These words uttered by Jesus to his pal Peter have an obvious point; Poke the bear and the bear bites back.
The headline this week should have been, ‘Another Anarchist kills another Fascist’.
To be completely honest, before Charlie Kirk died I had only heard him say a few sentences from different sound bites. They were all racist or misogynistic or a combination of both. He did have a special talent of combining his different hates into one sentence. While his followers thought he was serious, when he would make such statements they came off as comedic to me. He’s like Doug Stanhope if Doug wasn’t funny and sarcastic. So I guess I am baffled as to why the right is putting him on a pedestal. Are we supposed to honor him because he figured out a way to sugar coat white supremacy and fool a generation? As for a defender of free speech? Huh? I follow many national free speech organizations and am a member of NCAC, and trust me, none of these orgs have ever mentioned Kirk as a defender of these rights, quite the opposite.
Do I think people should be killed for their speech? No. And who does? What a silly question.
But when you are getting over 200 death threats a week, as reported by a Kirk staffer after the shooting, you wonder if you were defending free speech OR security ignorance? The warning signs were there, I saw these kinds of attacks escalating after the vicious attack on Salman Rushdie only 3 years ago.
The MAGA movement is only going to use Kirk’s death to further take away our free speech rights. And it is already happening right here with the recent firing of a professor at USD because he dared to call a spade a spade on the internet. If there ever was a time to speak out, it is right now. I have maintained this blog for almost 20 years not because I care about local governess but I care about FREE speech. I know not everyone agrees with my point of view, but that is why I share it, to have you think of a different way of doing things.
Did you know the 1st Amendment was merely a compromise by James Madison;
James Madison was the primary author and driving force behind the First Amendment, which he introduced to the First Congress in 1789 to guarantee freedoms of religion, speech, press, and assembly. He did so because many Americans and delegates at state ratification conventions feared the unamended Constitution lacked protections for essential liberties, and Madison, initially a Federalist who didn’t believe a Bill of Rights was necessary, changed his mind to gain support for the new system and secure the support of Anti-Federalists.
Essential Liberties. Isn’t that a beautiful thing? These things are NOT guaranteed by the barrel of a gun, a religious doctrine or by someone who owns property, they are guaranteed by our speech and speaking out against injustice. “The pen is mightier than the sword,” was coined by the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Some people close to Kirk know that his OWN words will ultimately destroy his legacy, not an assassin’s bullet and this is why they are literally killing the messengers by having people terminated for speaking the truth about Kirk.
Sound like a defender of FREE speech to you?
Like most political bubbles these days, I don’t think we will be hearing much about Kirk after his funeral, just another blip on the radar screen, but the 1st Amendment, that is something we must protect every day even though Kirk failed miserably at it because most fascists do.
If known businesses begin to fire their employees for their comments about this recent assassination on social media, then start to boycott those businesses. No matter how obnoxious their comments might be, there is a thing called the First Amendment.
Trump’s obvious strategy to authoritarianism is a slow walk of intimidation through coercising colleges and their policies, businesses and their employees independent comments on social media, and making the thought of having troops in some cities in America the norm, so when he adds to them, or other cities, there will unfortunately be a growing indifference to them, which will only then further play into the hands of the fascist amongst us. #SlowWalkToFascism
Oh, and if you don’t like the current growing political violence in America, then I wonder who started it all?…. Oh, that’s right, do you remember this?…..:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1es9MZyyPOA
( and Woodstock adds: “Say, how about that Kash Patel, huh?”…. “Wow, talk about a guy not ready for prime time”… “In fact, he reminds me of that single wide-eyed uncle who shows up late for a family event, and then he looks around in panic as if he is in fear that he is either overdressed or underdressed for the gathering”….. )
“Say, that governor of Utah, didn’t he used to be the lead singer for ‘Smashing Pumpkins?’ 🙂