I'm sorry, but I fail to understand why this country didn't supposedly need "healing" after multiple school shootings and the only response from magas were "thoughts and prayers" and nothing else. Why didn't anyone say anything about how magas laugh and made jokes about the brain damage caused to Paul Pelosi by maga terrorists wielding a hammer? Why did we not have such an outcry about the recent Democrat politicians and their spouses that were killed or injured at their homes by maga terrorists posing as police? Why did magas just shrug when Gretchen Whitmer was targeted for kidnapping and unaliving while they planned to overthrow the legitimate government of Michigan? Did we have people crying and screaming and gnashing their teeth over all that? Where were those Medals of Freedom and other honorifics? Where was their martyrdom? Where are the medals of freedom for the children and teachers that take their lives into their hands every time they step into a classroom? Why does trump and magas not think the country needed healing from that as trump said we needed recently? Where was all the talk of medals and martyrs and honors for all these other people who were either just going to school or doing their jobs rather than purposely spreading lies and hate for a lying, hateful politician like trump? I'm disgusted by all those people who think he deserves more than any of these others.
Charlie Kirk’s death isn’t a glitch in the Matrix. It’s the Matrix. America runs on violence the way Dunkin runs on donuts. We ship it overseas with drones, serve it at home with AR-15s, then act shocked when it shows up at a college rally. The right turns corpses into martyrs. The left quotes Greek poets like they’re going to stop bullets. Newsflash: you don’t de-escalate fascists with Aeschylus. That’s like bringing slam poetry to a cage match.
Corbin wrote the best rejoinder to the ridiculous refrain repeated by most politicians today: "Political violence has no place in America." Corbin addresses everything that needs to be addressed. This post is a keeper.
Yes. After JFK was assassinated, somebody (Johnson, Dulles?) said we have to make sure the Warren Commission findings show that "we are not some third-world country". We *are* no better, just bigger.
My breath has been taken away by reading your words! You are, in my opinion, both truthful and honorable. I think about how our pathetic president is flying the White House flag at half-mast, though Charlie Kirk was not an elected official. And his flailing at the far left radicals is dead on delivery. I hope somebody braver than I am reminds him that he showed no grief or regret for the gun deaths of the MN congresswoman and her husband, murdered by a right wing nutcase. Instead, he insulted Gov. Tim Walz and said he was to blame. Another nutcase congressman, Mike Lee, said "Marxists deserve their Karma," or some such crazy nonsense. I agree we are where we are and must sharpen our defenses. No Greek aphorisms or poetry of loss. Wish I were younger and more able, but at this time I must use my pen as my sword and my words as my weapons.
In short, we are in a slow rolling civil war. I’m reminded of a comment made by I think a member of Parliament, 50 years ago, when in reference to the exploding chaos of Northern Ireland he said the UK would have to aim for “an acceptable level of violence.” It looks like we are slipping into the same situation, now. Not armies against each other, but individuals, which England learned can be neither controlled nor contained.
The Left lost our nation's multi-decadal cold civil war in Nov 2024. The Right's revolutionary government took power in January and it's been implementing it's far-right platform (Project 2025) since day one. What we're seeing in the streets of LA and DC are early skirmishes of a counter-revolutionary war that's brewing. Your Northern Ireland example is a good one we can learn from, but "The Troubles" didn't start with IRA bombings. It didn't even start with teenagers graffitiing anti-British slogans or throwing rocks at passing British Land Rovers. It grew into that and so much more after decades of British oppression and increasing violence (from both sides). Kirk's assignation is not the first, nor will it be the last. Everyone should prepare themselves for the oncoming war. It just might take time to fully unfold.
It started with Catholics just wanting the same rights as Protestants...which they basically got after 30 years of death, destruction and Protestant intransigence, thanks to a few assholes who used the conflict for their own personal power. Of course, England partitioning Ireland was just as bad. Politicians are idiots, and there are always lowlifes hanging around ready to grab power by making life hell for others.
They originally said they had the shooter in custody. Suddenly they didn't. I'm willing to bet the shooter was either a maga nutcase, as so many of them are, that didn't like something Kirk said about trump. The other option is that trump knew the power of martyrdom but wasn't willing to pay the price himself so, as mob bosses often do, he ordered a hit on Kirk and is now using his corpse to his benefit.
"It's worth it to have 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, That is a prudent deal."
