As I laid out in Part 1 of this endeavor, one of the most disheartening aspects of the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination has been watching people I care about draw conclusions that place us at odds based on bad information or manipulative framing. I've seen an inordinate amount of bad/misleading information shared — something social media makes it exponentially easier to do, like a giant game of Telephone, only not fun or entertaining. 

Certainly, that's not unique to this tragedy. But this one, in particular, has really brought out the worst of it — and the worst of us. 

In any event, I won't belabor the background explainer here. That can be found in Part 1:

READ MORE: Deconstructing the Narrative of the Left - Part 1: Fact vs. Opinion

As I set out to clinically and dispassionately separate the fact from opinion in the video I'd seen shared by several friends (and which has racked up millions of views), I vowed not to argue the opinions the account owner (Leigh McGowan) shared, other than to point out when they were being couched as facts. I did my level best. But...as I was composing that initial piece, I kept finding myself arguing back, and so I ultimately decided to lay out my argument/responses to her opinions separately here. 

It's probably not fair to characterize this as a "debate." I'm responding to her, but she's not able to respond back in the manner of a typical debate. She's speaking through a five-minute video; I'm using a written response and can "show my work" to support my points. (Not that I get the impression she's all that interested in showing her work — more on that later.) Basically, this is just me engaging in a written rebuttal exercise and, in the process, highlighting the problems with the way we engage (or disengage) with those who hold different or opposing views. 

I won't worry about the color-coding this time — and I've trimmed it down to the key arguments. The initial bullet points are McGowan's words; the sub-points are my responses/observations.

Some additional thoughts: 

McGowan seems to be conflating disgust at the reaction (of the left) to Kirk’s death with blame for causing it. Yes, there has been the latter. But a lot of the blowback she’s decrying is in response to the seeming justification and even celebration of his death, and that’s getting mixed in with the separate issue of what motivated the assassin. 

Toward the end of the video, McGowan bemoans the fact that we are being set against one another. This is one of the parts with which I actually agree somewhat. However, she lays that at the feet of others (cough “one party”) trafficking in lies and bad faith. Yet…she’s sharing information that’s verifiably untrue to make an argument for why “they” (Republicans/the right) are the bad guys. Perhaps she’s truly well-intentioned and just woefully misinformed.* Perhaps. I don’t know her. I don’t know her heart. But if so, she’s doing, with this commentary, the very same disservice she so decries. And if not, she’s dressing up spin in reason’s clothing and attempting to convince viewers her framing is the only reasonable way to look at the situation. 

*An added note: I wrote the above paragraph at the outset of this exercise, just after watching the video for the first time. Even without what I'm about to add, I'm sure some would feel I was granting more benefit of the doubt than was warranted, and it's become evident that I was. I was asked by a reader, in response to Part 1, if McGowan has since corrected herself or acknowledged that some of her information was erroneous (now that we know quite a bit more about the alleged shooter), and I said I would check. I have checked, and the answer is not just "no," but a resounding "NO!" You see, McGowan has determined that the text message exchange between Tyler Robinson and his roommate/romantic partner included in the charging documents was fabricated by the FBI/DOJ. 

Now, it's true: I still don't know her heart, though I'm fairly confident I won't be changing it with this or anything else I may have to say. But McGowan isn't who this is for anyway. I'll selfishly confess this is for me, more than anything, as I do my best to work through something that weighs very heavily on my own heart — and ironically, it's the one thing on which I found myself most agreeing with McGowan: that we are being intentionally distracted and divided as a nation and as a society. 

So, I will end by thanking her for helping me to crystallize that realization and for inspiring my resolve to find a way to combat that. 

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