Martyrs are used by messianic movements to sanctify violence. To show any mercy or understanding toward the enemy is to betray the martyr and the cause the martyr died defending.
Shot Heard Around the World – by Mr. Fish (clowncrack.com)
The assassination of Charlie Kirk presages a new, deadly stage in the disintegration of a fractious and highly polarized United States. While toxic rhetoric and threats are lobbed across cultural divides like hand grenades, sometimes spilling over into actual violence — including the murder of Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband and the two assassination attempts against Donald Trump — Kirk’s killing is a harbinger of full-scale social disintegration.
His murder has given the movement he represented — grounded in Christian nationalism — a martyr. Martyrs are the lifeblood of violent movements. Any flinching over the use of violence, any talk of compassion or understanding, any effort to mediate or discuss, is a betrayal of the martyr and the cause the martyr died defending.
Martyrs sacralize violence. They are used to turn the moral order upside down. Depravity becomes morality. Atrocities become heroism. Crime becomes justice. Hate becomes virtue. Greed and nepotism become civic virtues. Murder becomes good. War is the final aesthetic. This is what is coming.
“We have to have steely resolve,” said conservative political strategist Steve Bannon on his show “War Room,” adding, “Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country. We are.”
“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,” wrote Elon Musk on X.
“The entire Right has to band together. Enough of this in-fighting bullshit. We are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell,” wrote commentator and author Matt Walsh on X. “Put the personal squabbles aside. Now’s not the time. This is existential. A fight for our own existence and the existence of our country.”
Republican Congressman Clay Higgins wrote that he will use, “Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk…” He further states “I’m also going after their business licenses and permitting, their businesses will be blacklisted aggressively, they should be kicked from every school, and their drivers licenses should be revoked. I’m basically going to cancel with extreme prejudice these evil, sick animals who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale capitalized on Kirk’s death to advocate for a takedown of the “red-green alliance” of “Communists and Islamists” who he claims have united to destroy Western civilization. He proposes an app where citizens can upload pictures of crime and homelessness in exchange for “property-tax rebates.”
Far-right comedian Sam Hyde, who has nearly half a million followers on X, wrote in response to Trump’s announcement of Kirk’s death that it is, “Time to do your fucking job and seize power… if you want to be more than a footnote in the ‘American Collapse’ section of future history books, it’s now or never.” In his tweet, he tags members of the administration and private military contractors.
Conservative actor James Woods warned, “Dear leftists: we can have a conversation or a civil war. One more shot from your side and you will not get this choice again.” His tweet was reposted by almost 20,000 people, received 4.9 million views and over 96,000 likes.
These are a sample of the slew of vitriolic sentiments shared and cheered on by tens of millions of Americans.
“Conservative actor James Woods warned, ‘Dear leftists: we can have a conversation or a civil war. One more shot from your side and you will not get this choice again.'”
The dispossession of the working class, 30 million who have been laid off because of deindustrialization, has engendered rage, despair, dislocation, alienation and fostered magical thinking. It has fed conspiracy theories, a lust for vengeance and a celebration of violence as a purgative for social and cultural decay.
Christian fascists — like Kirk and Trump — have astutely preyed on this despair. They stoked the embers. Kirk’s killing will set it alight.
Dissidents, artists, gays, intellectuals, the poor, the vulnerable, people of color, those who are undocumented or who do not mindlessly repeat the cant of a perverted Christian nationalism, will be condemned as human contaminants to be excised from the body politic. They will become, as in all diseased societies, sacrificial victims in the vain attempt to achieve moral renewal and recapture a lost glory and prosperity.
The cannibalization of society, a futile attempt to recreate a mythical America, will accelerate the disintegration. The intoxication of violence — many of those reacting to Kirk’s killing seemed giddy about a looming bloodbath — will feed on itself like a firestorm.
Kirk at Utah Valley University’s American Comeback event before he was shot. (Screenshot, MSNBC YouTube video)
The martyr is vital to the crusade; in this case ridding America of those Trump calls the “radical left.”
