This showed up on my FB this morning and I though it was good enough to quote.
I think that part of this question derives from the public/private expressions of outrage. In the case of Charlie Kirk, the outrage is public because the killing was public. I'd never heard the names of the MN legislators killed before they died, while Charlie was in my social feeds constantly. Finally, I don't think that those on the left quite understand the effect that the outright glee at Charlie's killing has had. It is similar to the response to the UHC CEO killing, in the sense that it is being justified and celebrated much more than the killing of an innocent should be, especially by those who claim to value diversity, inclusion, respect, nonviolence, and peaceful coexistence. The silence when conservative SCOTUS justices were threatened and a softball practice attacked spoke loudly. The glee is turned up to 11.
FWIW, here it is.
"Something I'm seeing since the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk that I'd like to share my thoughts on....
A constant question being asked in my "interweb feeds".... "Where was the outrage for Melissa Hortman and her husband? Where was the outrage for children killed at school? Where was the outrage for (insert any other life lost in tragic, preventable scenerios)?"
The implication? That the grief people feel now is somehow unjustified because it isn’t equal to grief for others.
Here’s the truth: outrage is human, not mathematical.
We don’t measure grief on a scoreboard.
It’s shaped by MANY things, and in this case it's being shaped by proximity, connection, visibility, and what we witness.
I still think those are valid questions that are being asked, however - because EVERYONE'S questions in times like this are valid... So, if I could give an answer it would be simply in the form of a request to consider these things:
1) CONNECTION changes EMOTION.
We always grieve harder when we feel connected.
I didn’t mourn my grandfather when he passed (we weren’t close). But my grandmother’s passing still breaks me 15 years later.
Just as an example, most of America had never heard of the Hortmans until tragedy struck. But Charlie Kirk - love him or hate him - was in our feeds daily. That presence makes his loss feel more personal, even if you never met him.
It’s the same reason we mourn a close friend differently than a stranger. Both lives matter equally, but one hits our hearts differently. It’s absolutely NOT that one life is worth more, it’s just that our CONNECTION to people shapes our emotions.
2) We WITNESSED IT.
This wasn’t just news.
Millions literally saw it happen.
The violent death of a public figure, in front of his family, replayed everywhere. That kind of trauma doesn’t just land in your head, it lands in your body. That absolutely changes everything about how it effects us.
Imagine getting a CALL that your loved one has passed, and compare that to WATCHING it happen. You would undoubtedly have a different reaction, process things differently, experience a set of emotions more viscerally. Your grief still exists in both situations, but very likely amplified in the one that leaves an image in your brain for forever.
3) IT'S BEING CELEBRATED.
I don’t recall people celebrating the deaths of Melissa Hortman and her husband, or schoolchildren who were supposed to be in a safe space.
But there are millions of comments celebrating Charlie’s. That alone fuels a heightened response. Social feeds are flooded with mockery and cheers. That intensifies the outrage.
No one grieving Charlie is saying his life was worth more than anyone else’s. But millions online are saying...even celebrating...that his life was worth less.
People aren’t “hypocrites” for reacting differently. Different circumstances create different emotions. That doesn’t mean one life is more valuable. It just means we’re human.
The real sickness is in the voices that cheer death, that devalue life, that call evil “justice.”
Grief isn’t math. We feel it differently depending on connection, visibility, and how tragedy unfolds.
But what should unite us all is this: violence is never ok, and celebrating it is poison to our humanity.
Pray for our nation.
Pray for the victims and families of ALL of these crimes.
Pray that hearts are softened and humanity restored.
"

"
When a Conversation Gets You Killed, We’ve Lost the Plot
By Aaron “Buck” Burnett | Program Director | KKOB
Let me say this as plainly as I can: we are in real trouble.
On Wednesday, Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a Q&A session at a university campus in Utah. Let that sink in. A political commentator was murdered—not in a warzone, not during a riot—but while speaking into a microphone and answering questions from people who disagreed with him.
