This dark, malevolent shadow...
... that seems to have fallen over our beautiful Earth.
One of the worst parts of tonight, beyond the tragically obvious, has been for me the way the media has seen fit to report the news. It's astounding to me how many publications presented Charlie Kirk as a "Trump ally" and "right-wing activist", not because those words are untrue, but because of the images they evoke. Far right. Wow, that means he must've been a Nazi, right?
We gotta be real careful with the words we use, because indeed, words have tremendous power.
Right wing. Far right. Gun nut. - All suggest a less-than-great chap, so then, maybe someone who got what was coming to him just a tiny bit.
Gun nut. One must wonder about the psychopath who decided to take the life of a 31-year-old father-of-two.
Naturally, the right/conservative side is up in arms, and rightly so. Or more like, up in prayers. This is a prayer-heavy type of scene, despite a fondness for the 2nd Amendment. As for the lefties? Are they celebrating? Do they gloat about the "poetic justice" of a gun nut being shot dead? I'm sure there are some.
Inevitably, we return again and again to the same moronic arguments that ruled much of the Covid-19 pandemic - you're free to do and say what you will, as long as you do and say what I do. Charlie Kirk held strong views on guns, abortion, traditional family, religion, and of course, politics. He was responsible for winning Donald Trump the youth of America during the presidential campaign, having much sway with younger people (due largely to his keen rhetoric and sharp wit). He said what he thought.
Alas, we live in a world where certain individuals have taken it upon themselves to dictate what constitutes right- and wrong-think, and behind them, an all-too-eager mass of the kind that would've told on you gladly for harboring a Jewish family under the floorboards.
People love telling people what to do, and by some terrible nightmare, we live in a world where they have been empowered to do so. That, in itself, is not new, but the trouble seems to me, we delude ourselves in thinking we're quite evolved. Indeed, quite free.
The pandemic basically meant years of people engaging in "right-think" trampling the rights of those who dared disagree. All on the basis of "why should your rights matter when you don't do as you're told". It's the same kind of person who would gloat in the wake of this terrible tragedy.
People with minds too narrow to understand that a planet where people are murdered, arrested, fired, or in other ways punished for speaking their minds and exercising their rights is NOT a planet anyone sane would want to live on.
Sadly, it seems the more we live, the more salient "First They Came becomes".
What a lot of people failed to grasp during Covid was that it does not matter that today they are not punishing your particular view point, ideology, creed, or sexual orientation. The important thing is that somebody's freedom is being impinged upon (quite extremely, as in the case of Charlie). And a world where one man isn't free is a world where none of us are free. If you only stand up for the privileges of people with the same ideology, religious inclination, or sexual preference as you, you are not a free thinker. You are a cultist. A sectarian.
To even suggest that a young father deserved to die for speaking his truth suggests to me a world so malevolent and dark, I am sorry (and terrified) to inhabit it.
Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk. What a senseless, cruel act.
I don't know. Militant, extreme, asshole lefties maybe. I think most 'left' people I know see the senselessness of it. Most people I know agree that no matter the political standpoint, no one deserves to die. Sure, we can wish them out of existance, but that's not the answer, and makes us as 'bad' as the person we say is 'evil', right?
I couldn't agree more with this post, which is the first thing I thought when I read the news this morning. I didn't know who he was - to be honest, I'm completely tuned out of politics right now as I am too preoccupied with other things, and was feeling too much despair.
All acts like this do is divide people further. You'd have to be a fucking idiot to think that silencing one person will silence everyone who holds views you disagree with.
Madness.
Certainly, most lefties are good, sensible people. Still, they risk being swayed by this kind of rhetoric. Maybe not on something as extreme as a killing, but on policies, restrictions, etc, why not? And it's the same logic at heart.
Terrifying stuff. I'd heard of him, but wasn't a follower or anything. Just someone observing the news. The video of the shooting itself was one of the first things I saw. How anyone could report on this as anything other than a tragic, unfathomable murder is beyond me after seeing that.
