Earlier today at a political event at Utah Valley University, Turning Point Founder and Trump-MAGA surrogate Charles Kirk was brutally assassinated.
One thing must be clear in this age where certain right wing members of the political spectrum purposely stoke division, fear, violent acts, and calls for retribution.
Political violence is never the answer.
It was not the answer when a maniac shot Gabby Giffords in 2011.
It was not the answer when a lunatic shot up the House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, at a Congressional softball game.
It was not the answer when racist low lives massacred Black Church members or Jewish Synagogue attendees.
It was not the answer when Right Wing Nut Jobs plotted to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan.
It was not the answer when Domestic Terrorists, enabled by the 45th President, stormed the Nation’s Capitol in an attempted coup.
It was not the answer when a deranged MAGA supporter assaulted the husband of Nancy Pelosi.
It was not the answer when a loner takes a shot at that former 45th President, “injuring” him and killing a husband and father bystander.
It is not the answer when an arsonist tries to set fire to the house of Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania when he and his family were sleeping.
It is not the answer when masked agents of the government grab people off the street and detain them in American made concentration camps.
It is not the answer when people, radicalized by reactionary dogma, assassinate the former Speaker of the Minnesota State House, Melissa Hartman and her husband.
It is not the answer when a vaccine denying nut job shoots at the people working at the Center for Disease Control.
It is not the answer when shooting a 31 year old man who has different views, no matter how disgusting or repulsive than yours, at a political event at a university.
Arizona’s leaders have already expressed their condolences for the Kirk family.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs wrote in a social media post:
“I am horrified by the violent attack on Charlie Kirk. In a democracy, we solve our disagreements at the ballot box. Political violence is never acceptable.”
She also posted this:
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes posted:
“The news of Charlie Kirk being shot is terrible and disturbing. I condemn political violence. This cannot be who we are. We are all Americans.”
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes offered:
“Political violence is never the answer. I strongly condemn the horrific act of violence against Charlie Kirk. We may not all agree in this country but our ability to freely share and discuss our political beliefs is what makes us American.”
Senator Mark Kelly, the husband of Gabby Giffords, stated:
“Charlie Kirk lost his life today because someone thought violence was the answer to political disagreement. It’s never the answer, and political violence has no place in our country. I’m praying for his wife and children.”
Senator Ruben Gallego relayed:
“This is beyond terrible. Charlie Kirk was a husband, father, and son. Violence is never the answer. Sydney and I are keeping the Kirk family in our prayers.”
Representative Yassamin Ansari commented:
“Political violence is never acceptable—this is horrific.”
Representative Greg Stanton conveyed:
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying. I’m praying hard for him, and keeping his family in my thoughts. Political violence has absolutely no place in our country.”
Arizona Senate Democrats posted:
“Political violence has no place in this country. Our thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family. Gun violence does not discriminate and the government’s inaction has consequences for every American.”
Arizona House Democrats also remarked:
“Horrific and unacceptable. There is no place in this country for political violence…”
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I hesitate to post this because it reeks of “bothsideser-ism”, but I believe it needs to be said –
Don’t be hypocrites.
If something is bad when someone else does that something to you or folks you support, then that something is bad when you or folks you support do it to others.
It’s Biblical enough that MAGA won’t get it, but others might.
Next lesson: don’t bear false witness/lie, but I don’t wish to overburden readers (like those who regularly take government checks, and then, just as regularly, criticize government spending).
The atrocities mentioned in these comments should be their own evidence of wrong needing to be called out. However, are all these attacks on one another going to make anyone’s life better? In the long run it does not matter who started violence or verbal attacks. Retribution will continue until all sides just stop and do something different. Be the change you all know we need to make things better instead of worse. It starts with each one of us, each and every day. Walk the walk and talk the talk. Please. For humanity’s sake.
No one here is calling for more violence, just not letting MAGA rewrite history and lionize an evil man.
MAGA is literally trying to make Kirk into The Second Coming and they’re going after anyone who says he wasn’t, literal cancel culture, one of the many things they cry about.
They’re silencing anyone who tells the truth about Kirk, who even just reposts his own words, people are losing jobs, our press is scared, the 1A is endangered, and they have the power of the POTUS helping them, and we can’t let them bully us into silence.
The MAGA’s are calling for MORE violence because that’s what they’ve always wanted, it’s what Kirk preached.
I’m not going to sit quietly while they fabricate a hero origin story for a racist hate filled POS and use that as justification to commit atrocities.
They were literal calling for the death of all liberals minutes after the POS died and still are.
Violence is bad.
Charlie Kirk was a POS.
You want to see real violence, check out any ICE raid, watch some children cry as their father’s and mother’s are slammed to the ground and loaded into unmarked van’s by people with masks and no ID or warrants.
Fuck I hate this timeline so fucking much.
This “political violence is not the answer” isn’t gaining much traction. Maybe it’s because violence is hard to compartmentalize. The total annihilation of Gaza is good violence. Bombing sovereign nations that are not at war is good too. In fact, all US and Israeli military engagements are pure and righteuos with God on their side. I won’t go further into describing all the violence that is acceptable or dismissed. The point is clear. What sets political violence apart from other violence against human beings? Why isn’t there the same outrage for those murdered in random mass shootings? Or some newborn who will die of starvation in Gaza? Political violence is reprehensible, but violence is violence. Murder is murder. Don’t expect people to see political violence as an exception.