He wasn’t inciting violence. He wasn’t calling for blood. He was doing exactly what we say we want in this country: talking. Debating. Showing up in person to engage, face-to-face, with folks who don’t see the world the way he does.
And for that, someone killed him.
This isn’t about whether you liked Charlie Kirk. That’s irrelevant. Agree with him, disagree with him—hell, think he’s dead wrong on every issue. Fine. That’s your right. But when we get to the point where people are gunned down for the crime of having an opinion, we’ve crossed a line we may not come back from.
We’ve become a culture where disagreement is treated as violence and actual violence is justified as some kind of moral response. People walk around like they're righteous vigilantes because someone dared to challenge their worldview. We’ve allowed emotional fragility to masquerade as courage and confusion to parade as justice.
What happened to us?
This country was built on the idea that we can argue, protest, debate, and even offend each other without fearing for our lives. We have the First Amendment for a reason. You don’t get to kill someone because they said something you didn’t like. That’s not activism—that’s terrorism.
Take the people who cheer this kind of thing—and yes, there are some—and drop them in Syria, or Russia, or China. In those countries, they don’t even need a reason. You say the wrong thing about the government, you vanish. You criticize the wrong leader, you wind up in a prison cell or a body bag. Over there, people dream of having the freedoms we’re squandering here.
And yet, here we are—a nation so spoiled by liberty that some now see free speech as a threat, and silencing others by force as noble.
Charlie Kirk showed up. He brought his voice, not a weapon. He opened the floor to questions. He didn’t demand silence or compliance. He didn’t shout down the opposition. He leaned in, welcomed the challenge, and gave people a shot at changing his mind. He died doing what more of us should be doing—talking across the aisle instead of screaming across it.
What happened Wednesday isn’t just a tragedy. It’s a warning.
We’ve reached a place where many Americans now view their political opponents not as wrong, but as evil. Not as misinformed, but as dangerous. And once you convince yourself that the person across from you is dangerous—then anything becomes justified, including murder.
This isn’t how democracies survive. This is how they collapse. Not with a bang, but with a slow cultural rot. With censorship disguised as safety. With cowardice disguised as conviction. With bullets replacing ballots. If we don’t turn this ship around—and soon—we’re going to find ourselves in a country that no longer resembles anything close to the America we inherited. And worse, our kids won’t know the difference. They’ll grow up thinking this is normal—that if someone disagrees with you, you destroy them. Not in the comment section. Not on a ballot. But in real life. That should scare the hell out of all of us.
We need to re-learn how to live with disagreement. We need to stop idolizing outrage and start rebuilding mutual respect, even when—especially when—we don’t see eye to eye. Because without that? We’re not a country. We’re just a powder keg with a flag on it.
Charlie Kirk should still be alive today. Not because he was right about everything, but because this is still supposed to be a country where you don’t get executed for speaking your mind. If we’ve lost that…We’ve lost the whole damn thing."
8 comments:
An awesome post.
And we see Dan indulging this comparison crap at my blog right now (complete with lies and falsehoods...because that's what he does).
He has nothing else. I'm sure there is an army of straw men.
Consider what this person is saying and look at others' concerns through this lens...
"2) We WITNESSED IT...
3) IT'S BEING CELEBRATED..."
We are literally witnessing people being abducted in the streets, from courthouses, from schoolyards... innocent decent, hardworking neighbors being violently abducted by violent, armed, angry masked men, just tearing our fellow neighbors, mothers, preachers, workers, fathers, children, chaplains, etc... just abducted and disappeared. And not just one person, but hundreds... thousands. We ARE witnessing it and it's a horror.
And not only that, but thousands, millions?, of conservatives are laughing about it, rejoicing, celebrating! Never mind that they're not criminals and have done no real criminal activities, never mind that their abductions are people's lives in danger. And conservatives laugh and celebrate. They celebrate the criminal gulag of Alligator Alcatraz... they're taking photos and buying souvenirs, not unlike the racist white folk back in the days of lynching.
