So some nutter has killed Charlie Kirk, the well known right-winger. This is obviously bad (and I’m a left-winger), but the reaction to his killing is interesting to say the least …
“He’s Not Right-Wing”
And in come the denials as if “right-wing” is something to be ashamed of – now I think it’s something to be ashamed of, but his fellow right-wingers would presumably think it’s fine. But they’re denying it. So let’s have a look at the signs :-
- “Charlie Kirk addressed and acknowledged the Great Replacement.“. The “Great Replacement” is a white supremacist theory that there is some conspiracy to “replace” white folk. Charlie once claimed “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified,” – plainly racist. Normally racist is a sign of a right-winger at least amongst reasonable folk.
- Raging misogynist: “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.”. Again most reasonable folk classify hatred of women as right-wing.
- Kirk on vaccine mandates: “a form of medical apartheid.”. Now this is isn’t right-wing; it’s just nuts. And evil nuts at that.
- Most ironically: “I think it’s worth having a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,”.
And there’s more, far more.
Does this make him right-wing? Well yes, but more so – he was a toxic extremist holding views that effectively regarded “others” (women, black folk, homosexuals, etc) as sub-human with fewer rights than the classic rich white men.
Opposing such extremists is something folk should be celebrated for doing. But killing? No that’s just wrong.
The Left Killed Him
As we don’t currently know the motives of the killer, claiming that the left killed him is a bit premature.
One of the related strands is the strange notion that the left is violent whilst the right is peaceful. However a US government survey of political violence shows something very different :-
| Ideology | 1,563 | — | Percentage | |
| Islamist | 17.6 | |||
| Left-wing | 23.4 | |||
| Right-wing | 59 |
(source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9335287/ )
So the 59% of all political violence is right-wingers – exceeding both left-wing and islamists.
Surprised? No wonder – the right-wing is very good at lying.
They (the right) were very quick to start blaming the left even claiming Democrats were effectively urging the murder of Kirk. Well, for a start, the Democrats aren’t leftist – they’re far too right wing for this leftist.
And even if the left in general (and Democrats) criticise Kirk for some of his positions, that isn’t encouraging political violence.
But ultimately we don’t know what motivated the killing of Charlie Kirk. There’s just as many hints that he was right-wing as hints that he was left-wing. But let’s stop pointing fingers until we know.
Even if that’s less fun.