You have a point. I would have included in the examples, the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. People seem to forget that.
Oh I don’t believe people forgetting that, especially with you pushing it at every opportunity.
Unfortunately October 7 has been overshadowed by the Netanyahu’s genocidal response.
David, By citing the violent actions of Hamas on Oct 7th, you are doing precisely what Liza has rightfully pointed out… treating only the blatant, sudden eruption of mass violence as bad, while ignoring the ongoing “normalized” violence that, because it is not a sudden eruption, is therefore not in the news, or if it is in the news, is simply mentioned as an “aside”.
.
In reality, the Oct 7th violent attack by Hamas is still in the news daily, due to all our media routinely referring to it almost every time Gaza or the West Bank are even mentioned). What is NOT EVER mentioned in our media are the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have essentially been held hostage and subjected to ongoing, nonstop daily violence… at the hands of the Israeli government since 1947! That’s roughly 78 years!!!
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So, you are exhibiting the bias that Liza was pointing out!
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And please note that we (the US) and UK and our allies created/began/started all this Israeli vs Palestine violence, when back in the mid 1940s we refused to allow Jews fleeing the Nazis to resettle in the US. Instead we turned them back by the boatloads and made the intentional decision to displace the Palestinians from their homes and lands and give those homes and lands to the Jewish refugees, who had actually wanted to come to the US. So it was the rampant antisemitism in the US at that time, that resulted in the establishment of Israel on land belonging to the Palestinian people!
I disagree and as usual your history is wrong. Point One: Egypt and Jordan occupied Gaza and the West Bank from 1947 to 1967. Where was the cry for Palestinian statehood then? Point Two: You for some reason neglect to mention all the rockets that flew into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon before October 7. If rockets from Mexico or Canada came non stop into the U.S., would we not be upset about that? Point three. Who told Ehud Barak to go to hell in 2001 on the last opportunity for a two state deal? Wait for it…Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians. As I have said on numerous posts, I think both the Israelis and Palestinians need new leadership and Israel does have to own up to its historical injustices on innocent Palestinians. What I can not stomach from your historically illiterate deeply uninformed lot is you’re always blaming Israel for everything that goes wrong and thinking Palestinians are all innocent victims who are misunderstood when they launch rockets and commit terrorists acts.
You keep ignoring the most important fact: It was simply wrong to send Jewish refugees to displace Palestinians in the first place. And as for your comparison of Israel to the US, and what we would do if someone were attacking us….. What a ludicrous stretch! Israel is a theocracy where Palestinians are second class citizens! And we have not been oppressing the Mexicans or Canadians the way Israel has oppressed the Palestinians! If we had, I am quite sure they would be attacking us! If Israel were truly a democracy, Palestinian citizens living there would have the same rights as Jews…. but they don’t. Israel long ago made Gaza into an open air prison, so it is not at all surprising that people who have been so oppressed for so long would take some sort of violent action toward their oppressors! In addition, what the Israeli government is doing in the West Bank is also illegal and unconscionable! And don’t even try to insinuate that I am condoning taking of hostages! I’m not condoning violence of any sort. But I am really tired of you harping on ONLY the violence committed by Hamas, while being completely OK with the many, many decades of violence committed by the Israeli government, which is now shooting the remaining Palestinians like they are fish in a barrel. That is genocide!
You really need to learn history and where have I said I am okay with violence by Israelis. I suggest less cherry picking on your part and more reading starting with David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace. I would also suggest reading my articles on the subject. As for displacement, I look forward to hearing that you gave your residence back to the descendants of the Native American Family this nation stole it from.
Sympathy for his wife and children who are probably better off without him.
I can’t help but paraphrase what Bette Davis said upon hearing her long time nemesis, Joan Crawford, passing. You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Charlie Kird is dead. Good”
Kirk was a bag of hate and his wife knew it, I have the same amount of sympathy for her as I do for Melania, who is married to a child rapist and knows it.
I mean think about it, Erika Kirk’s husband says school shooting’s are worth it and Erika Kirk has TWO CHILDREN who will be going to school soon.
MAGA doesn’t aactually care about the dead bag of hate but they needed something to distract from the fact that the GOP just voted to keep the Epstein files secret and we have a child rapist in the White House.
Gilbert Hortman I mourn for, dead nazi’s and their hate filled wives not at all.
Google; Worst Wessel
It was just immediate sympathy for an immediate widow (which will not apply to Melania), now that that’s done may she roast in hell along with her insignificant other.
There is a bit of hope for the future, I remember a long ago Mad Magazine feature where extremely cool parents had kids who turned out to be extremely uncool and conservative. Hopefully the reverse works out for his offspring.
I have the same amount of sympathy for his wife as I do for Melania, who is married to a child rapist and knows it because she hung out with Maxwell and Epstein too.
None.
Charlie Kirk said school shooting’s are worth it and Erika Kirk has TWO CHILDREN who will be going to school soon.
She married a bag of hate and knew it and lives a comfy life from spreading that hate and she’s just as shitty a human being as he was.
MAGA doesn’t actually care about the dead bag of hate but they needed something to distract from the fact that the GOP just voted to keep the Epstein files secret and we have a child rapist in the White House.