A friend has posted the following at Facebook: “Irrespective of how much you dislike someone, gloating over their death is a sign of low-IQ scumbaggery.” He’s talking about the outpouring of glee among some liberal quarters over Charlie Kirk’s murder two days ago. This friend is a die-hard liberal, mind you. And what he’s saying is correct (though I think the form of his criticism, with its harsh name-calling, is not helpful).
The current indulgence, among some people, in selectively condoning or even praising violence based on their political identification reminds me of the same trend two decades ago, back during the George W. Bush era. It was less developed in America then, but at the time, when I was operating under a former (now deleted) Facebook account, I noted with dismay—and I publicly criticized—some of the rhetoric that some self-identified progressive liberals were freely using to invoke violent images and ideas in their tirades against W. I mean things like referring to the French Revolution and guillotines when proclaiming their profound antipathy for Bush and all that he and his administration represented. I got pounced on by a few friends for supposedly not understanding the situation, for minimizing how awful Bush and Republicans were, for downplaying the apocalyptic gravity of the crisis they represented, etc., etc. People tried to tell me that violent language was fully justified by the circumstances.
My response back then was the same as my friend’s response to Kirk’s murder now: Literally and absolutely nothing justifies gloating, joking about, or advocating—whether sarcastically or seriously—political violence. This kind of talk can have nothing but ill effects, whether it’s liberals spouting it toward Trump and Charlie Kirk or conservatives spouting it toward Obama, Biden, and Kamala. And yes, of course, I’m well aware that people on the right end of the political spectrum are quite guilty of it, too.
Such language represents playing with fire. And the fact that the people who indulge in it try to justify it, both morally and on utilitarian grounds (“Somebody has to call out the evil people! Somebody has to stop them!”), and that such an attitude has taken root pretty broadly in some quarters, shows just how far down the rabbit hole of a polluted and corrupted social-political environment and accompanying warped media ecosystem we’ve fallen.
At this point it’s up to each of us, individually, to wake up, examine our conscience, and make responsible choices. Maybe questioning the validity of our own viewpoint and the effect of our inner state on the world we perceive, especially if that viewpoint and state are marked by self-righteousness and an attitude that demonizes and dehumanizes other people, would make a good start.