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Well, when you thought the week was boring...
Charlie Kirk was just shot at an event, shooter in custody. There's apparently a video going around of the attack, but I haven't a desire to see it. People who have seen it are suggesting he was shot center mass in the neck, and is likely dead. That makes this the second time that a shooter targeted a conservative political figure at a political event in two years. If Trump hadn't moved his head at the last second, it would've been him, too.
I've never followed the young conservative influencers much, but Kirk always seemed like the moderate, respectable sort -- it's wild that he would be the victim of political violence and not someone like Fuentes.
I fear this is what happens when the culture war is at a fever pitch. Political violence in the US is at heights not seen since the 1970s, from riots in the 2010s and especially 2020 over police-involved shootings, to the capitol riot in 2021, to the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania, to the United Healthcare killing, to finally this murder of a political influencer. I fear for my country when I look at how divided we are, and how immanently we seem to be sliding into violence.
I guess I just find politics tiring nowadays. I vote for a Democrat and they do stupid things that conspicuously harm the outgroup. I vote for a Republican and they do stupid things that conspicuously harm the outgroup. Whether J.D. Vance or Gavin Newsom wins in 28, there will be no future in which Americans look each other eye to eye.
I actually believe things are much better in this country than people think: our economy is surprisingly resilient, we've never suffered under the kind of austerity that's defined post-colonial European governance, our infrastructure, while declining, actually functions in a way that most of the world isn't blessed with, our medical system is mired in governmental and insurance red tape yet the standard of care and state of medical research is world-class, our capacity to innovate technologically is still real and still compelling, and one of our most pressing political issues, illegal immigration, exists solely because people are willing to climb over rocks and drift on rafts simply to try and live here.
We have real problems. And intense escalations on the part of our political tribes are absolutely in the top five. We also have a severe problem with social atomization -- and these two things are related -- which has led to our intimate relationship and loneliness crisis, the rapid decline in social capital, and the technological solitary confinement of the smartphone screen which dehumanizes people like real solitary confinement while confining them to the most intense narrative possible. "If it bleeds, it leads" means that many will be led into bleeding.
I don't know how we rebuild the world, or come to a point where Americans of different views can view each other as well-intentioned. But Kirk is just the latest victim of a crisis that I don't know if there's any way to solve.
This event has effected me in a way I didn't expect, which makes me feel vulnerable. I had no idea how sociopathic a substantial number of my close friends are. I also had no idea how simply dumb they are. One of the things I keep seeing them post is "well he said that some gun violence was an acceptable price to pay for the freedoms associated with the 2nd amendment, so fuck him! Haha reap what you sow" etc.
They say this while at the same time arguing that the small number of detrans people are a small price to pay for the benefit of trans procedures overall. Or that the small number of vaccine injuries are a small price to pay for the benefits of vaccines, etc.
They also seem unable to extrapolate what their ideas imply at all. "Charlie Kirk was a nazi, he had bad views, I'm happy he's dead" etc. But how can they honestly not see that this could also be applied to their bad views? Or imagine any higher order effects?
It's very perception-shifting to see people say this stuff. I don't like it.
I'm shocked anyone is shocked. These people have not been quiet or subtle about wanting you dead for like, 10 years now.
Back when I used to live in Northern VA, and it was just assumed by everyone living there that an evil Trump supporter could not possibly be among them, you heard it all the time. The guy working at Trader Joe's who did their wine tastings and was friends with my wife making offhand comments about how great it would be if someone killed Trump. Chatter at the farmer's market around the local Democrat chapter's booth. The weird boomer-folk concert at Wolf Trap I got dragged to by my father in law that opened with an affirmation that it would be great if someone murdered Trump, and his supporters really don't deserve any sympathy either. The NYT publishing their assassination fan fiction, Kathy Griffin holding Trump's severed head, etc, etc. My mother in law got suspended from Twitter for Tweeting that someone should assassinate Trump. That guy who opened for Weird Al that went on the rant about how great it is that the unvaxed are all going to die.
It was only when Trump was finally shot at that the public, mainstream, casual calls for his death started getting tamped down slightly. Tenacious D comes to mind. Of course that didn't stop Destiny from saying it's a good thing an innocent bystander was killed, because that still means one less Trump supporter. Didn't seem to impact his career one iota, though it seems his unhinged behavior has finally dimmed his star somewhat in recent months.
There are stories like this all over that people are sharing, of living covert lives in deep blue areas, and the naked bloodlust on display constantly. If you think wanting Trump, his supporters, and his staff dead isn't a mainstream Democrat position, you have either constructed a labyrinth of cognitive dissonance about why it "doesn't count" because it's simply so common it's normal to you, or you are lying. And I don't care how many liars come out now with their mealy mouthed "We do not condone violence" rehearsed speeches. I refuse to forget the last 10 years.
Honestly, I always thought that one was in bounds. Killing your opponents in effigy is good clean political fun; I think Griffin got the outsized reaction because the head was so viscerally disturbing. There's a lot that you mentioned that's worse.
But we all know that if James Woods had posed holding an effigy of the severed head of Hillary Clinton he'd be accused of misogyny, inciting violence, stochastic terrorism etc.
There's not even a need to speculate: A rodeo clown in Texas lost his job for wearing an Obama mask. And the State Fair apologized profusely. One side of the aisle is considered out of bounds when it comes to mockery.
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