Martyrs are memorialized in ceremonies and acts of remembrance to remind followers of the righteousness of the cause and the perfidy of those who are blamed for the martyr’s death. This is what Trump did when he called Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom” in a video message on September 10, awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday. It is why Kirk’s casket will be flown back to Phoenix, Arizona on Air Force Two.
Kirk was a poster child for our emergent Christian Fascism. He peddled the Great Replacement Theory, which claims liberals or “globalists” allow immigrants of color into the country in order to replace whites, distorting immigration trends into conspiracy. He was Islamophobic, tweeting “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America,” and that it is “not compatible with western civilization.”
When children’s YouTuber Ms. Rachel said “Jesus says to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself,” Kirk retorted that “Satan has quoted scripture plenty” and added “by the way Ms. Rachel, you might wanna crack open that Bible of yours, in a lesser referenced part of the same part of scripture is in Leviticus 18, is that thou shall Lay with another man and be stoned to death.”
He demanded we roll back the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and disparaged civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King. He was demeaning towards Black people, “If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman…is she there because of affirmative action?” He said “prowling Blacks” are targeting white people “for fun.” He blamed Black Lives Matter for “destroying the fabric of our society.”
Kirk insisted the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. He founded Professor Watchlist and School Board Watchlist to purge professors and teachers with what he called “radical leftist” agendas. He advocated televised public executions which he insisted should be mandatory viewing for children.
The idea that he championed free speech and liberty is absurd. He was an enemy of both.
Kirk, who was a cheerleader for the cult of Trump, embodied the hypermasculinity that is at the core of fascist movements. This was perhaps his primary attraction to youth, especially white men. He claimed there is “a war on men,” fetishized guns and sold Trump to his followers as a man’s man.
“There’s a lot you can call Donald Trump,” he wrote. “No one has ever called him feminine. Trump is a giant middle finger to all the screeching hall monitors that attacked young men for just existing. He’s a giant F YOU to the feminist establishment that was never challenged before he came down the golden escalator. Most of the media missed this. Young men did not.”
History has shown what comes next. It won’t be pleasant. Kirk, elevated to martyrdom, gives those seeking to extinguish our democracy the license to kill, just as Kirk was killed. It lifts what few constraints still exist to protect us from state abuse and vigilante violence. Kirk’s name and visage will be employed to accelerate the road to tyranny, which is as he would have wanted it.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and NPR. He is the host of show “The Chris Hedges Report.”
This article is from Scheerpost.
NOTE TO READERS: There is now no way left for me to continue to write a weekly column for ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show without your help. The walls are closing in, with startling rapidity, on independent journalism, with the elites, including the Democratic Party elites, clamoring for more and more censorship. Please, if you can, sign up at chrishedges.substack.com so I can continue to post my Monday column on ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show, “The Chris Hedges Report.”
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Traditionally, martyrs are those with religious faith who meet an undeserved death for their convictions. We see this in the early church, and in the Middle East today. Empires target these martyrs among marginal communities who in turn look to them as exemplars of self-sacrifice. They become memories that unify the vulnerable io faith. Unfortunately, Hedges denigrates this positive memory of martyrs among the poor and oppressed.
In the hands of the powerful, however, martyrs are distorted into calls for retribution as Hedges notes, and they endorse indiscriminate violence. Kirk becomes a martyr for militants, not the marginal. Cloaking his hate-filled rhetoric in holy garb weaponizes his “free speech” at last, as many of his followers want anyway.
Result of the anger will not be war, but the kind of hatred that drives voting in the midterms. Note Obama lost 31 million of his 69 million 2008 voters in 2010, despite creating Obamacare. Trump will lose just as many, as voters come out for hate, which Dems have, and now Repubs have their hate focus, to give them a chance of keeping one house, maybe both.
It’s a little off-putting — because they’ve done such fine work in the past — the way otherwise excellent commentators and journalists are immediately promoting the conspiracy angle that Kirk may have been murdered by Mossad operatives or pro-Israel functionaries. People like Max Blumenthal, Greenwald, Parampil and a few other notables.
I’m as big a critic of Israeli control over Washington as anyone but I readily concede that it does not appear to be the case that Zionists were responsible for killing this man who spent the vast, vast majority of his career as a fervid Israel supporter. To try and stretch things and say Israeli backers committed this particular homicide is to otherwise discredit the sound and credible work of genuine anti-Zionist criticism and scholarship.
