Thank you for this. In so many ways I’ve never been less interested in politics. Build community with your neighbors over arts or sports or baking or cars or whatever! Nothing is worth hating your neighbor for their opinions that do not impact your life - when the many things we have in common can be such a greater source of fulfillment
It was really crazy to see in my group chats initial, universal revulsion at the murder. And then people started sharing twitter links and the shared humanity receded and the tribalism came forward.
I’m deeply worried that Trump and the broader right will use this as an excuse to persecute their political opponents. Shouldn’t we be talking about that?
Obviously jokes and memes are counterproductive, but sincere worry seems important to vocalize in this moment.
What actually do you hope to achieve by vocalizing that sincere worry? It’s a natural human instinct that when you have a strong emotion, you want to express it to someone. But it’s useful to remember that posting about that emotion on social media does a lot more than just expressing it.
Talking about your emotion, in real life, with people you love, can be cathartic. But posting about it on social media turns it into one more bargaining chip someone else can use in their weird viral game.
If you think there is a specific and concrete call for political action that can be helped, maybe it’s worth it.
But in the past few decades we’ve made the mistake of using the internet for expressive purposes in ways that then spiral out into all sorts of unrelated chaos.
Thank you. I'll admit I was a little on the fence paying for yet another substack subscription, even though I always enjoyed your previous work and was impressed with the roster here. But this was such a concise, clear-headed piece of writing that now I feel a little silly having those doubts. You will be an essential voice in these times.
Thank you for this, Jerusalem. No one, no matter what their political affiliation is, should be slain in such a violent attack for expressing their right to free speech.
I'm extremely worried that the truly American problem of political violence is only going to get worse, which is going to create further division.
It seems like whichever side of the political divide is the victim of violence, the same grief and blame routine kicks off anew. Nothing is ever done to actually address a solution to a truly American problem.
There's a non-zero possibility that Kirk's assassin was a foreign operative, perhaps an FSB operative, whose task it was to accelerate American political dissension…
This possibility would fit the way Kirk's assassin was profiled by authorities yesterday, as a person who knew what they were doing, and who was "not an amateur". It would also fit with the strategic goals of our foreign adversaries (Russia, Iran, China, et al.), who've been undermining our cultural unity with propaganda and divisive publicity occasions for the past ten years (at least), already…
In any case, I foremost want to emphasize that Kirk's assassin did much to accelerate American factionalism — that is, did the work of our foreign adversaries — whoever his or her identity is proven to be…
I see what you’re going for here but isn’t this just a version of “don’t politicize tragedy?” Which, when it comes to gun violence, for example, quite literally means never; as there is a mass shooting event, on average, every day?
As far as gun control with over 400 million weapons out the re for any immediate impact bullets must be serialized and strictly controlled. But the dirty secret is many Democrats in the Congress are not for these measures.
I think that this is the path forward for mental health, but it's also really hard.
For context, I'm the only non-Trumper in a hyper pro-Trump family who like to bait arguments with me, specifically and purposefully. I hate arguing verbally. Anxiety, probably, and they know that. I used to work in classrooms and was a classroom teacher during the Sandy Hook massacre, needing to figure out how I would block the classroom door (no locks) if anything like that happened to me, and be prepared to sacrifice myself. Gun stuff is, uhhh, triggering.
My brother (who never texts me, mind you) sent me a text "Have you seen Charlie Kirk was killed?" and my response was heated. Points were basically:
- I don't condone murder, this was wrong
- Our gun control policies are unenforced / weak, and people like Kirk want to make them weaker
- Kirk said himself that the consequence of an armed populace is some gun deaths, and that he was ok with that sacrifice. Then he became that sacrifice he said he was ok with.
- I worry about the political murders that are occurring of late and the health of our democracy
- I feel badly for the kids and wife and their suffering
I could have just said "yeah" and that would have made my life a lot easier. Lesson learned, for sure. Probably the real answer is to *not* answer.
If I'm asked at Thanksgiving what I think of this (totally will be, my cousins posted Kirk-memorializing stuff to their Insta stories) I'll say it was wrong for him to be killed. If the killer is definitively identified by that point, I'll say I'm glad that he was caught so that there is justice. If they bait me, though, I'm going to tell them the truth:
Kirk thought that gun deaths were an acceptable consequence for the right to bear arms, and my own death by gun violence would have been acceptable to him as such. I'm not going to mourn his loss, but I also don't celebrate it.
Agreed. Tuning out is the sensible thing for the “retail pols.” It’s a strong impulse, though. I think it’s related to how people think, even unwittingly, of signaling virtue on social media forms a coherent identity and sense of self. For too many people it’s the external trappings of identity formation that gives them that sense of self. Maybe before social media it was material, consumer goods so perhaps this critique isn’t all that novel. The problem is it’s not a coherent or stable self you get from posting, it’s vulnerable and feeds on validation from without, rather than any organic confidence from within. It leads to scary places, too. It can be riled, it can be one-upped. The antidote has to be, as you point out, seeking genuine, human connection and tuning out the noise. (Much of which is not even random noise, but engineered to capture your rage, stir it, and monetize it.) The alternative is just sort of silly - to loudly excoriate others around you to lower the volume. It’s a quieter answer, but it’s the only sensible one. Good post.
