a struggle for power.
Charlie Kirk did not "deserve" to die. But neither did Mellissa Hortman, her husband, or her golden retriever, and nobody on the right gave a shit about that. Kilmar Abrego Garcia did not deserve to get sent to a torture center in El Salvador, and nobody gave a shit about that. Hundreds of American children are killed, wounded, or traumatized every year by people with guns, and ongoingly, nobody gives a shit about that. The conspiracy theories, the demonization, and the hateful rhetoric gleefully continue. But we're supposed to suddenly feel some well of empathy for one guy? Why?
As you say, they're just going to use this as a justification for the state-sponsored violence that they want to do anyway.
You are quite right. We've been headed here for a long time. Trump has never paid a price for fomenting violence or abuse and the Republican party has steadily come to emulate him, so much so that they laugh openly as he jokes about bludgeoning old men. I too believe we should resist this but I don't see how we do it until the so-called "Good Republicans" finally find a line they won't cross. Until that time they will continue to make this one-sided violence a part of their brand. And that won't stop until online commentators stop making money off of it.
Perhaps they will change. Ben Shapiro of all people commented that there is too much division. But I will not believe it until they take real action.
I weep for the breakdown in democratic discourse that the murders of Jo Cox, David Amess, Heather Heyer, Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk exemplify, that the attacks on Steve Scalise, Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump, and the calls for the execution of Mike Pence, represent, of which even the censures of Sarah Jama and Zooey Zephyr and the ejections of Justin Pearson and Justin Jones are a symptom.
I do not especially weep for a man who said, "I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new-age term that does a lot of damage."
I would also add that Charlie Kirk had no place in the civil discourse of a tolerant society, for he broke the contract of tolerance with his remarks about, among others, transgender individuals: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/tpusas-charlie-kirk-trans-people
That does not mean I condone his murder; it does mean that I look with skepticism upon a society which continued to allow him to participate in its mainstream discourse.
Exactly. All this talk of “political violence” against Kirk while not acknowledging the rhetoric he espoused that helped create this violent atmosphere in the first place.
I’m tired of liberals defending hate/incitement speech as “free speech”. There’s a very dark and well known reason such speech is criminalized in Germany.
The sentiment I've seen from many trans people in the wake of Kirk's killing can be boiled down to "I see no reason to respect the right to exist of someone who denies mine, so I will gleefully dance on his grave. Good riddance to bad rubbish".
I’m not at quite the dancing on grave point, but I take solace in the fact that my lack of *empathy* for his death is what he would have wanted, because, y’know, he hated empathy.
They're working quickly at their agendas, most certainly. When Miller appeared on Fox News and called the Democratic Party a "domestic extremist organization", that was the warning shit. Now, with their Golden Child gone, its only going to escalate.
Steve Miller is a Nazi asshole
So is his wife, whose comments about the shooting were absolutely vile and encouraged more violence.
Afraid of that. I considered the Republican Party a terrorist organization. Here we go…
And we don’t have to “consider” the Republican Party being terrorists - they literally said they were in big bright colorful letters on stage.
The longer I live, the more I see that Gramsci was correct. It's been building at least since the 70s. I'm expecting to see posts of his picture labeled "Avenge Charlie!" all over social media tonight, if they haven't already appeared.
I'm hoping that this isn't our "Horst Wessel" moment.
The assassination benefits whom?
"Qui bono?" The violent far right.
Thank you, Mike. The correct “frame” for this moment.😢
I'd say to also look from a bigger frame. As my household eats lovely dinners and watches some news on TV before the evening's shows, something is horrifying about being so comfortable as we see wars and famines and all the depravity going on in the world. So, I want to put in a word for the zeitgeist, and that we are moving deck chairs unless we make a massive shift to become a cooperative world instead of a combative one. I dare say that is the challenge of our time, and it will determine whether humanity makes it or not.
I knew this would start this summer. It is the beginning of the second American Civil War. The world at large has been on fire; the chickens have come home to roost
Really struggling with the word 'conservative' being used to describe people who are pro-gun, anti-choice, and deniers of climate change and and and
The word has always been used to distract from what they're really about.
Well, don’t worry. The enemy-of-the-people media on our TV is running continuous coverage of the “reactions” to the Kirk assassination. Far more coverage than when Donald Trump assassinated 11 people on a boat in the Caribbean. Maybe we need some Big Cheese to claim Charlie Kirk was a drug dealer, and then it will be all OK.
Pretty much, sadly, the first thing I realized. Unfortunately it also reminded me how minimized Hortman’s death was and now, they have their Reichstag fire. The dichotomy of what happens next is not difficult to imagine. I hope we’re both wrong.
Exactly correct sentiments as usual, Mike, but can we at least wait to see if this murder might <not> have been politically motivated? If that's the case, I'm a bit loathe to label the incident an "assassination" unless we go ahead and label <all> murder as "assassination."
I choose to call it a religiously-motivated murder, since Kirk was all about denial of constitutional separation of church and state (christian nationalism). It doesn't warrant the label of "political assassination", in my book, since Kirk was indoctrinating young people into his religious cult.
I hear you, and I feel you, on your dread.
But it really is a shoe that we’re waiting to drop.
I’ve not looked, and do not feel curious really, But are you presuming a political motive because the decedent was an anti-democracy activist? Or is there some evidence who did it and why?
My immediate assumption is that it’s an internal, internecene struggle among the rights bearing fruit. More power hunger and madness. Did Kirk have power or significance outside his own shallow pool.
Perhaps he ran afoul of Vance, or Cheung… or Peewee German sacrificed him.
even Don Ding Dong probably has a guy he calls and drops hint
Couldn’t it just be a spurned lover or a cuckold husband? isn’t that all in line for the decedent?
There's only one side trying to preserve democracy. For the other side, political violence is routinely celebrated and institutionally absolved, as we saw with January 6. People violently assaulted the Capital and our system of government, with zero consequences: set free and glamorized. Democratic alternatives are being systematically eliminated as we speak: when you prevent people from voting, or you approve a masked militia to terrorize Democratic cities and violate citizen rights, we're well past having a debate. We're having a struggle for power.
Charlie Kirk did not "deserve" to die. But neither did Mellissa Hortman, her husband, or her golden retriever, and nobody on the right gave a shit about that. Kilmar Abrego Garcia did not deserve to get sent to a torture center in El Salvador, and nobody gave a shit about that. Hundreds of American children are killed, wounded, or traumatized every year by people with guns, and ongoingly, nobody gives a shit about that. The conspiracy theories, the demonization, and the hateful rhetoric gleefully continue. But we're supposed to suddenly feel some well of empathy for one guy? Why?
As you say, they're just going to use this as a justification for the state-sponsored violence that they want to do anyway.
You are quite right. We've been headed here for a long time. Trump has never paid a price for fomenting violence or abuse and the Republican party has steadily come to emulate him, so much so that they laugh openly as he jokes about bludgeoning old men. I too believe we should resist this but I don't see how we do it until the so-called "Good Republicans" finally find a line they won't cross. Until that time they will continue to make this one-sided violence a part of their brand. And that won't stop until online commentators stop making money off of it.
Perhaps they will change. Ben Shapiro of all people commented that there is too much division. But I will not believe it until they take real action.
https://open.substack.com/pub/publis324843/p/america-is-burning?r=7av8t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2025/09/10/evergreen-high-school-shooting
Meanwhile, a shooting at a high school in Denver has left the shooter dead by suicide and three others wounded.
Thank you for your humanity Mike. Your response is exemplary.