It appears that Kirk was likely murdered by one of these ID politics obsessed deranged crackpots. Occam’s Razor.
Comparing a person like Ms. Rachel who embodies goodness, with her love for children and her courage to stand up for the children in Gaza, to Satan shows the true vile character of Charlie Kirk or anybody like him. Charlie Kirk could not see or recognize true goodness even when it bit him in the face. He was was in the thrall of a bigoted and intolerant religion according to which he was right and everybody who did not think like him was wrong and was going to hell.
Incidentally this to me shows the problem with regarding any alleged revelation from God, such as the Bible or the Koran, as actually being such, as actually being God’s absolute and infallible truth. There is both much that is good, and much that is morally horrendous, in both of these books. A good person like Ms. Rachel, and a bad person like Charlie Kirk, can both quote passages from the so-called and so-regarded “Word of God” to make their point.
I consider myself to be a Deist. I strongly believe in a God or Higher Intelligence (though I accept lack of absolute certainty) but I do not accept any alleged revelation from God as actually being such.
The wisest course of action regarding the Utah event is total transparency with respect to any and all questioning and/or interrogation by law enforcement prosecutors, detectives etc. of suspect Tyler Robinson.
Ideally, the entire process of Robinson’s questioning will become meticulously filmed, recorded, transcribed and made immediately available for public viewing/consumption, – from initial pre-trial interrogations START to trial jury verdict FINISH.
Synonyms for “foolproof” include reliable, infallible, and fail-safe. These words suggest something that is designed to be impervious to error or misuse.
Given the explosive nature of this event with respect to potential negative societal consequences, the legal process MUST become conducted in an unassailable, foolproof, thorough and wholly conclusive fashion.
This assassination seals the end of the American experiment. When you assassinate the guy who was the epitome of discussion and debate, that ends the discussion. The two factions hate each other and want a divorce. There are no peacemakers. This is the end of American democracy. This now become a battle for which side’s version of authoritarianism and totalitarianism will prevail.
I used to be a Chris Hedges fan. Chris was once an articulate voice for the working class, for finding common ground, and for trying to understand the nature of the inverted totalitarianism. But this piece makes Chris look like a partisan homer for the left. Fine. I guess it’s time everyone picks a side and we descend into the abyss.
“Assassination” elevates Charlie Kirk to the status of war criminal, for what he has espoused. Kirk WAS a backer of Israel’s genocide. How long are we supposed to wait for people to “come around?” (rhetorical question)
You say you “used to be a Chris Hedges fan.” Have you ever read anything Charlie Kirk said?
We have a zionist infestation in the US Congress, backing genocide in Palestine. Some suggest that Kirk was starting to think that genocide was BAD. And then the Zionists killed him.
Have you any specific reason for saying Zionists killed Kirk, other than presumably imagining they’re behind everything?
This is a petty peeve: no one can legitimately be a ‘Hedges fan’; one must hate the words he writes, but read them from necessity.
I was tired of hearing people cry about this guy’s death celebrating his martyrdom days ago. It amazes me that it won’t stop. I find it hard to believe that much of any of these people actually care about him. I had never even heard of him until he was shot, and people get shot all the time, so it doesn’t seem very important. The people who cry bloody murder over the video’s gruesomeness have apparently never seen any videos from Gaza before, nor ISIS execution videos, nor any other Made in America classics.
Back when Americans were known to be a tough people rather than a pathetic one who put McDonalds flags at half-mast to celebrate the martyrdom of its biggest fools and traitors—anti-American agitators for foreign countries’ wars and violence, who stand against nearly everything the US’ Founding Fathers like Washington, Jefferson, and others stood for—they were fighting for labour rights culminating in an actual battle in West Virginia; there were anarchists setting bombs off, talk of revolution (unfortunately crushed by the bloodthirsty pimp of war and office FDR), multiple presidents were assassinated; there had even been a civil war. They were not strangers to real violence on their home soil.
