Defending American Free Speech from Authoritarian Britain
Charlie Kirk was brutally murdered the other week, and whilst sensible adults have unanimously condemned that, some people out of their goddamn minds have taken it upon themselves to try to turn him into some kind of religious martyr. It is horrific and dehumanising that we can’t collectively use such a tragedy to encourage unity and peace, in particular for the psychological wellbeing of the family of Charlie, and use his death as a unifying moment for deeply fractured American political life which would be a great service to the nation Charlie loved.
Unfortunately, alongside awful gloating over Charlie’s death, many MAGA zealots have seen this as an opportunity to try to incite further violence and a Civil War, adding fuel to the fire.
One of the weirdest parts of this has been MAGA zealots policing of the attempted martyrization of Charlie. For many of these zealots, anyone not grieving hard enough and expressing anything other than completely unrealistic and comedic levels of performative, virtue signalling grief—preferably in some kind of dystopian aesthetic resembling a Command and Conquer cutscene—is seen as a necessity of Cult membership. When you’re acting in a way that even Kim Jong Un would consider too far it’s time to touch grass!
In remembering Kirk, and respecting his legacy, it is important to remember that one of the values Charlie Kirk (ٱلسَّلَام»)1 stood for was freedom of speech. This means the right to say certain things even if a particular political party disagrees with them. This is essential to a functioning democracy. As we all know, defending freedom of speech often means deeply disagreeing with those you are debating, but defending their rights to say those things even if you deeply dislike them.
Contrary to the teachings of Charlie ( ٱلسَّلَام» ), MAGA extremists are opportunistically capitalizing on his tragic death to promote an authoritarian and anti-american vision of politics in which there is such a climate of fear that it is impossible for those who disagree to safely espouse their views. I say that this is an absolute disagrace to Charlie’s memory and everything he stood for. And I am also saying this for American’s, because here in the UK I can, as contrary to Vance’s proclamations, we actually still have Free Speech over here!
I am essentially only saying this to troll the U.S. However, as insensitive as that may be, I think it is important — similar to Charlie Hebdo mocking Mohammed by drawing him in order to laugh down tyranny; indeed Je Suis Charlie ( ٱلسَّلَام» ). Free Speech is no joke, and we should not enable or cede ground to those who seek to take it away. History teaches that when rights like Freedom of Speech are taken away, they do not come back easily.
I want to point out that in the not so recent past, even at the funerals of soldiers, when grief was most recent and it would seem most inappropriate, Americans believed that protestors calling them “fags” and saying that God killed them because of that was protected speech. — keep that in mind if you’re trying to tone police Charlie’s death. So, insensitive? Yes. Immature? Yes. Nevertheless first-amendment protected? Absolutely!
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.2
I am not recommending that people actually call Charlie a Nazi. I think there is space for an adult conversation about what Charlie’s views were and about how harmful they were. However, I am calling for all sides to come to the adult table to have that conversation, again as Charlie (according to his martyrdom canonization) was seeking to model. In my opinion, it is only by coming back to the adult table that we can all avoid the continued escalation of political violence that has led to Kirk’s shooter, Tyler Robinson, becoming mentally disturbed (whether they turn out to hold left wing views, be a groyper or anything else).
When I see the way that some people have lost their minds and are trying to get people fired, even encouraging the use of state force to intimidate those who have been critical or have expressed relief that Kirk will no longer be spreading his views this seems to be nothing more than the suppression of criticisms of Charlie’s (ٱلسَّلَام») views (which is being taken as mocking), which trollishly makes the American Patriot in me want to say:
NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI NAZI!
Not in the technical sense of course, but in the sense that totally owns the libs and asserts the American value of Free Speech in the face of cancel culture and lawfare.
I should clarify Kirk didn’t support the NSDAP or Hitler, and we shouldn’t mischaracterise people’s views, Kirk was rather a Theocratic Christian Nationalist and ethnonationalist with a strong tendency for supporting free market capitalism where it enabled his political allies with established monopolies to have a market advantage.
All of this is genuinely immature and silly. But that is exactly what the attempt to strike terror into those who disagree is also, ridiculous and silly. The best way to stand up to bullies is to laugh at them. And as all of these cancelled comedians have been saying for years, the way you speak truth to power is by being the jester in a court room.
On that note, whilst being silly, I want to call people to (1) call for peace and seek better ways than falling into oscillating wedge issue narratives that seek to polarise, (2) to support and protect the values of free speech that the whitewashed martyred version of Charlie (ٱلسَّلَام») supported and that are fundamental to American constitutional democracy, (3) to not be intimidated by bullies and those he seek to normalize a climate of fear and oppression by leaning into the immediate grief and reaction that causes to use it to “crack down” on political opponents.
The weirdest part of all this is that many MAGA-ists are behaving is exactly like the evil charicature authoritarians they’ve been telling themselves they oppose in the SJW’s/Woke for years. It’s like comedic projection. People who have had enough of all of this need to really wake up and step outside the binary divisions our politics easily offers us. Hatred and division only offers us more hatred and division whilst the spectacle continues.
I think that the only politician in a position of power saying anything sensible in this situation is the governor of Utah, and we should all take a leaf out of his book and unplug and get into the real world away from all of this insane bullshit3.
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
- Matt 5:43-45 (RSV)
Another subtle joke I am making, is the way in which this martyization of Charlie mimics the zealotry of fundamentalist Mohammedan’s, for whom the name Mohammed (ٱلسَّلَام») has such religious connotations that they always say “peace be upon him” after The Prophet’s holy name.
Unity on the marquee; jeers in the body. Legal, sure. De-escalation, no. Reads like the prior “bad person” slip, only louder.