So, the Charlie Kirk killer was caught. It's unclear what his motive is, my first impression was he was a leftist given the "catch this fascist" inscription on the bullet casing but given the others had random crap on them idk how meaningful that is. Even then I'm willing to entertain him being a radical leftist. Say the "paradox of intolerance" types since they're the type to do this. Yeah, leftist whack jobs exist. So do right wing ones. If anything right wing terrorism is more virulent in the us. Of course you'd never hear that coming from the trump administration, they're "very fine people" and his supporters.
But the trump administration is going on about the so called radical left. Here's the reality though. Most lefties I know do not support violence. And of the ones who are a bit insensitive regarding kirk's death, they are so because Kirk was insensitive toward fun violence in general and also made comments supporting violence against others.
In kirk's death the right is pushing muh civiliteh and trump is going on about violent rhetoric, but Kirk himself participated in his share of violent rhetoric. Here's a copypasta being shared around left wing forums listing some of the offenses of his. And yet because one nutcase shot the guy apparently were the radical ones.
The fact is, the right are the radical ones. I see right wingers saying stuff like "Kirk was the moderate position", but that's how far right the right has become. In the 2000s I was fairly radical and a reaganite and christian nationalist. Then I shifted left in the 2010s when the tea party came to be. I saw the tea party as right wing nut jobs and realized the right no longer represented my values. They advocated for positions I considered extreme and shifted right as a response. Since then the right has shifted to full on fascism with this "alt right" crap.
And now trump is saying we're radical because we don't recognize crime as a problem. As someone with a criminology degree as well as a political science one, trump can screw off on this one. The debate between security and liberty is ever present and fascists use the threat of crime and terrorism to push their authoritarian vision on us while claiming were radicals for wanting a free and permissive society. We had this debate during the bush administration and I went pro liberty back then. Now trump makes bush and his constitutional violations in the name of national security look moderate. It's not that trump is moderate and the left is extreme. It's that we seem extreme compared to their extremism.
Speaking of Overton windows, that's what this is about. The right pulls it right, and the left is dragged along. It's been like this since the 1970s with Nixon and the 1980s with Reagan. And I realized with the tea party is was time for the left to fight back. Not violently mind you, but politically. We need to get our heads out of you know what and FIGHT. Push a counter vision, argue and debate vigorously, and point out how nuts the modern right is.
And on all of this talk of division, I don't WANT unity with the right. Unity is living under their ideals and letting them win. I WANT contrast, I WANT something different. Keep in mind I often hate democrats for being too moderate and giving too much ground to these people. I don't want the left to just be a more moderate version of the right. I want it to stand in it's own values.
And yes, we must reject violence. But so must the right. And let's face it, they don't. When they do it they're "very fine people", when we do it were "radical leftist lunatics", were being blamed before the facts are even in on this guy and his motives. And while I admit that some radical leftists can be violent, that doesn't mean we all are, or even most of them. All this talk of cracking down on violent rhetoric is an attempt to express freedom of speech. I don't deny some lefties are making light of Kirk's death, but it's more in the whole "I'd never wish death on anyone but I will admit I've read some obituaries with great pleasure" style argumentation. The fact is, Kirk was a piece of crap. Lefties are merely pointing out he died true to the words that he stated when he lived, that some gun deaths are acceptable to preserve the second amendment. And again, people are pointing out he advocated for violence toward others. It's not that we are celebrating or that we advocate for the guy dying. We don't. Many of the people doing this are in favor of banning guns to prevent gun deaths, and point out how this guy says crap about acting violently toward us and we're supposed to be all solemn when the guy dies and not point out the extreme irony of the situation? Really?
But yeah. The point is, for the most part, we are not the extremists. We ARE the moderates. We are the adults in the room. We are the ones who care about civility and rule of law and institutional norms. The right are the real extremists. We just seem to have forgotten that because we are so timid we let the right define the narrative for the rest of us and we always here how extreme and bad we are because we stay silent while they say all of this unhinged crap about us. We don't wish for violence on the right...for the most part. Nuts exist but...they don't speak for the rest of us. On the right the nuts define the narrative, on the left we are so afraid of controversy we not only disavow our nuts but we bend over backwards moderating to prove how non offensive we really are. Don't let the right fool you. They're claiming we are radicals to crack down on us and limit our speech. Because THEY are the real radicals and the real nuts.
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