Now, Americans are so childish and insulated, they think they can celebrate war and death the world over, but they should never have to suffer any violence or retaliation themselves, no no no! Not in America! When the US surrendered to Ansar Allah in Yemen, I recall that a US Navy service member was quoted in media as saying it was not like other wars; they were being shot at and in constant danger. Even US troops can’t handle an enemy who shoots back, just like the Marines in videos out of Iraq shedding actual tears to explosions going off near them, or being fired upon.
I’m sceptical of most of this social media frenzy being anything but talk. It’s easy to call for civil war on social media, but does anyone really think these people won’t all be crying harder than a US Marine should they have to fight a real war and be shot at? Can anyone imagine these keyboard warriors actually in combat?
Doubtlessly either way, the political violence can only increase. Thanks for another great essay, Hedges.
There are plenty of heavily armed gangs and militias in the US, and more are right wing than left. For many, its a vocation, not a mere job like the Marines. Would they cry if shot at?
*“The earth was born in a storm. The waters receded the mountains were formed. The universe loves a drama, you know; &, Ladies & Gentlemen, this is the show:” written by Chris Hedges, “The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk.” Kill, first. Think, later. “Shot Heard Around the World,’ by Mr. Fish; AND, the take-away, “Don’t Get Played.” hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/12/dont-be-played/ May 12, 2024
….Hocus. Poke Us! Everybody, Focus. *“It may look a lot like it’s happening the way you’re told it is. But take another look,” i.e., 9.12.25, “Kirk, elevated to martyrdom, gives those seeking to extinguish our democracy the license to kill, just as Kirk was killed. It lifts what few constraints still exist to protect us from state abuse and vigilante violence. Kirk’s name and visage will be employed to accelerate the road to tyranny, which is as he would have wanted it.” Chris Hedges
“No doubt. You may feel a little sick.” However, imo, ‘we, the people” still “got” game. “We’re anti-exploitation. We’re anti-degradation. We’re anti-oppression. If you’re not careful, the [MSM] will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” They [MSM] have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Malcolm X (1925–1965).
September 13, 2025, EVERYBODY, KNOWS, “the real criminals are in Washington, [D.C.], NOT in the United Nations. The real criminals are in the [burnt-orange] White House [of v00d00], NOT in the Elysee Palace. The real criminals are in the U.S. Congress!!!” George Galloway
Comparing somebody like Ms. Rachel, who embodies true goodness with her love of children and especially with her courage in speaking up for the children in Gaza, with Satan reveals the true vile character of somebody like Charlie Kirk.
Very much like the Pharisees blasting Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, and saying that Jesus was “casting out demons” (according to the story) by Beelzebub the prince of the demons. See Matthew 12.
And Jesus later in the chapter mentioned the “unpardonable sin”, the sin against the “Holy Spirit”. It is a little vague exactly what that was, but I think such a “sin” might be Charlie Kirk comparing a truly good and loving person like Ms. Rachel with Satan, particularly doing so in the name of his very bigoted and intolerant religion, according to which he is right and everyone else is wrong and is going to hell.
Disclaimer: I myself am not a Christian, for which I have my reasons, and there is much in the Bible that I absolutely do not accept as being absolute or literal truth. And if somebody like Charlie Kirk is a Christian I am glad to not be one. Though to be fair Charlie Kirk and the Christian Nationalists and the Christian Fascists of course do not represent or speak for all Christians.
I have deleted CN from my bookmarks because of this post. It is profoundly offensive, especially the cartoon.
Kirk was passionate, if not fanatical, about the right to free speech even when it offends, though he’d no doubt have defended your right to delete bookmarks too. (Before other readers leap in, yes, he was hypocritical about free speech as well, but that’s a bit of another matter in this case.)
Some of the more recent violence from Trump supporters:
August 2025: Firing of 180 shots into the CDC headquarters in Atlanta and the killing of David Rose, a black police officer.
June 2025: Killing Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their Minnesota home.
June 2025: Shooting and critical wounding of Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in their Minnesota home.
April 2025: Attempted assassination of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro.
Late 2022 and early 2023: A series of shootings at the homes of four Democratic elected officials in New Mexico.
Of course Trump didn’t respond to any of these incidents.
