Glen Biegel: Charlie Kirk Assassinated – A Review of How Things Have Gone Wrong with Debate in America

By GLEN BIEGEL

How does society train young men to be safe?  How do young men channel their energies to do good and avoid violence?  The answer is oddly found in the formerly agreed-upon rules of decorum, which value societal humility, and is easily seen throughout the assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

Comment from the Daily Wire: My daughter was at a restaurant when the news about Charlie came on the tv screens. She was absolutely appalled when the two female bartenders clapped in response. Yes, there are monsters in this world and those two are examples. 

Comment from my Facebook post: Also RIP to Minnesota House representative who were gunned down in their home 12 weeks ago. 

Reporting from Newsmax: Ammunition found in the rifle believed to have been used in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was reportedly engraved with slogans linked to transgender and antifascist ideology. 

Reporting form Powerline Blog contributing attorney: Rutgers found that only 45% of those who described themselves as liberal (including those who said they were “slightly liberal”) think that assassinating President Trump would be “not at all justified.” A majority saw some justification, and an appalling 13% said that killing Trump would be “completely justified.” No wonder that two people, so far, have tried to do it. 

It is not surprising that violence results as a significant fraction of our nation becomes unmoored from rules of decorum and trained for a generation to dehumanize their opponents.  The reality is that our public discourse is now so coarse that dehumanizing your opponent is often the very first response regarding anyone who disagrees with a person on the left.  The movements we elevate in schools include any number of false and dangerous us-vs-them propositions: Transgenderism, Anti-Racism, Anti-Fascism, Gender ideology, Anti-Colonialism, religious hostility, and economic Marxism.  In each case, the leftist mantra is the same: 

Those with whom we disagree treat others inhumanely.  Historical, religious, and societal norms need to be abandoned, and opposing speech demonized. There is no possibility that we are misinformed.  We are justified. Those whom we stand against will not stop or reform—no safe spaces. Therefore, we can treat those with whom we disagree as less than humans.  Rules are made to be broken, violently when necessary. 

The comments and excerpts from Powerline Blog, Newsmax, and Daily Wire above are easy to understand.  They are outcomes of a young man radicalized, justified, trained and set loose on society.  I want to highlight this comment on my Facebook post, where I remembered Charlie Kirk. 

Also RIP to Minnesota House representative who were gunned down in their home 12 weeks ago. 

The essence of this is a simple and powerful explanation of the first three principles above. 

The poster confuses whether a political assassination by an adherent to a violent ideology, sadly held by millions of Americans, is equivalent to a madman who had a personal disagreement with people and a gun.  The societal norm here is that we expect human beings to be able to understand when things are similar or equivalent.  This fracture of being able to judge when something is similar shows the initial miseducation of the person who posted.  If a person can’t understand how Charlie Kirk’s assassination is different, then they can justify any conclusion on any subject.  They are primed to be radicalized.  After all, if you disagree that a 12-year-old can have their breasts removed against their parents’ wishes, you are deleting that person’s essence.  You are denying their very existence, right? 

Not only is the person equating the disgustingly celebrated assassination of Charlie Kirk to the tragic killing of the Minnesota Representative logically flawed, but it also shows that there is no question of equivalency in the person’s mind.  You know that this person had made that duplicitous remark hundreds of times.  The poster was not confused about the violence of right and left; they were justified in invading our stunned reaction to a political assassination of a man beloved by tens of millions and resulting from a widespread, often violent, movement, not a lone madman who was universally condemned. 

In the face of a grieving person, there are rules about attacking them, distracting them, and disrespecting their grief.  This is a normal human sensitivity.  Decent human beings understand that in their souls.  At least we used to.  No, the commenter on my Facebook is an adherent to the ‘no safe spaces’ movement.     

The tragic results from removing the rules of decorum are what the excerpts above demonstrate so clearly.  

A final caution to those who feel overwhelmed by the forces that created these increasingly violent movements.  Underlying all these is Satan, and he wishes for nothing more than for conservatives to lose sight of the humanity of our leftist brethren, as so many of them have lost sight of ours.  While we dismantle the movements that created the fertile field resulting in this horrific outcome, we should not fall into the very error that has overcome a significant fraction of our opponents, lest the devil win twice. 

Glen Biegel is a technology security professional, Catholic father of nine, husband to a saint, and politically active conservative.