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Not a leftist but I don't see this as a particularly big issue either. Obviously in a country with 300 million people and 300 million guns, things like this will happen. It's the price we pay for freedom, and Charlie said so himself. He was right. We can't do anything about extremists with guns any more than we can change the weather. I think the main takeaway from this is that polemicists should take much better precautions when speaking in public. But I'm really not seeing how this means the "country is over."
Most hinged take in this thread. Charlie Kirk was pretty low on the totem pole of the right wing, which includes many people for whom Charlie was basically a mouthpiece.
My bet is that the shooter had a very specific bone to pick with Kirk, and it wasn't just a general lash-out against right wing politics - for which there are significantly more meaningful targets. Kirk was very vocal about some very specific topics, and that might attract attention from particularly crazy people.
Can you elaborate? I vaguely gather that he was pro-gun but not more so than the median Red Triber; similarly, pro-Israel to the same extent as a replacement-level right-wing pundit. What specific topics was Kirk known for, beyond mainstream conservative media talking points?
I have seen some lefty friends and acquaintances calling him a “notorious transphobe” and similar. I have no idea how true this is, but there seems to be a perception among lefties (highly online ones at least) that he was a particularly virulent anti-trans figure and thus deserving of special hatred.
Honestly I doubt that he was any more anti-trans than any other vaguely right-wing figure, but that’s the perception I guess. Maybe because he was known for talking on college campuses and therefore getting into spaces where even mild pushback to trans talking points is normally forbidden? Or maybe he really did make a point of being aggressively anti-trans, again I don’t really know. But the “unique” accusation I’ve seen leveled at him is transphobia, not being pro-gun or pro-life or a Zionist or whatever.
I will say, if it turns out the shooter is trans, that’s going to be a whole new shitshow.
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Definitely strongly anti trans
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