Like so many Trump supporters Kirk seems to have believed in the white displacement conspiracy myth. Trump's entire political strategy is based on advancing this myth. It scares ignorant whites, and and makes people prone to violence.
Thank you for your letter and comment. I am a man who agrees with you but believes Jesus and Martin Luther King and Buddha about the only real change comes from non-violence.
Yes they use guns but that is not an us versus them, that it America like you said. Only when we stop supporting all violence of our country and recommit to our shared values of liberty and justice for all, including the rest of the world order.
Our nation has always been violent and we need to change who we are. If not we are doomed to fail and the Republican will fall. Let’s stand strong against violence or vengeance.
Something about the world today feels like we passed a point of no return. I don't know anymore if this is catastrophizing or not, but today it feels like this is just the undeniable exposing of all the dirty bits of our country we (liberals, let's be honest) thought were in the past or could be outshone by the power of our inclusion and positivity. We can't deny what is at the core, what's always been at the core, of America. And it's dark, and hateful, and violent towards anyone who isn't a white man. More and more, I don't want to be a part of that anymore. The America I claim as my own is not this America, but this one is the one that's real; the one that's clawing and scraping out of the shadows to encompass everything I love about my home. 😥
This would be a great time for all the people of America to march in the streets against the people in the White House who’ve not only don’t nothing to ameliorate our violent culture, but who have instead have chosen to inflame it. It would be an amazing opportunity to demand an end to gun violence and to regulate firearms appropriately. To point out that K-12 and college students deserve better. Young people deserve to go to class and live their lives without fear of a mass shooting. This is a time for action. And to point the finger at the leaders who let this happen with their affected tears and prayers.
I'm sorry, but I fail to understand why this country didn't supposedly need "healing" after multiple school shootings and the only response from magas were "thoughts and prayers" and nothing else. Why didn't anyone say anything about how magas laugh and made jokes about the brain damage caused to Paul Pelosi by maga terrorists wielding a hammer? Why did we not have such an outcry about the recent Democrat politicians and their spouses that were killed or injured at their homes by maga terrorists posing as police? Why did magas just shrug when Gretchen Whitmer was targeted for kidnapping and unaliving while they planned to overthrow the legitimate government of Michigan? Did we have people crying and screaming and gnashing their teeth over all that? Where were those Medals of Freedom and other honorifics? Where was their martyrdom? Where are the medals of freedom for the children and teachers that take their lives into their hands every time they step into a classroom? Why does trump and magas not think the country needed healing from that as trump said we needed recently? Where was all the talk of medals and martyrs and honors for all these other people who were either just going to school or doing their jobs rather than purposely spreading lies and hate for a lying, hateful politician like trump? I'm disgusted by all those people who think he deserves more than any of these others.
I don’t understand your question
Hard truth. This is a very violent country, dating back to the earliest English settlements. We have to face this reality and fight back effectively.
It was founded on violence. Until we accept that, we can’t change.
how do you "fight back" violence?
Absolutely. I had to sign off mainstream social media because I was getting so angry at the false narrative I was seeing and the calls to “war.”
These lying influencers, media personalities and the president are going to cause more harm.
It is so frustrating to have facts and have them not matter to the narrative these people have constructed.
It is so gross and I was about to lose my shit on people yesterday. I blocked so many bots/trolls.
Charlie Kirk’s death isn’t a glitch in the Matrix. It’s the Matrix. America runs on violence the way Dunkin runs on donuts. We ship it overseas with drones, serve it at home with AR-15s, then act shocked when it shows up at a college rally. The right turns corpses into martyrs. The left quotes Greek poets like they’re going to stop bullets. Newsflash: you don’t de-escalate fascists with Aeschylus. That’s like bringing slam poetry to a cage match.
Corbin wrote the best rejoinder to the ridiculous refrain repeated by most politicians today: "Political violence has no place in America." Corbin addresses everything that needs to be addressed. This post is a keeper.
Yes. After JFK was assassinated, somebody (Johnson, Dulles?) said we have to make sure the Warren Commission findings show that "we are not some third-world country". We *are* no better, just bigger.
