When Criticism Becomes a Crime

The MAGA Gaslighting Campaign to Blame Truth-Tellers for Violence

Charlie Kirk’s assassination was an outrageous attack on democracy. Political violence in any form is incompatible with democratic governance, and Kirk’s murder represents exactly the kind of breakdown in democratic discourse that threatens the foundation of peaceful self-governance. No one should be killed for expressing their political views, however controversial those views might be.

But let me get this straight: If I call the Trump regime “fascist,” for sending military into cities and violating constitutional due process rights, I am somehow complicit in Kirk’s death and should be killed myself? We are witnessing fascists act like total fascists while threatening violence against anyone who speaks the truth about what they’re doing. And they want us to believe they’re not fascists?

This is the logical endpoint of MAGA’s post-assassination gaslighting campaign—the argument that accurately describing authoritarian behavior makes you responsible for violence against authoritarians, and therefore you deserve whatever violence comes your way. They want to establish that calling fascism “fascism” is not just inappropriate but literally a capital offense warranting elimination.

Consider what they’re actually doing while demanding that critics stop calling it fascist: Donald Trump has called for RICO cases against Democratic fundraisers. Stephen Miller is calling the Democratic Party a criminal organization. Fox News commentators are claiming that the entire “left” is responsible for Charlie Kirk’s murder, and claiming that there’s been silence from leading figures like former President Barack Obama, when in fact, he almost immediately put out a statement condemning it.

Meanwhile, Trump claims unlimited authority to execute suspected criminals without trial, deploys military forces against American cities over local objections, weaponizes federal law enforcement against political critics, and systematically eliminates civil service protections. But somehow calling this “fascist” makes you complicit in violence against fascists.

The underlying logic is pure totalitarian inversion: the real violence isn’t eliminating constitutional protections—it’s pointing out that constitutional protections are being eliminated. The real extremism isn’t systematic criminality by those in power—it’s accurately describing that systematic criminality. The real threat to democracy isn’t authoritarian consolidation—it’s criticism of authoritarian consolidation.

This represents classic fascist methodology: eliminate opposition through the threat of violence while claiming that opposition rhetoric justifies the violence used to eliminate it. Create conditions where political criticism becomes literally life-threatening, then claim that critics brought the danger on themselves by engaging in criticism.

When you threaten violence against people for calling you fascists, you’re not disputing the accuracy of the description—you’re confirming it while trying to make the description too dangerous to voice. Real democrats respond to criticism by defending their actions through argument, evidence, and democratic process. Fascists respond to criticism by threatening critics with violence, elimination, and death.

The response pattern tells you everything you need to know about which system they actually represent. When accurately describing someone’s behavior becomes grounds for threatening their life, when criticism of authoritarianism gets treated as justification for authoritarian retaliation, when documenting systematic oppression becomes evidence that you deserve oppression—you’ve moved definitively beyond democratic discourse into pure totalitarian intimidation.

But they’ve revealed something crucial through these threats: they know exactly what they are. The desperate insistence that calling them fascists somehow causes violence against them betrays their awareness that the description is accurate. If they weren’t fascists, they would respond to the accusation with evidence rather than eliminationist rhetoric against the political opposition.

The mask is completely off now. They’re not pretending to be constitutional conservatives defending democratic institutions. They’re openly threatening anyone who accurately describes their systematic destruction of constitutional institutions. Stephen Miller calls for criminalizing the Democratic Party while his supporters threaten to retaliate against anyone who calls this fascist.

They’re not supporting free speech. They’re explicitly threatening anyone who engages in speech that describes their authoritarianism accurately.

They’re not defending constitutional principles. They’re eliminating constitutional principles while threatening to eliminate anyone who points out what they’re doing with any regard to the truth.

When the response to being called fascist is “we should kill anyone who calls us fascists,” you’ve answered the question about whether you’re fascists while simultaneously proving why the people calling you fascists were performing a public service. When Stephen Miller calls for criminalizing political opposition while supporters threaten any American who gives an accurate political description, you’ve created exactly the kind of systematic intimidation that defines totalitarian rule.

The death threat logic reveals everything: they are what their critics said they were, they know they are what their critics said they were, and they want to silence their critics through threats of violence rather than prove their critics wrong. That’s not constitutional conservatism—that’s fascism so confident in its own power that it’s stopped pretending to be anything else.

Kirk’s assassination was a tragedy that demands justice. But using his murder to threaten critics of authoritarianism while ramping up authoritarian behavior is exactly what fascists do: exploit tragedy to justify eliminating opposition while claiming that opposition rhetoric caused the tragedy they’re exploiting.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” — Voltaire.