Some Thoughts on Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk, the pro-gun, racist, transphobic Christian nationalist, died yesterday in a shocking act of violence. Other shocking acts of violence yesterday included 43 Palestinians killed with the approval of America, and a school shooting in my county of residence in Colorado. America is violent in many ways, but Charlie Kirk’s death is at the top of the headlines, as are the nation's reactions to the violence.
Everyone is rushing to choose which violence to justify and which to condemn.
Those in the centrist and moderate camps are condemning political violence in all its forms, or at least in all forms in which someone with more power is victimized by someone with less power.
The right has claimed him as a martyr, and there is a perverse truth to this: the ideology of the right, the one Kirk gave his life to, is an ideology of violence - injustice, bigotry, oppression, hate. And the right has already signaled its intent to use his martyrdom to perpetrate more violence on anyone, responsible or not for his death, who opposes that ideology.
And on the left, there is glee, sometimes bridled and sometimes not. Cartoons of Kirk, blood gushing from his neck. Screenshots of speeches in which he accepted as rational the tradeoff of gun deaths for the freedoms of the 2nd Amendment. Haughty recitations of Kirk’s last words on earth, which were transphobic and racist dogwhistles. "Fuck around and find out." "He had it coming." "Live by the sword, die by the sword."
For my part, I believe Charlie Kirk was a piece of shit (Media Matters lays out the case quite comprehensively) and that the world is better off without him in it. At the same time, I fear that the world is worse off for the way he left it. I want to condemn the man, condemn his cause, and condemn his death, all at the same time.
I find myself uncomfortable with saying this, because I sound like a centrist. But there is nothing centrist in fully condemning this violent man, the violent movement he led, and the violent end he met. It is all, from beginning to end, condemnable, because it is all violence.
And I believe all violence is bad. This is not nuance, this is not centrist, this is not both-sides-ing the issue. This is an attempt to see the complete picture, and it is tragic, and it is true. Live by the sword, die by the sword - it's not the life, or the death, that is wrong. It is the sword itself.
Perhaps there are times when one violent act is less condemnable than another. I can't claim to make that decision for everybody, or speak to all specifics. It could even be that the violence against Kirk is shown to be that - there's no suspect and no motive yet. Still, being faced with only wrong options doesn't make one of them right.
America is swimming in a current of violence, and regardless of which rocks it pulls us toward, the only way to safety is to try to swim to the shore. The current will only become more inexorable the further it carries us, until one day it pulls us to the sea, in which, regardless of what side we have chosen, we will all drown, our bodies falling together endlessly into the dark, cold depths.