I’m not celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder.
I’m also not mourning the death of someone who spent his adult life explicitly calling for the very kind of political violence that he fell victim to, who regularly called for violence against essentially everyone not him, and who made millions of dollars in the process.
I’d have preferred that he had been silenced by other means, but I’m not disappointed that he will no longer be spewing his hate into the world.
Gavin Newsom (or, at least, his social media team) has absolutely been doing an impressive job of trolling Trump by mirroring his rambling, grandiose style of social media posting back at him. I’ve been amused by many of the posts.
I’m also steadfast in my believe that Newsom is an opportunistic chucklefuck who will say anything to amass more power. We should not ignore that when he’s not trolling Trump, he has been tacking so far to the middle that he’s often swinging well to the political right, attacking trans people, participating in the destruction of homeless camps, and actively courting the right-wing.
When Newsom started his podcast, Charlie Kirk was his first guest. In the course of their conversation, Newsome “shared his opposition to the term Latinx, suggested his opposition to gender transition surgeries for inmates and said that it was ‘deeply unfair’ for transgender women to participate in women’s sports” (from Wikipedia).
And now he says this: “the best way to honor Charlie’s memory is to continue his work”.
To be clear, Charlie’s “work” included calling transgender people a “throbbing middle finger to God”, telling his followers to take care of transgender people like they did “in the 50s and 60s”, speaking out against empathy, calling stoning gay people “God’s perfect law”, using Turning Point USA to promote anti-LGBTQIA+ hate in the public and on college campuses, to bring Christian nationalism to the United States, and more (adapted from Erin Reed’s Bluesky thread).
Kirk didn’t “engage with [others] across ideology through spirited discourse”. Kirk attacked everyone he could, and took advantage of the “both sides”-ism of today’s media and figures like Newsom, who are so desperate to gain new followers across the spectrum that they’ll agree — or at least not openly disagree — with horrible things, to further promote and spew his hate.
It’s pretty clear that Newsom is angling for a Presidential bid. It’s also pretty clear that he should not get anywhere close.