Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Media Over-React to Kirk Murder
The shooting death of right-wing activist and college drop-out Charlie Kirk last week has put the American media in a tizzle. Shot dead with a single shot from 200 yards away while he harangued a college crowd in Utah, his death has got the American chatterati jabbering away in a manner unlike most shootings have done. Questions like "is this who we are?" and "can we stop the violence?" abound. There is an easier explanation. America has always been a violent country, and political violence was there from the start. Yet, Mr. Kirk was a nobody in political terms. A guy with a big megaphone is not the same as a man with power. Mr. Kirk enraged a lot of people, but in the end, he was just a blip on the radar. Other stories matter more.
The idea that republics and democratic republics in particular are devoid of political violence is a misreading of 6,000 years of history. Republics, first off, tend to be founded after a monarchy is violently overthrown. For instance, Rome created a republic after King Tarquin was chased away. The Dutch Republic was founded as part of a revolt against Spain which ruled the Low Countries back then. And of course, the American republic came from the American War for Independence.
Nor does this violence get extinguished when the republic is declared. What could be greater proof than the musical "Hamilton"? The former vice president shot and killed the former Secretary of the Treasury. A simple walk through the history of America shows political violence is a constant.
Why is this killing different in the minds of so many? The internet has created celebrities out of the most unlikely people, such as Mr. Kirk, a man of little in the way of intellectual accomplishments. He was a supporting actor at best in a rather dull production that will never get to Broadway. The social media have made people feel a closeness to celebrities that was impossible heretofore.
In addition, Mr. Kirk was considered by many to be part of the siblinghood of journalists because he had a podcast. Mr. Kirk was as much a journalist as he was a communist. He had no commitment to the truth. Yet, from the far right to the middling left in the media, the reporters and analysts are thinking that it just as easily could have been them. In truth, it probably could never have been them. They do not irritate as many to the same degree.
Much has been said about his legacy, and there have been tears for his family. As with most shootings, the legacy will prove to be limited, and the suffering of the family will be ignored in about a year. That is just how people have acted in the last several millennia.
However, on the very same day that Mr. Kirk was killed, two kids were shot in Evergreen, Colorado, a short drive north and east of Denver. The attack in the state that gave the world Columbine was ignored in the media while the Charlie Kirk story sucked up all the oxygen in the room.
There is the problem with America in a nutshell. School shootings have become routine. Shooting blowhards during political meetings has not yet reached that level. The kids have stopped mattering, and the school shootings are hardly worth mentioning because there will be another tomorrow.
The Charlie Kirk coverage is a terrible indictment of the narcissism in the American media. The MAGA crowd whine endlessly about the elites and how they are given special privileges. The legacy of Mr. Kirk is benefitting from that fact. He was an elite, if that stupid term must be used. The kids in Evergreen are not.
The decline under Mr. Trump is accelerating.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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