We are witnessing that, too, and on a great widespread.
I have sympathy and empathy for Kirk and his family. But public decency and compassion should go both ways.
Will you call for the end of these public and private abductions of non criminals?
Will you condemn the celebration of it by conservatives?
Or does your thirst for compassion extend only one direction?
As to the first point, not all of us need a personal connection to victims of harm to have great empathy.
As it should be.
The problem with this "blame the GOP/Trump" nonsense is that it ignores the silence of the ASPL in general and yourself in particular to actual repeat offender criminals being released to commit more serious crimes. I noted the kidnapping and rape of a child in MPLS, and you couldn't be bothered to condemn that, hell you couldn't be bothered to condemn the house of worship that advocated for the kidnapper/rapist or the judge who gave him a light sentence. You couldn't be bothered to condemn the judge who gave some who committed MULTIPLE rapes of children less time than a mother who used the fucking "N word". I've linked to the incidents, and referred to them multiple times. If you want specifics, you do the work.
Apprehension for suspicion of criminal acts, isn't abduction. No matter how much you want it to be. Unless you're prepared to include the @80 year old pro-life protester who was "abducted" for praying.
We just watched a completely innocent man get shot by a "trans" activist, we just watched an innocent young girl get brutally stabbed by a scumbag who should have been in prison. We regularly watch people get victimized by crimes committed by repeat, violent offenders. Yet you stay silent and advocate for criminals apprehended for their crimes.
Its not a fucking "horror", it's FAFO. A fucking horror is watching an innocent young woman bleed the fuck out on public transit, for no fucking reason. Then watching others near her do nothing, while idiots like you stay silent.
Bullshit. That you would even try to compare legitimate law enforcement activities (Remember the big deal in MPLS where some city council members tipped off and encouraged people to interfere with a fucking sex and drug trafficking arrest, only because ICE was involved? ) with the brutal killing of innocent people. The fact that you can't see a difference between people pleased that the US government is finally enforcing immigration laws, and ghouls literally cheering for the death of an innocent man, or ignoring the death of an innocent young woman, is why your vaunted "moral system" is fucked up.
You're right, decency and compassion SHOULD go both ways. Unfortunately, I don't have much sympathy and compassion for those who get arrested for violating the laws, and who receive the appropriate consequences of their actions.
No, I will not call for the end to the apprehension of "non criminals". It's a peculiarity of our legal system that law enforcement has the ability to arrest or detain SUSPECTED criminals until those suspicions are proven correct or not.
If you can show me one single example of these "alleged" celebrations that is equal to celebrating murder, I'll condemn any specific examples you can provide. Strangely enough, you haven't condemned those celebrating Kirk's assassination particularly strongly, if at all, but you expect us to jump and do what you demand. (FYI, I did write a post months ago condemning a specific instance of what appeared to be mistreatment of a detainee by ICE) So, I'm already ahead of you. Hell, I don't care of your condemn these vile left wing maggots, I'd just like you to stop making excuses for them and lying about Kirk.
No, it doesn't. It extends in multiple directions, however it does not extend in all directions equally. I have significantly less compassion for those who break laws, and those who allow/facilitate/encourage the breaking of laws, that I do for their victims.
I have and showed great empathy for the victims of the shooting of the legislators here in MN. Strangely enough as the left has desperately tried to draw an equivalence between that and Kirk's assignation, they've put more focus on Hortman's dead dog, than on the Hoffmans who survived. Also, strangely enough, you didn't see "conservatives" gleefully celebrating the Hortmans and Hoffmans, rather you saw condolences, thoughts, prayers, and respect.
Craig opined, with no support...
" it ignores the silence of the ASPL in general and yourself in particular to actual repeat offender criminals being released to commit more serious crimes."
1. And how often does this happen?
Do 1,000 serious violent crimes happen with repeat offenders in a given year? 10,00? 500?