Then there is the condemnation of those who don’t show the ‘proper’ respect for the horror of the crime by the very same people who glorified Rittenhouse and Zimmerman; self-interest and solipsism trump(sic) reason every time.
Donald Trump represents the Heart and Soul of the American ownership class. They are all fascists. Their grandparents were fans of Hitler, secretly. Now it’s out in the open. So is the connection between Nazism and Zionism, permutations of each other.
Chris Hedges, I couldn’t disagree with you more about Charlie Kirk’s media platform. I just listened to your article and was appalled by the vitriol you directed toward Charlie Kirk. Your words did not reflect what I have read about the man. He was a gentle reasonable man willing to listen to and debate other people civilly
I’ll read this piece again tomorrow to see if my first impression is still rings true to true to my beliefs.
A thorough reading of Kirk’s history and actions describes an opportunist using bigoted, racist, homophobic and sexist memes under the cover of what was billed as honest debate. He was an intelligent practiced provocateur setting up ‘debates’ with mostly naive, weaker opponents and then selectively editing to make propaganda. This was not a capital offense, but it was an offense against honesty and democracy, since his target was democratic governance in which the franchise was universal and honest: governance of the true majority limited and guided by respect of minorities.
Just a thought aside: anyone reading this as justification for his killing must have a distorted sense of reasoning; Kirk should have been confronted by increasingly informed and practiced interlocutors, if he would have allowed it, or otherwise been assigned his place with the other authoritarians as another want-to-be.
He engaged in debate at both Oxford and Cambridge universities, with opponents I wouldn’t describe as weak, and the full videos are available on Youtube. I think you’re a bit wide of the mark with your explanation of why his propaganda appeals so much to the right.
Those videos should be watched…examples of the sorts of venues and interlocutors that exposed his basic circularity: an argument style that works for people are fundamentally uninformed. His popularity corresponds(ed) exactly to that circular argument style: presenting the actual debatable point as fact, negligently refusing to debate it in favor of following on to unjustified consequences. This is fodder for true believers, not for serious intellectual inquiry.
I never heard of Charlie Kirk before his murder was all over social media.
Caitlin Johnstone’s analysis of the event, which on every other topic she writes about I find illuminating, shocked and offended me for several reasons, not least that silencing someone, especially someone with a large audience, because of what they think and say is not going to make their point of view go away.
In the almost entirely seamless propaganda environment in which we are caught it seems almost impossible to turn the tide of even one individual’s opinion, let alone an audience as large and as passionate as the one that witnessed Charlie Kirk’s murder.
This, unfortunately, is the political world we live in.
Amazingly skilled individuals have gotten their points across in history, some even in our lifetimes. I can’t do it. In the best of situations, I walk away without losing my composure and shouting in frustration at my interlocutor.
For me, the job is to learn how to influence brainwashed people one individual at a time, and it ain’t easy.
Israelis kill every day few dozens of Palestinians, and so far the genocide claimed above 200,000. But all the headline news are focused on one (who incidentally supports the genocide) and completely ignored the real mass murder. As the saying goes – a death of one person is a tragedy, a death of a million (well, “only” 200,000) is a statistic.
You’re right.
Why is this assassination so appalling? Because Charlie Kirk was killed because of his THOUGHTS and TALK. He was not an elected official. He was not a government appointee. He was not a government bureaucrat. He wasn’t even a government employee. All he did was write and talk. He had no hard power. All he had was the power of persuasion, which is the very heart and soul of the First amendment and what passes for democray in the west.
Kirk’s assassination was a stab to the heart of the First Amendment. That so many so-called “liberals” do not get that is beyond disturbing.
Tyler Robinson, the suspected killer of Charlie Kirk, comes from a staunchly Republican family.
Robinson’s grandmother, Debbie, emphasized that the family were strong Trump supporters.
“Most of my family members are Republican. I don’t know a single one who’s a Democrat,” she told the paper.
Photos circulating online show Tyler once dressed as Trump for Halloween and in several others posing with firearms. Public records confirm that Robinson’s parents are both registered Republicans.
Yet in the blizzard of Right wing commentary the killing of Charlie Kirk springs from left wing hate speech against his racist, fascist views.
