It has been two weeks since Charlie Kirk was killed. Many, many words have been written and spoken about him and in reaction to his death. There have been many events, memorials, and eulogies, but also criminal acts. I’ve been reading and thinking, coming to a synthetic conclusion rather than reacting quickly.
There is absolutely no excuse for killing Charlie Kirk. No one should be killed for their words. They might be shunned, or even arrested, but never killed. No matter how vile the advocacy or idea, murder is not a rhetorical tactic.
His killing is, sadly and revealingly, simply an extension of the violent language and actions of the Left. Conservatives are routinely called Nazis, fascists, and murderers, the limiters of speech and haters of women, gays, trans, and indigenous people. Even before Kirk’s murder, innumerable commenters on X and Instagram have called for the death of conservatives. The Left does not argue; it exercises the heckler’s veto, screaming when conservatives speak, blowing air horns, physically assaulting conservatives. They blocked access for Charlie Kirk on campuses just as they blocked access to Donald Trump’s first inauguration and continue to block major roads by gluing themselves to the pavement in environmental protests. They interrupt speeches, political meetings, and football games with screaming, spraying glitter, even throwing paint and soup on precious artwork.
These are the behaviors of spoiled teens, not political expression. In any sane world these people would get significant fines and even jail time for their disruptions. Instead, leftist attorneys general and mayors refuse to arrest or condemn. They cite free speech rights as an excuse for disruptive actions. These same leftists do not enforce public order laws, claiming they are racist. In addition to the disruptions by the Left, open drug use, tent cities, and public defecation are not even cited; they are tolerated. Tolerated! There is an app for San Francisco to mark where human feces are on the sidewalks.
Our toleration of these behaviors and labels has led to their normalization and by extension, to imagining and then planning killing as a means of expressing political anger. After all, isn’t it righteous to kill oppressive Nazis and fascists? The result is the shooting of Steve Scalise, two assassination attempts on Trump, and the killing of Charlie Kirk. Leftists try to equate left-wing and right-wing violence, but this is utterly specious. They constantly cite J6 as evidence the Right is violent as well. But not only is tu quoque not a legal or rhetorical argument, there is a difference of kind and degree, a huge difference. Leftists use violence as a tool and a means of expression. It is a deliberately chosen method, not an emotional eruption.
Charlie Kirk has been memorialized with church services, public vigils, and prayer services. Black Lives Matter was expressed with three months of rioting that caused 1–2 billion dollars in damages. Can you imagine what these people would have done if a national leftist speaker had been assassinated by a right-winger? And if that person had been black…there would have been entire downtowns burned down and police killed. And they claim that both Left and Right use violence? That’s bulls–t and gaslighting.
But that is typical of the rhetoric of the Left. Any disagreement is hate speech. Kirk, who never condemned a soul, was repeatedly attacked by the Left for hating on gays, trans, and black and brown people. And just like Nazis and fascists, who doesn’t want to extinguish hate?
In the wake of Kirk’s death there have been three reactions on the Left. Some have legitimately grieved his death and the implications for our society. The other two reactions, however, have been to excuse his death because of his inflammatory words, or to rejoice in it. Excusing Kirk’s assassination by saying he was hateful and inflammatory is exactly like blaming a woman for her rape by saying she was wearing provocative clothing. And rejoicing in political killing? That’s sickening.
Society’s reaction here is revealing. Companies and universities won’t have it. Numerous people have been fired from their jobs for such postings, and rightly so. Jimmy Kimmel not only blamed Kirk’s death on MAGA, a claim refuted by the killer’s words and multiple police and FBI investigators, he planned even more anti-MAGA rhetoric as a further response. He refused to apologize for his speech, and was pulled from the air “indefinitely”, then claimed he never meant to dishonor Kirk’s death—he’s now back on the air after Disney reversed course. And all around America, people are volunteering for Turning Point USA. As of the last available count, they had requests for 62,000 new chapters. They had 900 existing prior to Kirk’s killing, plus 1,100 campus locations.
The collective reaction is one not simply of grief and horror but of disgust with the Left. Society has been fed a long list of distortions and lies for 20-plus years, and there is a collective, quiet refutation in word and deed.
The Left claims this reaction is hate and speech suppression, citing First Amendment rights. That’s more leftist garbage. The First Amendment prevents governmental suppression of speech, not societal. There is no obligation for anyone to listen, no obligation for employers to tolerate foul, hateful, or violent language by their employees. It’s an ironic and ludicrous claim from the same crowd that has screamed for firings for misuse of pronouns, refusal to accept “trans” behaviors, racial “micro-aggressions”, or denying systemic racism. You wanted equality and you got it, getting fired for your truly foul speech just as you fired us simply for expressing an opinion.
The Left has shown us all that it is willing to use disruption violence, and now murder, as political tools. There is a collective sense of enough—no more faux tolerance in the name of imaginary racism, sexism, and homophobia. No more disorder. And this is my conclusion from Kirk’s horrible death. No more. No more leftist manipulations and lies. No more toleration of violence. Normal is the new normal. It has always been normal, and society is going to re-assert that.
No more catering to the mentally ill who imagine they are a different gender. The long-established true incidence of gender dysphoria is 1/10,000, not the 1/167 figure ludicrously claimed by “sexual advocates,” and virtually exclusive to males.
No more toleration of homeless encampments, which impinge on public order and safety and are a breeding ground for disease and vermin.
No more public disorder in the name of freedom. The essential corollaries of freedom are responsibility, public manners, and restraint.
No more open, illegal immigration, a wink and a nod to behavior that begins and ends with illegality. There is a legal process to enter the U.S.; use it.
No more DEI, which is simply leftist racism and sexism. Merit is what counts.
The path to peace and normalcy isn’t through accommodation. That is not possible. We have surrendered to leftist misbehavior, gaslighting, and violence for far too long. And conservatives do not murder. That isn’t the path to normalcy either. The path is through the ballot box and at law. The Left can cooperate and we can create peace together. Or they can resist, obstruct, and sue. And we will vote you out and win at the bar.
No more. Normal is the new normal. Thank you, Charlie Kirk, whose death did not silence him but rather amplified him into millions of determined people.
Image: Public domain.