What Charlie Kirk's Assassination is Showing Us About Ourselves - Some Musings On The Fallout

Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster

I never followed Charlie Kirk’s work all that closely, for I never paid much attention to the ‘mainstream’ influencers. This is not a knock on Kirk or his work in getting the younger generation involved in politics, my personal interests have typically been about finding deeper, more esoteric truths. After his assassination, I spent some time watching a few clips of his podcasts and debates of his on college campuses and found him to resonate as a very well meaning, pure hearted individual - a purity not often found in influencers with millions of followers. He spoke what he genuinely believed and wanted people to make better decisions, and he did not deserve what happened him.

We can argue all day long about what actually happened with the shooting in Utah. There’s a thousand different rabbit holes to go down, with all of them having their own set of evidence and truth/untruths.

Was Tyler Robinson actually the shooter, or was he a patsy and the actual shooter was someone else?
Was Charlie Kirk hit from the front, or the side?
Was he actually hit with a .30-06 round?
If Tyler Robinson was the shooter, did he have help or was groomed to do it?
Is there a cover up? And if so, who is involved in it? Utah officials? Feds?
Are those Discord messages real?
What portions of this “official story” that we’re being told are fabricated, if any?
Were there any professional elements involved in this? Mossad? Soros? CIA?

I don’t think any one theory on the internet right now is the correct one. One doesn’t have to jump into a belief about something, and with so many competing details at the moment it’s probably safer not to believe anything outright - at least specifics, there may be generalities with this event we can agree on, things definitely aren’t adding up. There are too many unanswered questions at the moment, and unfortunately there may be answers we never get, and even if we do get “answers”, will we trust them?

No doubt there would be motive for certain powerful interests to take out someone like Charlie Kirk. He was motivating tens, if not hundreds of thousands of college aged kids to get involved with politics through Turning Point USA and distrust what ‘authorities’ told us, and Kirk had a platform of millions who followed him. This Gen Z voting bloc is prime real estate for said interests to control going forward. Turning Point USA’s benefactors wouldn’t want to see Kirk going out and, dare I say, ask questions about things he’s not supposed to. Kirk didn’t seem like the individual to want to be controlled.

Aside from the conspiracy theories on the hows and whys, the fallout of Kirk’s death has acted as mirror that has shown us who we really are - it has brought out the best in the people and the worst in people. And this “best” and “worst” is being brought out in both the left and the right.

I’ve long been sick of the left/right dynamic of politics. People will cry about the “two sides of the same coin” as if they understand how we’re being led by the illusion of choice, and then those same people will fall right back into the trap of getting their team to own the other one. Humans seem to have tribalism engrained in their brains.

The best in people has been brought out by their tributes and their condolences. Some on the left have set aside their differences and have offered genuine words of support to the Kirk family. Those on the right are holding vigils and prayer events to honor his legacy.

The worst of the left has been brought out by their jeers and cheers over the murder. They’re posting deranged celebratory videos on their social media pages, even so far as mocking his wife and kids. The gaslighting from the liberal politicians is also horrible, blaming “the other side’s” rhetoric for causing the shooting, meanwhile their own rhetoric is radicalizing people toward hatred. The worst of the right has been brought out by their bickering over who has the “truth” over the shooting and the monetizing of drama (and death) for clicks. “I know Charlie Kirk better than you, this is why he was killed!” go the arguments. The bad brought out in both sides is also the deepening of their faith in their political tribe and the justifying of unwarranted violence and despair upon the other.

The celebratory videos being posted are now leading to a “Cancel Back Culture”. While 5-10 years ago people moreso on the ‘right’ were getting cancelled, suppressed, and fired for such things as wearing MAGA hats, questioning elections, and not wearing masks - those people are now taking it upon themselves to enact a little karma and let the employers of the murder celebrators know exactly what they’re posting to social media, resulting in many of the left-leaning celebrators getting fired.

Is this cancelling back justified?

I’ll be honest, part of me loves it, part of me does not.

One argument, that I understand, is that freedom of speech doesn’t necessarily mean freedom from consequences of that speech. It is well within the right of people to post videos mocking murder on social media - but is also within the right of employers to not want those people associated with their brands for such actions and fire them. Legally, the First Amendment protects people from the government infringing free speech, but it doesn’t necessarily apply to the private sector. Some of these people laughing are teachers, healthcare professionals, and government workers. I wouldn’t want a public school teacher posting videos mocking a political assassination to be teaching my kid.

Some arguments against this cancelling back I also understand. The mob mentality seeking vengeance can sometimes go too far in their emotional rage. “Don’t become the monster you are trying to kill”. Some of the “cancelling” I’ve seen are private text messages of people getting posted, essentially doxxed, online. And what are the collateral effects of this cancelling? Will small business or families suffer because a mob is demanding someone they’re associated with be fired? It wasn’t their fault their employee posted the video. I worry that if we fight fire with fire, we will continue swinging the pendulum of division and never make it stop - and although sometimes fighting fire with fire is justified, but it’s important to know where the line is.

This issue presents us with an interesting philosophical debate, and I’ve seen some good takes for both for and against arguments play out online.

At the end of the day, Charlie Kirk’s assassination has forever changed the world of politics. We may never know the truth of what went down that fateful September afternoon in Orem, Utah, but the reactions across the political and online spectrum are showing us the true nature of many individuals. The hypocrisy of many humans is on full display, their willingness to silence those they disagree with, even to the point of death, meanwhile they cry and moan when they themselves get silenced. More people than ever question the narratives given to us by authorities no matter who is in charge of the government, even if it’s their favorite political party, which isn’t such a bad thing. Always question.

While division isn’t such a bad thing - we do want to divide ourselves away from humans with twisted, demented minds - let’s just hope we can regain a sense of humility in our culture before the political divide tears this country apart. Regardless of ideology, we’re all in this together, after all.

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