When the George Floyd protests happened and some protestors decided to assault people or destroy property, did you consider that political violence? When the 2017 Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., resulted in Heather Heyer being fatally struck by a car, did you consider that political violence? When protesters in Los Angeles threw bricks and bottles at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, did you consider that political violence? When Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, did you consider that political violence? The answer to all of those is yes.
We have been living in an age of political violence for some time now, and politicians, pundits, social media companies, and influencers have been telling us that the violence has been one sided, and it’s not the side you agree with.
With the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we are seeing it yet again. Yes, it is obviously an act of political violence and should be condemned. But as many of us middle Americans saw, Republicans including the president blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s death while Democrats struggled to keep people from celebrating or justifying the murder. These people are now being doxed and losing their jobs, by the way. While politicians, pundits and influencers called for us to “bring the temperature down,” they themselves were setting the oven to 500 degrees.
Kirk’s death isn’t a start of a new era of political violence as some would like to say. We have been living in an age of political violence for some time now. And many pessimistic Americans feel that is just going to get worse. And who can blame them? Even though we take a lot of pride in being very individualistic, Americans still follow the leader when it comes to expressing ourselves.
We look at our phones, computers, televisions and tablets and are inundated with hateful messages from the people telling us not to hate.
Yes, this is a “both sides” issue. And before you start telling me that the other side has said the worst possible things, I would say I am sure you have a reason to feel that way. But your side hasn’t exactly been angelic.
As a liberal, I have seen over the last two decades just about every Republican politician be compared to Nazis. President George W. Bush was one because of the Iraq invasion, but then that insult also applied to John McCain, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Liz Cheney and many others who have opposed Donald Trump were themselves called fascists. And before you Republicans get on the high horse, just think of all the crazy claims you made about President Obama alone, much less any other Democrat.
We have turned the massacre of kids at Sandy Hook into a political conspiracy that went beyond gun control. We turned the death of Trayvon Martin into political theatre that went beyond race relations. We took a 30 second video of Nicholas Sandmann and used it to project all our feelings about MAGA voters on a kid who didn’t do anything wrong. Who led the charge? You know the answer.
We live in an age where being first, loudest and crassest means you will get the most attention, money and clout. Let’s take a look at Kirk himself in one particular instance. Before the Maui wildfires’ cause could be verified and the damage assessed, Kirk went on his show to proclaim that somehow the fires had to do with some native Hawaiians being “pagan.” Now, mind you he could have said that some Hawaiian officials mismanaged water resources, or there was a failure of government that needed to be investigated. But instead, he had to insult an indigenous religion and insinuate it was the reason for Maui burning. Why? Because it made him more money.
That is “raising the temperature” when you don’t have to. And this is just one out of thousands of instances where those with the microphones raise the temperature just to get views/money/clout.
Does this mean the man deserved a bullet to the neck? Of course not. But you also can’t pretend that the man simply wanted to have honest conversations with people. Kirk was a big star in a competitive world of social media influencers. There is a race to be the loudest and find things to be outraged over. Ben Shapiro was outraged by the movie “Barbie.” Liberals were outraged by a John Wayne Playboy interview in the 1970s and “Friends’” episodes from the ’90s.
People are even criticized for not being outrageous enough. As the investigation into Kirk’s alleged shooter continues, some MAGA folks and left wing influencers are claiming Tyler Robinson was a Groyper, an acolyte of Nick Fuentes. There are proclamations that Kirk was killed for being too mainstream. Is it true? Who knows? Will it get clicks? You bet.
If you really want to bring the temperature down and end this age of political violence, then politicians need to start coming to terms with their actions. The news media has to stop chasing outrage. And we as a country need to come to terms with what we allow to be dispersed to the population on social media. Are those easy things to do? No. Is it the solution? I think we can all agree that it is.
Again, let me criticize liberal politicians. We have taken a lot of glee in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s newfound social media personality. He just repeats what Donald Trump says and posts from another angle. So let me ask a question of liberals. Does that lower the temperature?
For all you conservative politicians. I get that Kirk’s death is devastating. Does it do you any good to blame “radical leftists” for a crime before we even knew who the suspect was? Do you really think all liberals would shoot the guy? Is that what you want to put out into this country?
Kirk’s death isn’t a warning to regular Americans. We know we have been living in an age of political violence for some time. It is a warning to those politicians, pundits and influencers who are chasing the high of views, likes, followers and clout. Americans have already been killing each other. How much more followers do you need before you realize you have been the ones raising the temperature?
Jos Joseph is a published writer and is a graduate of the Harvard Extension School and Ohio State University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.