1984 and Newspeak has well and truly arrived.
hxxps://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/09/13/mhfx-s13.html
Coming from a Republican family doesn’t necessarily make one a Republican. And dressing as Trump for Halloween (if that’s what he did; I thought he had a Trump doll at a Halloween do) seems to indicate he viewed Trump much as one might view vampires and the like!
‘The FBI director added that authorities had learnt some “shocking things when we spoke to his family and friends”.
“His family has told investigators he subscribed to Left-wing ideology and even more so in the last couple of years,” he said.’
Telegraph, ‘Charlie Kirk suspect’s note revealed by FBI director’, 15 September
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/15/charlie-kirk-suspects-note-revealed-by-fbi-director/
So Charlie Kirk was not an elected official? So it’s ok for Right wing activists to attack elected Democrat officials as they have done with not a word of criticism from Trump and the Republicans?
The murder of Charlie Kirk is morally objectionable but he was not a saint. He was a political activist publicly welcoming and applauding Right wing vigilante murderer Kyle Rittenhouse and promoting violence against political opponents. What was truly disturbing was this so-called educated man demonised the right of others to reject his racist, fascist views.
All true but he gives Trump a Horst Wessel opportunity — a Reichstag fire to fuel his long repeated threats against anyone he considers “left.” The repression is coming.
Horst Wessel was the first thing to come to my mind when Trump started elevating Kirk to fascist martyr status. Saying that Kirk was “assassinated” elevated Kirk, in my mind, to war criminal status.
The man was a pig. I will not mourn him or anybody who shares his bloodlust and fascism.
What goes around comes around, and that includes bullets. If someone wants to persuade their state and countrymen toward war, violence, and genocide of distant foreign peoples, it is morally depraved to think the violence they demand be committed on others is something they should never have to face or suffer themselves.
Kirk would not have lasted in the era they wrote the First Amendment, either. He is the opposite of everything the Founding Fathers believed and stood for, and an enemy of American values; rather a pretend patriot and an agitator for a foreign country, for foreign wars; the exact kind of traitor George Washington warned about in his Farewell Address.
Anyone who has ever read anything from the Fathers (not many, it seems) ought know Kirk is the exact kind of man they knew would destroy America. That’s why the neocons and others who have pillaged and raped the country (and foreign ones) to death all love him.
I hardly knew who Charlie Kirk was, beyond a name, but now I do.
The vitriol and childish Schadenfreude on the left is just as toxic as any cited by Hedges on the right–perhaps more so.
Many “progressives” “belittled” and celebrated Charlie’s death.
Take, for instance, the glib toxicity put out by Caitlin Johnstone, who called Kirk a “little shit,” or some such, along with a lot silly, ungrounded opinions.
People in my Gaza group thought that Johnstone was “on the mark” with her comments.
I responded: Are you crazy?
I am completely on board with Caitlin’s views on Palestine and the horrific events in Gaza.
But that doesn’t mean I suspend critical thinking when she gets on her stump on other issues, or even everything she says about Palestine/Gaza/Zionism.
It is extremely foolish for people like Johnstone and others who call themselves leftists or progressives to belittle the assassination of anyone. What do they actually expect to gain by this?
Didn’t their parents teach them: Never blaspheme the dead.
What they gain with this childish behavior is the fury—far beyond differing opinions, political viewpoints, etc.—of the conservative wing of American society.
Possibly murderous fury on the part of the “deplorables.”
The leftists belong in the “smart but stupid” category.
Whatever happened to “I don’t agree with you, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
Now we have to add ” . . . and your right to THINK it.”
And never, never, openly rejoice in the assassination of an American politician, regardless of what you think in private. This is akin to Zionists rejoicing in the assassinations carried out by Israel.
I follow and like Caitlin Johnstone’s articles but I agree with you that calling Kirk or anybody a “piece of shit”, or calling all mainstream political pundits “evil scumbags” or “evil pieces of shit”, is very a very irresponsible use of language.
That is dehumanizing, which we decry (rightfully) people on the right doing. OK, mainstream political pundits make and have made very reprehensible moral choices, which seem to be necessary as part of their job. And they are not our friends. However saying that is different from calling them “evil scumbags” or “evil pieces of shit”.
