Charlie Kirk and PASWO posting
A three year old girl and a one year old boy have had their father stolen from them by an assassin's bullet. That is what matters here.
When Charlie Kirk was murdered one week ago today, my reaction was shock, followed my sadness. I could not be bothered to care about the political implications of it because all I could think of were the personal implications. A three year old girl and a one year old boy have had their father stolen from them by an assassin's bullet. The older child may have vague memories of her dad, but the younger one will have no memories at all. When you strip way all of the political ramifications of the murder, the crime against these children is the worst thing about it. They did not deserve to lose their father.
It also struck me how young Kirk was. Charlie Kirk will be 32 years old next month. He was born 14 days before I turned 20 years old. I could have a son that age.
Much has been said about rhetoric. One thing we need to oppose is the hoax that someone sharing opinions is a threat to the "safety" of others. Someone's speech, no matter how "offensive" you think that speech may be, is not a threat to your "safety." Every human being, and the entire animal kingdom, understands that we have a natural right to defend ourselves in response to legitimate threats to our safety. By spreading this hoax, the liars are encouraging both mob violence and political assassinations. No, they are not directly responsible for terrorism and murder, but when you tell mentally disturbed people that opinions are a threat to their "safety," some of them are going to take you literally.
When a couple friends took over running a political blog nearly 25 years ago, they thought about a common theme at the time in the blogosphere: "Point at something with outrage." They said they wanted to avoid being a PASWO blog. Much of social media today, and especially in the aftermath of horrific events like the murder of a man who was politically controversial, is all about PASWO. For a couple days after the murder, I could not be bothered with PASWO regarding the people posting on social media celebrating the murder. All I could think about was those two small children and the crime committed against them.
There are always going to be degenerate perverts on both sides of the political spectrum. I do not believe that the vast majority of liberals or Democrats are celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I believe most of them are appalled by his murder. We should indiscriminately condemn half of the country as supporting the vicious murder of the father of two young children because a few degenerate perverts and feces-posting trolls are going out of their way to offend people. Yes, this is sick and depraved, but let's not overreact and pretend we are at "war." We are not.
Now is not the time for anger, bitterness and "revenge." Now is the time to calm down and deal with things rationally. We should mourn Kirk, and his mission should continue. Speak the truth, make arguments, pass legislation and work to win elections. We can do all of that without hatred for half the country. Remember, Charlie Kirk died while he was having a dialogue with people who disagreed with him. Do not give that up.