We had a big ol' mass shooting once, here in Australia. It was at a tourist place called Pt Arthur. I am sure we could do analysis on the political views of all the victims, the perpetrator, and find flaws in what toppings they liked on their pizza, or what flavour of koolaid they preferred to consume.
Ultimately, our prime minister at the time banned weapons of the nature that caused the massacre - and guess what? We have not had shootings like that happen again.
The United States of America and its fetish for firearms, and the "fin-dom" of the gun lobby probably make up some decent part of the economic structure - I don't really know - but senseless and stupid violence like this does nothing but hold us back as a species.
We'll all end up in the same place - dead; it is just a shame that so much American life ceases at the end of a barrel, as opposed to at the end of a delicate embrace, and warm, loving smile.
I agree. I don't really understand the obsession Americans have with the 2nd, other than the logical explanation that what if someday they come for us, we need to defend ourselves. Still, assuming the they in question is the government (and/or army) I fail to see how a personal gun or two will do the trick.
It's an atrocious act by some really sick and twisted people. I don't fathom to understand the mental state someone has to be in to murder someone for what they are speaking out against. Be it the person giving the order, if there is one, or the person committing the act.
I really fear for the direction this is all going in a lot of ways.
The only saving grace for me is knowing that there is such pure, malevolent and disgusting evil out there like this. That means that, with the laws of the universe, there is a balancing force also there to bring things back and this is a lot of what I cling to these days. There is evil shit, 100%, but there is also beautiful and wonderful things that will prevail in the long-run. It is a grueling path no doubt, but it is the path we are given.
I've been trying to understand how someone does this too (since there is a lot of value in understanding the worst among us, as a key to understanding parts of ourselves). Still. I lean fairly right myself. I do believe (perhaps swayed by propaganda) that some leftists are a-holes. Yet to go out and plan to murder somebody in cold blood...beyond me.
Indeed. I once knew someone who talked a lot about the forces of good on earth here to defeat the forces of evil. Thought he was crazy. Now thinking maybe not so much, you know? Evil and satanical - I know no other way to describe what's happening to our world (and I'm not one to use such words lightly).
Yeah it's pretty wild how intensely the evil is pushing their agenda stronger and stronger every year it feels like. Do we have the power to push it back so they are gone for a while? That's certainly an interesting thought.
A bit esoteric but Jason Jorjani talks really eloquently about this stuff, dude is smart as shit.
I feel like America is the frontline of a battleground right now and a precursor to what we'll see in the rest of the western world if we don't find a way to wake up to this divisiveness and manipulation. It's clear that bots and mainstream media are amplifying the extreme ideologies but are also converting moderates into extremists. It's disgusting to witness so many people celebrating this murder. It's made me think differently of some people that I once respected. I believe there will be a day of reckoning for those on the right and the left who allow themselves to sink to these almost sub-human levels of intellect and existence. It's so easy for people to forget that anything they post online is forever.
I worry so, as well. That America is just the beginning. Though to be fair, Europe is going through its own dark era as well, but I believe less is said about that. I'm seeing so much stuff about violence and assault happening here and being covered up. It's freaky.
The sheer inhumanity of celebrating a man being murdered in front of his little girl is to me mind-blowing. A sign that there really is evil walking among us (and I've been wary so far of people using these kinds of phrases, but now, I genuinely don't know how else to explain it).
Oh yes, I'm seeing a lot of trouble brewing in Europe too. According to The Fourth Turning there's always a lot of chaos in the early stages of great societal transformations. I think that could be what we're experiencing now. Have you read that book?
Yes, there's not excuse for that kind of callous behavior. It's definitely evil, mental illness to be sure. I abhor how loosely the terms Nazi and Fascist are thrown around these days. I really do feel like people will experience some kind of backlash at some point for joining in this madness.