Calling Charlie Kirk or anybody else an “evil scumbag” or an “evil piece of shit” is an open invitation to anybody so inclined to shoot such a person like somebody did with Charlie Kirk.
I am reminded of something that Caitlin Johnstone herself said:
hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/22/advancing-propaganda-for-evil-agendas-is-the-same-as-perpetrating-them/
I have been wondering the same thing about “I don’t agree with you, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it” for some time now. That’s what I learned, that’s what I believed in and took pride in believing in, and these days it seems like what currently passes for the left either wants to censor you using the legal system (AOC is an example) or they don’t care about homicide any more than Zionists care about genocide victims (between this and her dismissive talk of Trump getting an “ear boo-boo”, which Scott Ritter was absolutely right to call her out on, Caitlin Johnstone seems to have a troubling bloodthirsty streak).
Glenn Greenwald, Kim Iversen, Jimmy Dore, and others who have condemned the shooting are all correct, in my opinion, and deserving of respect. Caitlin may be right about Gaza, she may have been right about Israel/Palestine before that became mainstream, and she may be right about other things, but I really believe there is something wrong with her because of this and because of her dismissing Trump’s injury as an “ear boo-boo”, which Scott Ritter was absolutely right to call her out on. Nobody’s asking you to sing the guy’s praises, Caitlin, or to pretend that he was a better person than he actually was. Just maybe don’t say anything for a little while if the only things you can say are celebrating this.
Also, as a political commentator, Caitlin really should not be contributing to a culture in which we cheer when political commentators are gunned down. The same thing could happen to her, even though she isn’t as well-known as Kirk and doesn’t speak to large crowds. And it might not even be a right-winger who does it; some liberal who is really supportive of Ukraine might be really angry about Caitlin’s takes on that war, and might try to do her harm because she’s “spreading Russian propaganda” or some such crap.
I love Caitlin Johnstone and I agree with what she has written on this topic 100%. And comparing those of us who think Kirk was a shit to the crimes of Zionism is not a fair comparison. At all.
“It lifts what few constraints still exist to protect us from state abuse and vigilante violence.”
I’d suggest exaggerating from the left us just as divisive and destructive as exaggerations from the right, but why bother. If it makes you happy, go ahead and exaggerate.
In the real world, few people know or care about these people, which is exactly as it should be: care about the things that actually matter in your life. Be kind like Ms. Rachel. Don’t get distracted by imaginary hobgoblins, the tools of the powers that be who live chaos.
It’s looking like Kirk was killed by an identity politics obsessed ANTIFA type who may have been into all that distractive trans stuff.
Just to set the record straight, Kirk spent his entire career cheerleading for Israel and bending over backwards for the Mark Levins, Ben Shapiros and Alan Dershowitzes. Kirk knew exactly how to butter his bread. I say this bc currently there’s some revisionism going on inside certain conspiracy circles that it was Israel who took out Kirk bc very lately he was mouthing some mild criticisms of Zio power. This is a delusional take.
I’m as staunch a critic of Israeli power as anyone (I’m sometimes m0cked as someone who’s obsessively focused on Zio power), but I fully acknowledge they weren’t involved in Kirk’s murder. As stated, he became a multi-millionaire prattling on for the last 15 years about how best to serve Israeli interests. And currently Ben Shapiro is vowing to carry on Kirk’s mission.
Kirk was your typical Chamber of Commerce Republican who’s against Med4All, won’t think of raising the min wage, strengthening labor unions or reining in our out-of-control billionaire class. I will give him credit on Russia, he was a good and consistent critic of the warmongering Ukrainian oligarchs and he spoke of the need for Washington to back off the harassment of Russia’s borders, for this I applaud him. He also frequently said sane things about getting our borders under reasonable control.
The incendiary and provocative nature of this murder could possibly touch off reprisals by the right. Let’s hope things don’t spiral in that direction.