2. Have ANY liberals suggested we should release violent criminals? Who?
3. Do you know how many violent abductions have happened by armed, unidentified masked men in the last year?
4. Are liberals responsible for these alleged releases?
5. What do you propose instead of people serving their time, then getting out? Life in prison for stealing a cookie? (I mean, I get how that fits your graceless theology, but we don't all share your graceless theories.)
Apparently you now think that "with no support" is some sort of magic bullet to make things you don't want to hear magically disappear.
By all means, show me the groundswell of criticism of the DFL policies that put more criminals back on the street. By all means show me the criticism of Mamdani's announcement that he's going to empty NY's jails.
Well, as the data I've repeatedly posted shows, repeat offenders commit around 75% of all crimes. Merely locking up that small percentage of criminals would reduce crime @75-80%.
To paraphrase what y'alll like to say, "One is too many". But seriously, how many is an acceptable number of people killed by violent offenders set free by leftist policies? What is the acceptable number of victims that'll get you to speak out?
Had you even bothered to mention the recent victims (I've posted plenty of "real journalism pieces) you'd have some credibility, yet you've chosen silence.
2. Are you a total idiot? Are you unaware of the "eliminate cash bail" push from the left? The DA's in DFL controlled urban areas funded by Soros? The stories I've posted about the rapist/kidnapper who get a light sentence? Mamdani?
3. No, and I suspect (because I checked) that you don't either. However, "unidentified masked men" is so incredibly specific as to be a pointless metric. FYI, if they were "unidentified" no one knows if they are repeat offenders or not. But nice try.
4. In the cases where the DA, judges and police are controlled by the DFL, and where they've eliminated cash bail/engaged in mass early release/downgrading felonies to misdemeanors/light sentences, absolutely.
5. Well, that's the first somewhat reasonable thing you've said so far. For starters, let's follow the data and permanently incarcerate the very small percentage of repeat felons who commit @75-80% of all crimes the next time they're convicted. Given that that one simple policy would drastically reduce crime, it seems like a no brainer (which is why it never occurred to you). Fire any police leadership which reduces crimes from felonies to misdemeanors in order to make their stats look like crime is down. Vote out the hyper partisan "Soros DA's" and elect DA's interested in appropriately charging criminals. Give someone who sexually assaulted two children more time than a frustrated mother who used a "bad word", and don't give a child rapist and kidnapper the lightest possible sentence. Given what the data tells us, it seems absurd that anyone would object to lowering crime by at least 75%. Strangely enough, some apparently do.
As for your idiotic "stealing cookies" bullshit, I'll ignore that particular straw man.
"We are literally witnessing people being abducted in the streets, from courthouses, from schoolyards... innocent decent, hardworking neighbors being violently abducted by violent, armed, angry masked men, just tearing our fellow neighbors, mothers, preachers, workers, fathers, children, chaplains, etc... just abducted and disappeared. And not just one person, but hundreds... thousands. We ARE witnessing it and it's a horror."
Bullshit. Rank, fake Christian bullshit. What you're witnessing is law enforcement dealing with the problems your "more fit for the presidency/far better man than Trump" asshole, Joe Biden inflicted upon the nation. You further lie by choosing to paint all those who broke our laws to be here as "our fellow neighbors" and other such intentional spinning of the reality of the situation. But "our fellow neighbors" who break the law must be held suitably accountable...proportionality, don't you know...for their crimes and woe unto the asshat progressive who dares portray our law enforcement as "violent, armed, angry masked men". What a vile liar you are, fake Christian!
"And not only that, but thousands, millions?, of conservatives are laughing about it, rejoicing, celebrating!"
Rejoicing and celebrating laws being enforced? Sure. "Laughing"? You're a liar.
Dan doesn't understand the difference between apprehended and abducted. Given the plethora of body cam videos available, and the consistent theme of resisting arrest, one wonders how many of these saints get arrested for resisting?
Heaven forbid that conservatives not react positively to conservative policies being implemented and laws being enforced. Stranger enough, the ASPL tends to react gleefully when laws are broken, as long as it's done by their pet demographic groups.
Post a Comment