I’m troubled by the narrative that is forming around the murder of Charlie Kirk, and what it says about the country.  (Just to be clear, I condemn his murder.  This violence is never justified.  Terrible thing.)   The right is absolutely losing their shit, baying for blood.  Calling for civil war.  Some tankies and other disruptors are celebrating his death in ugly ways, with memes and spite.  (This also I condemn.)

The press and social media are already dubbing Kirk a “hero” and a “martyr” – although the shooter remains at large and the motive unknown.  Calling this a “political assassination.”  None of this is true or factual. Just assumptions, goosing the narrative of “America on the brink” and FOTUS needing to impose martial law. 

Contrast this with the recent terror attacks on Minnesota state legislators in June.  State Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were gunned down in their home. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were similarly attacked but survived.  Their young daughter witnessed the attack.  They both were Democrats.  Their attacker had a “hit list” of 50 Democratic and left-leaning names.

No one named them heroes or martyrs.  No one threatened violent retribution in their names.  It fell out of the news in 48 hours.  Sitting legislators.  Assassinated.  FOTUS never said a word. He lowered the flags for Kirk.  Refused to for the Hortmans. 

Charlie Kirk was an uneducated loudmouth provocateur.  Melissa Hortman was a Speaker of the Minnesota House, a senior Democratic leader.  Why is Charlie Kirk’s death a tragedy, but the Minnesota legislator’s, not? 

Because it fits the narrative.  

The hagiography is disgusting.  Charlie Kirk was a “champion of free speech.”  No. Turning Point USA doxxed people regularly.   That is not championing free speech; it’s the opposite. 

Charlie Kirk died as he lived, fomenting extremism.  The last word out of his mouth was “violence.”

I don’t like what this says about the country, about we as a people.  Numb to the assassination of a sitting legislator, enraged (or titillated) by the death of a social media influencer.  The American people are addicted to spectacle, to scandal, and it is making us increasingly blind to the grim reality that surrounds us. 

The shockingly violent death and the gory video fit the Internet and media’s appetite (our appetite) for bloodshed and drama, further stoking the “culture war.”  It fits the media’s “outrage cycle” perfectly.  The sky is falling for a couple days, and then we move on to the next spectacle.   A man who stirred constant trouble and unrest is lionized, and serving legislators go unmourned.  Our values are degraded.  

These massaged narratives are making us numb to the real institutional decay all around us, the corruption and state violence.  Our energies are expended on meaningless “breaking news” while our rights and way of life are being eroded. Media elevates those who create conflict and scandal while ignoring people who actually do the work of making this country run.  

It’s manipulative, keeping people oscillating between outrage and overwhelm.  Authoritarians do that deliberately; inculcate a sense of learned helplessness in their subjects so they lose the will to fight back.  It’s all part of the messaging.  And it has warped our priorities.  A podcaster’s death is casus belli, while an assassinated legislator barely makes the news.  Blood and screaming elevated over the real-time erosion of our democracy.  We don’t have our eye on the ball. 

The real danger isn’t any single shooting or any one death. It’s the erosion of civil liberties, of the very idea of civil society itself. You cannot have a republic if anyone can be gunned down anywhere at any time, while the rule of law becomes a joke. That’s what Charlie Kirk advocated, what FOTUS threatens, and what creeps forward every day. Addiction to scandal blinds us to the slow-motion coup all around us. 

America doesn’t need any more martyrs.  We need clarity, vision, and the strength to look at the terrible reality behind the veil of spectacle.