Chris Hedges’ “His murder has given the movement he represented — grounded in Christian nationalism — a martyr.” Brought to mind the story of Horst Vessel, the 21 year old SA member assassinated in 1930 by the Communists in Berlin Germany and subsequently transformed by Josef Goebbels into a Nazi Party martyr with the adoption of the Horst Vessel Lied as the official official Nazi Party anthem.
Everyone, including the World Socialist Web Site have made the comparison with Horst Wessel.
Many middle eastern resistance movements are keen on martyrs too. Is Hedges equating their resistance to US and Israeli aggression with the US far right’s zionist and fascist tendencies?
Little in this human world amazes me these days, but that the human animal continues to fall for the most blatant form of the demagogue over and over, hundreds, thousands of times throughout recorded history, does amaze. Exactly the same pattern, as Hedges points out, over and over. I am reminded of the animals I live with in my rural world: predictable. The rattlesnake, rabbit, coyote, scrub Jay and dove; predictable from moment to moment. We understand this as instinctual behaviors modified only slightly by learning. And so we are facing another, predictable, ‘burning torch and pitchfork’ moment by the human animal…. and the amazement? We describe it all. Write about it. Detail the events. Research and define the motives. Point out, with clarity, the issues and dangers. And then are caught up doing it all over again.
I was unable to repost to Facebook but was able to do so via Scheerpost.
Seems CN is blocked on FB
Too bad. People need to hear what Chris has to say
FB is monitored by Zionists.
I have noticed that, too.
I’m not religious but it seems to me that terms like:
Christian Nationalist; Christian Fascist; Christian Zionists; Judeo-Christian are all oxymoron’s ?
The Sunday School Christianity I was taught was all about love of your fellow man, forgiveness, respect, etc. This terminology seems to be all about exceptionalism and superiority of one group over everyone else. That ain’t Christian as far as I can see ! Maybe the Christian appendage is just a nugatory bit of PR for the masses.
I don’t think they’re oxymorons at all. True, some Christians are into ‘love of your fellow man, forgiveness, respect, etc.’ Others are, and have been almost from the beginning, into imperialism; conquest; forced conversion on pain of death; wars – including with rival Christians, eg. Protestants v Catholics in Europe; witch burning; the glorious Old Testament in which Mr God ordered his chosen people to kill and rape (eg. Numbers 31 17-18); and so on. Judaeo-Christian is the least oxymoronic of all those terms: the Bible portrays Mr Jesus as fulfilling Jewish prophecy, and includes the Jewish Torah as holy scripture.
That’s the Jesus that the Judean Talmud, as opposed to Torah, has boiling in excrement, if I recall, they are quite clear on their feelings for Jesus !
I guess the real trick is not to confuse the religion with it’s enforcers/church.
I continue to be grateful to my parents who raised us kids without religion of any kind. I am a lifelong atheist as a result and I regard all religion as superstition.
These same people that think celebrating Kirk’s death is beyond the pale are perfectly fine with celebrating the starvation of children in Gaza. The United States of America is at an end.
I don’t subscribe to social media so I don’t know Kirk. I do realize that feelings are dangerous or was Walter Lippman said in 1955,
When right and wrong depends on how an individual feels then we are outside the bounds of civilization.
If someone had Charlie Kirk killed to create division, hate, and civic violence, it is working perfectly. We can expect to see more assassinations like this, possibly leading to a complete breakdown of our republic and the imposition of a tyranny.
The assassin is a 22 year old male. I’d suggest he is a result of the MSM brainwashing of the masses – a modern day ‘Manchurian Candidate’ !
Or a number of someones created the conditions that made division, hate and civic violence inevitable. With an atomized, precariously employed population, sociopaths like Lonsdale just have to keep the fires burning and wait.
Antifa seems to be full of useful fools. In the early days of the SMO, I read an essay by a young man who went to Ukraine to fight “fascists” and found himself in the company of AFU soldiers who told him, “no, WE’RE the fascists.” He fled to Russia. But the power elites – the ones who are bringing their destabilization tactics home to us – are the ones to focus on.
Correction: Memory kicked in after posting. I didn’t read an essay, I watched a video made on the aspiring Antifa man’s phone while he was in Ukraine.
People seem to forget that “Antifa” means anti-fascist. Anyone who is pro-fascist is an enemy of humanity.