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On the Canonization of Charlie Kirk
I neither celebrate nor mourn his death, but I fear the rise of fascism.
One week ago today, when I first read that activist Charlie Kirk was shot during an appearance in Utah, I struggled to remember who this man was. Especially since the second inauguration of Donald Trump, white male Christian MAGA mouthpieces have been so numerous as to blend together into an indistinguishable blob of hate-fueled lies. Eventually, I remembered that this was the man who California governor Gavin Newsom hosted on the inaugural episode of his new podcast, where the two bonded over their mutual anti-trans views.
When Kirk succumbed to his injuries soon after the shooting, I had no strong feelings one way or the other about his untimely death. I only felt sorrowful that yet another life had been lost to gunfire. As a pacifist who advocates total, voluntary disarmament, I see “gun violence” as a redundant phrase; firearms are inherently violent, and I cannot condone their use under any circumstances. (Note that I am an atheist who was raised in a secular…
