Charlie Kirk is dead.
If you look at pictures of him, without knowing who he was or what he stood for, what would be your immediate reaction upon hearing he was shot in the neck in a public space on a Utah university campus, knowing that he was a young father leaving behind a grieving wife, a ruined family?
Is this what we want?
I already know this is who we are.
Guns, guns everywhere. So I understand that this kind of thing is going to happen. I understand, too, that if the shooter was someone opposed to Kirk, it was mental illness that led that person to this place, and that mental illness and anger have swept the nation since Trump snatched the Oval Office a second time.
Ultimately, the blame for this falls upon the right wing and its culture of death and hate, even if it was someone opposed to Kirk who shot him.
But if you didn’t know who the guy in that picture was, but only knew that it’s a 31-year-old man who made mistakes, who may have eventually learned the errors of his ways if just given the chance, how would you feel if you knew he was shot dead, shot in the neck by a perfectly aimed sniper bullet?
Violence begets violence. And his family will hurt forever. His kids will hurt forever. His wife. Do we scream into the night that she should have chosen better? Is it her fault that her heart sent her to him? Is it her kids’ fault? Who decided it was his right to shatter her love?
Does she deserve this grief, this lifetime of sorrow, this need to explain to her kids that their father died because we can’t break away from hate?
The right wing is largely silent when political assassination happens to us. We know this. And we know that their reaction to this will be wicked. Trump will do terrible things in response. This is a guarantee.
Therefore, just looking at it coldly, strategically, less generously, let me just say this instead: Some asshole turned Charlie Kirk into a martyr.
The cynic in me thinks, too, that there aren’t a lot of progressives in the world with the kind of military training required to do this. In Utah. 200 feet away. Mostly, we are not soldiers.
This was military sniper type stuff. The dark conspiracist in me can’t help but think of the Reichstag fire.
The conspiracist in me, even though I tend to avoid conspiracy theories outside of my works of fiction, thinks Trump will do anything to avoid the truth behind the Epstein files from getting out. He’ll do anything to divert our attention.
The conspiracist in me further informs me that Trump does his reputation no favors by being the one to announce that Kirk is dead. Jumping onto Truth Social moments after Kirk passes away is not a good look.
But why choose Utah for such a thing? Trump won’t send the National Guard to Utah, which probably has more guns per capita than Chicago, and certainly more right-wing lunatics per capita than almost anywhere.
So until proven otherwise, I’m going to assume that this was internecine warfare within the far right. One of their endless spats.
If the shooter was one of us, then he’s not one of us.
The shooter is not part of the resistance. He’s insane or evil or both. I want no part of him.
We don’t, can’t, won’t kill people, no matter what their opinions are or their beliefs.
Tell me you agree with this. Please.
No matter what you think about Kirk, he was in Utah today to engage in a debate with a progressive influencer. Open debate, open mic, for all to hear and argue with.
Then, someone shot him dead. Leaving behind a wife and two young children.
I want to believe it was one of their own who did this. The motives are frighteningly strong and many. My gut says, too, that it is one of their own. Or worse, a paid assassin who will never be identified.
If it was one of us, we can be sure of one more thing. Our gun culture, combined with an endless wave of mental illness, caused this.
The right will now seek its revenge.
Be ready. Be careful.
Winter is coming.
Thanks for reading, as always.
Or
This is well written. Making a martyr is certainly a right wingnut extremist move, a headline chapter in the how-to Dictator’s Manual. I hope people realize the military sharpshooter angle of this criminal act, which you highlight so well. I can probably speak for many of us when I say I’ve never shot a gun at a living thing (i missed a couple cans with my boyfriend’s borrowed .22 rifle when I was in my early 20s - so actually, I *hope* I didn’t shoot a living thing!). Anyway, I couldn’t hit the side of a barn, like many of us. That aside, the likelihood that it WAS “one of us” is pretty low. And as you say, Charles, mental illness is involved. But until we know more, I have to stop myself from creating reasons for this tragedy. It may come out to have been something wholly different from my scope of possibilities. I just pray that we learn the *real* reason, and not some warped, self-serving lie (aka trumpism) spewed like acid to the mainstream press and screeched like nails on a chalkboard out of truthsocial.
I’d be interested in following the money on this one