I am deeply shaken by the murder of Charlie Kirk today at Utah Valley College where he was speaking at an event. Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, established to defend conservative voices on college campuses, was one of the brightest conservative spokesmen in the country. His events usually featured him opening himself up to questions from students, especially his critics, about a wide range of issues. He was someone I greatly admired.
The shooter is not yet in custody, and at this point, we don't know the identity or the particular issue that drove this act. When more becomes known, I will have much more to say about this tragic event.
How many times have we witnessed conservative or pro-Israel speakers speaking on college campuses and being subjected to loud protests, disruptions, and even violent and destructive behavior by students and others on the far left? For years, we have been warning our universities that a tragedy was going to happen on one of our campuses if they didn't get their act together and protect all who were on campus.
Now this.
9 comments:
While it's possible that the shooter was on the left, it's not so safe to assume that.
After all, the two would-be assassins for Trump were Republicans.
It's just as possible that this was one of the many disaffected MAGA who feel betrayed over the handling of the Epstein situation (as Kirk has become an apologist for the Trump administration's handling of it).
Time will tell.
Until the shooter is unidentified and we know the motive, I assume nothing. I only wrote what I feel confident in saying in the meantime. That said, if I were you, I wouldn't lay down any bets on your hypothesis.
I'll only bet one thing:
Right wing pundits and media will blame liberals and the left no matter what.
That's already happening, but consider the remarks of MSNBC's (now former) political analyst, Matthew Dowd. Consider some of the comments coming from the far left celebrating this murder. If the victim had been someone from the far left, say, Ward Churchill, I would condemn it.
Anyway, we will know soon who did this and what the person's motivation was.
I agree with your first point, but not on your second point. Being involved in campus controversies myself and seeing first-hand the ugliness that goes on on our campuses, Kirk was someone I greatly admired. You underestimated him. He was extremely intelligent, articulate, and courageous to go on all these campuses and take the abuse. He routinely defeated his questioners over and over and won a great following among younger people. You may have ignored him but he had a great future ahead of him. He had talents you could only have imagined.
This was not just a murder. This was an assassination. It is what we have been warning our universities about for years. Now it has come to fruition.
I'd say that you overestimate him. A man in his 30s debating college kids? Come on. Debates are performance art, and he was good at that. However, I once saw a flat-earther who I thought won a debate against a globe-earther, but I still don't think that the Earth is flat. I do know, however, that he refused to debate Dean Withers, who kept trying to get Kirk to agree to a debate. (And for the record, Withers showed nothing but sadness for what happened to Kirk.) In other words, debates aren't a way to ascertain truth. They're just a way to prove how convincing one can sound. Kirk basically does what I see mostly coming from right-wing pundits - a lot of confidence and little knowledge.
I agree that it was an assassination. Have you seen the photo of the suspect? White man with an American flag on his shirt. Looks like he could be one of Kirk's fans. Of course, that could have been a way of blending in.
But, a guy wearing tactical gear with a high-powered rifle and is trained to use it? This isn't screaming stereotypical liberal so far. We'll see though.
Nothing to stop professors from stepping up to the mic and challenging him. You have a point that a good debater has an advantage over an inexperienced debater. But in my view, Kirk had the truth on his side almost all of the time.
And you do underestimate him. He was a very influential voice for conservatives and was a factor in the last election. He influenced a lot of young voters, particularly those who were sick and tired of the nonsense dominating campuses. He had the courage to go into the belly of the beast and challenge them. My years speaking out at UC Irvine, while nothing compared to Kirk, showed me first-hand what it is like to be a conservative or a supporter of Israel on campuses. There is something terribly wrong in academia these days, and I greatly admired him for what he did. He will be missed and he will be remembered.
Anonymous, I am not going to post your cut and paste from a professor trashing Charlie Kirk. You will have to find another platform in which to post it.
First of all, I had never previously heard of this professor, nor was I aware of the so-called watch list. If the professor was receiving hate mail, that is regrettable, but there is a difference between publicizing the names of professors you feel are abusing their positions and encouraging violence or threats against them. If criticism automatically means some readers are going to act inappropriately, then I guess we might as well outlaw any public criticism of anybody.
For example, my blog has lots of articles over the years criticizing certain individual professors. I have never advocated violence against them or encouraged anyone to harass them.
I disagree completely with the statements made by this professor about Kirk, referring to him as a "smug white man" not deserving of our sorrow, and I will not help disseminate them. Kirk was not a hateful person, nor did he advocate violence. It was a person who disagreed with his political beliefs who resorted to violence. I refuse to blame the victim.
You and the professor in question have the freedom to say what you want about Kirk, but you have made your point, and I don't wish to continue this discussion any further.
If that's censorship, go ahead and call it that. I really don't care at this point.
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