My breath has been taken away by reading your words! You are, in my opinion, both truthful and honorable. I think about how our pathetic president is flying the White House flag at half-mast, though Charlie Kirk was not an elected official. And his flailing at the far left radicals is dead on delivery. I hope somebody braver than I am reminds him that he showed no grief or regret for the gun deaths of the MN congresswoman and her husband, murdered by a right wing nutcase. Instead, he insulted Gov. Tim Walz and said he was to blame. Another nutcase congressman, Mike Lee, said "Marxists deserve their Karma," or some such crazy nonsense. I agree we are where we are and must sharpen our defenses. No Greek aphorisms or poetry of loss. Wish I were younger and more able, but at this time I must use my pen as my sword and my words as my weapons.
In short, we are in a slow rolling civil war. I’m reminded of a comment made by I think a member of Parliament, 50 years ago, when in reference to the exploding chaos of Northern Ireland he said the UK would have to aim for “an acceptable level of violence.” It looks like we are slipping into the same situation, now. Not armies against each other, but individuals, which England learned can be neither controlled nor contained.
The Left lost our nation's multi-decadal cold civil war in Nov 2024. The Right's revolutionary government took power in January and it's been implementing it's far-right platform (Project 2025) since day one. What we're seeing in the streets of LA and DC are early skirmishes of a counter-revolutionary war that's brewing. Your Northern Ireland example is a good one we can learn from, but "The Troubles" didn't start with IRA bombings. It didn't even start with teenagers graffitiing anti-British slogans or throwing rocks at passing British Land Rovers. It grew into that and so much more after decades of British oppression and increasing violence (from both sides). Kirk's assignation is not the first, nor will it be the last. Everyone should prepare themselves for the oncoming war. It just might take time to fully unfold.
It started with Catholics just wanting the same rights as Protestants...which they basically got after 30 years of death, destruction and Protestant intransigence, thanks to a few assholes who used the conflict for their own personal power. Of course, England partitioning Ireland was just as bad. Politicians are idiots, and there are always lowlifes hanging around ready to grab power by making life hell for others.
100% on all counts!
Northern Ireland is a good reference. I hadn’t thought much about it after visiting last year until this comment. You are right, it is similar.
They originally said they had the shooter in custody. Suddenly they didn't. I'm willing to bet the shooter was either a maga nutcase, as so many of them are, that didn't like something Kirk said about trump. The other option is that trump knew the power of martyrdom but wasn't willing to pay the price himself so, as mob bosses often do, he ordered a hit on Kirk and is now using his corpse to his benefit.
I agree with this piece.
"It's worth it to have 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, That is a prudent deal."
Charlie Kirk - April 5th 2023
"Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind"... Hosea 8:7
Like so many Trump supporters Kirk seems to have believed in the white displacement conspiracy myth. Trump's entire political strategy is based on advancing this myth. It scares ignorant whites, and and makes people prone to violence.
Mr. Trent,
Thank you for your letter and comment. I am a man who agrees with you but believes Jesus and Martin Luther King and Buddha about the only real change comes from non-violence.
Yes they use guns but that is not an us versus them, that it America like you said. Only when we stop supporting all violence of our country and recommit to our shared values of liberty and justice for all, including the rest of the world order.
Our nation has always been violent and we need to change who we are. If not we are doomed to fail and the Republican will fall. Let’s stand strong against violence or vengeance.
Keith Denning
Something about the world today feels like we passed a point of no return. I don't know anymore if this is catastrophizing or not, but today it feels like this is just the undeniable exposing of all the dirty bits of our country we (liberals, let's be honest) thought were in the past or could be outshone by the power of our inclusion and positivity. We can't deny what is at the core, what's always been at the core, of America. And it's dark, and hateful, and violent towards anyone who isn't a white man. More and more, I don't want to be a part of that anymore. The America I claim as my own is not this America, but this one is the one that's real; the one that's clawing and scraping out of the shadows to encompass everything I love about my home. 😥
So smart. A great line: "When violence happens to them, they make martyrs. When they commit it, they call it patriotism."
So what to do? I have a suggestion for a methodology for the collapse crowd that I put out this week:
Problem dire. Letting humanity know.
Working up an internet new way
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/problem-dire-letting-humanity-know
This would be a great time for all the people of America to march in the streets against the people in the White House who’ve not only don’t nothing to ameliorate our violent culture, but who have instead have chosen to inflame it. It would be an amazing opportunity to demand an end to gun violence and to regulate firearms appropriately. To point out that K-12 and college students deserve better. Young people deserve to go to class and live their lives without fear of a mass shooting. This is a time for action. And to point the finger at the leaders who let this happen with their affected tears and prayers.
So powerful! Thank you.
Great piece.