Charlie Kirk is going to become a martyr.
It can always, always get worse.
It’s 9/11. For once, a different kind of political violence than what happened in New York City 24 years ago is top of mind. To be more accurate, I guess we don’t actually know whether conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder was politically motivated or not; the shooter is still unknown and at large. They have video footage of the suspect, who appears to be a man of college age, and they also have his gun, but not much else. That we have very little information on who did it hasn’t stopped the right from determining who is to blame: Democrats.
Of course, in the mind of a Republican everything is always the fault of the Democrats. But there is not even a shred of evidence that the killer was left of center, and yet everyone has decided to concede to this insane narrative anyway. Conservatives are baying for blood. “They are at war with us,” Jesse Watters proclaimed on his broadcast. “The Left is the party of murder,” Elon Musk tweeted. The gall of right-wingers, who celebrate the deaths of those killed by police and cheer on deportations and bombs in Gaza, to suggest that the left is making this country a more violent place.
To spend any amount of time marveling at their hypocrisy is a total waste. Of course everything they do is hypocritical. They are not ashamed of lying and they’ll do it again no matter how many times they’re called out on it. They lie every time they open their mouth, but it doesn’t matter because pointing that out doesn’t do anything and it matters to basically no one. People expect everyone in politics to be a scammer; what matters is if the scammer is on your side.
It is really strange to me that the response to this murder has been so effusive, and I’m not sure why more people aren’t calling it out. Charlie Kirk was not some universally beloved household name or anything. He wasn’t an elected official or a celebrity. He had a podcast and founded a political organization—in algorithmically siloed America, neither lends well to nationwide fame. Trump flying the flag half-mast yesterday seemed more suited for a much more famous American icon than the likes of Charlie Kirk.
Pete Hegseth also released a video of himself making a speech to service members in uniform honoring Charlie Kirk “and those who serve”. I don’t need to remind you all that Kirk was not ever in the military. This was literally just some guy! A right-wing influencer who did well on social media, sure. I am willing to believe that he was an outsized figure on college campuses. But most Americans are not in college right now, and campus politics loom large in the minds of center-right columnists and basically no one else. Could you imagine a Democratic administration doing this for Rachel Maddow? At least the American people know who Rachel Maddow is. The Yankees hold a moment of silence for Kirk during last night’s game. I wonder how many people in the crowd had ever even heard of him before yesterday.
Trump used the attempted assault on former DOGE staffer Edward Coristine (more frequently known as “Big Balls”, a nickname I did not enjoy typing out) as a pretense to stage a federal military takeover of Washington D.C. I am worried about what this assassination will provide them cover to do. Last night around 9pm ET, Trump released a video addressed to the country, expressing his condolences to the family and doubling down on the narrative that the “radical left” made this happen. They are “directly responsible”, he said.
What’s troubling about this was his stated commitment to using the powers of the federal government to find not just the killer, but anyone he perceives to be involved in political violence, including “the organizations that fund and support it” and “those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country”. What does this mean, and how far will they take it? Is every person who participated in a Black Lives Matter rally in 2020 in danger?
People are struggling, and they know this is not sustainable. We are a country at the breaking point. No one can afford anything, no one can get a job, people die nearly every day from gun violence and the people who are in charge fan the flames of incendiary political rhetoric every day. Instead of answers, the right gives America scapegoats; it’s the immigrants taking your jobs, the feminists preventing you from getting a girlfriend, the criminals making big cities “unlivable”. This is probably a nightmare for right-wingers who sincerely believe the externalities of their destructive politics can always be pushed onto people who are not like them. Charlie Kirk was someone who represented quite accurately so much of the decay of this country. Now they know they’re not immune to their own fascist politics.
Not that our politics were much better before. We are still conducting a genocide abroad with our tax dollars, and people of conscience who oppose the killing of tens of thousands of children are still being arrested, detained, surveilled. I still believe, though, that things can get worse. The fact that I can post something critical of the president online for the public to see and not worry about whether I’m going to get a visit from the feds is evidence of this. Never underestimate how much worse it can possibly get. Unfortunately for all of us, I think that might only be obvious in hindsight.
Danya Issawi’s piece on the relics Palestinian women have taken from Gaza made me cry. It will probably make you cry too. (Illustrations by Rama Duwaji, Zohran’s wife!)
For a short amount of time yesterday, Larry Ellison was the richest man in the world. Never underestimate the power of B2B SaaS to change the world.
According to a poll conducted by Cosmopolitan, Gen Z is not actually scared of on-screen sex scenes. I have always found the internet’s enthusiasm for dissecting the sex lives of zoomers to be really strange, since they are relatively young and still figuring themselves out, and will probably change their minds many times as most people do. It would be great if the discourse around this would end soon.
Roblox is a scary place. The scariest part: the kids can’t even recognize an ad when they see one. "Well, you know, we’ve seen Chanel bags in the Roblox shop, but I don’t think that’s Chanel advertising.” Open the schools!!!!
Billionaire Steve Cohen thinks he’s the king of Queens. A rare redeeming moment for Jessica Ramos, who is the only major elected official representing the area that is still against Cohen’s proposed casino.
I was not familiar with the “cortisol belly” TikTok trend but I don’t like it. I feel like every day I find out about a new way people on the internet pathologize their weight. At least in the 90s when heroin chic was a thing people didn’t act like their concerns were in any way medical.
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