Thank you for this. In so many ways I’ve never been less interested in politics. Build community with your neighbors over arts or sports or baking or cars or whatever! Nothing is worth hating your neighbor for their opinions that do not impact your life - when the many things we have in common can be such a greater source of fulfillment
It was really crazy to see in my group chats initial, universal revulsion at the murder. And then people started sharing twitter links and the shared humanity receded and the tribalism came forward.
I’m deeply worried that Trump and the broader right will use this as an excuse to persecute their political opponents. Shouldn’t we be talking about that?
Obviously jokes and memes are counterproductive, but sincere worry seems important to vocalize in this moment.
What actually do you hope to achieve by vocalizing that sincere worry? It’s a natural human instinct that when you have a strong emotion, you want to express it to someone. But it’s useful to remember that posting about that emotion on social media does a lot more than just expressing it.
Talking about your emotion, in real life, with people you love, can be cathartic. But posting about it on social media turns it into one more bargaining chip someone else can use in their weird viral game.
If you think there is a specific and concrete call for political action that can be helped, maybe it’s worth it.
But in the past few decades we’ve made the mistake of using the internet for expressive purposes in ways that then spiral out into all sorts of unrelated chaos.
Thank you
Thank you. I'll admit I was a little on the fence paying for yet another substack subscription, even though I always enjoyed your previous work and was impressed with the roster here. But this was such a concise, clear-headed piece of writing that now I feel a little silly having those doubts. You will be an essential voice in these times.
Thank you for this, Jerusalem. No one, no matter what their political affiliation is, should be slain in such a violent attack for expressing their right to free speech.
I'm extremely worried that the truly American problem of political violence is only going to get worse, which is going to create further division.
It seems like whichever side of the political divide is the victim of violence, the same grief and blame routine kicks off anew. Nothing is ever done to actually address a solution to a truly American problem.
This! So beautifully expressed, and exactly what's missing from rational dialogue.
Thank you for this ❤️
Thank you.
There's a non-zero possibility that Kirk's assassin was a foreign operative, perhaps an FSB operative, whose task it was to accelerate American political dissension…
This possibility would fit the way Kirk's assassin was profiled by authorities yesterday, as a person who knew what they were doing, and who was "not an amateur". It would also fit with the strategic goals of our foreign adversaries (Russia, Iran, China, et al.), who've been undermining our cultural unity with propaganda and divisive publicity occasions for the past ten years (at least), already…
In any case, I foremost want to emphasize that Kirk's assassin did much to accelerate American factionalism — that is, did the work of our foreign adversaries — whoever his or her identity is proven to be…
I see what you’re going for here but isn’t this just a version of “don’t politicize tragedy?” Which, when it comes to gun violence, for example, quite literally means never; as there is a mass shooting event, on average, every day?
As far as gun control with over 400 million weapons out the re for any immediate impact bullets must be serialized and strictly controlled. But the dirty secret is many Democrats in the Congress are not for these measures.
I think that this is the path forward for mental health, but it's also really hard.
For context, I'm the only non-Trumper in a hyper pro-Trump family who like to bait arguments with me, specifically and purposefully. I hate arguing verbally. Anxiety, probably, and they know that. I used to work in classrooms and was a classroom teacher during the Sandy Hook massacre, needing to figure out how I would block the classroom door (no locks) if anything like that happened to me, and be prepared to sacrifice myself. Gun stuff is, uhhh, triggering.
My brother (who never texts me, mind you) sent me a text "Have you seen Charlie Kirk was killed?" and my response was heated. Points were basically:
- I don't condone murder, this was wrong
- Our gun control policies are unenforced / weak, and people like Kirk want to make them weaker
- Kirk said himself that the consequence of an armed populace is some gun deaths, and that he was ok with that sacrifice. Then he became that sacrifice he said he was ok with.
- I worry about the political murders that are occurring of late and the health of our democracy
- I feel badly for the kids and wife and their suffering
I could have just said "yeah" and that would have made my life a lot easier. Lesson learned, for sure. Probably the real answer is to *not* answer.
If I'm asked at Thanksgiving what I think of this (totally will be, my cousins posted Kirk-memorializing stuff to their Insta stories) I'll say it was wrong for him to be killed. If the killer is definitively identified by that point, I'll say I'm glad that he was caught so that there is justice. If they bait me, though, I'm going to tell them the truth:
Kirk thought that gun deaths were an acceptable consequence for the right to bear arms, and my own death by gun violence would have been acceptable to him as such. I'm not going to mourn his loss, but I also don't celebrate it.
Agreed. Tuning out is the sensible thing for the “retail pols.” It’s a strong impulse, though. I think it’s related to how people think, even unwittingly, of signaling virtue on social media forms a coherent identity and sense of self. For too many people it’s the external trappings of identity formation that gives them that sense of self. Maybe before social media it was material, consumer goods so perhaps this critique isn’t all that novel. The problem is it’s not a coherent or stable self you get from posting, it’s vulnerable and feeds on validation from without, rather than any organic confidence from within. It leads to scary places, too. It can be riled, it can be one-upped. The antidote has to be, as you point out, seeking genuine, human connection and tuning out the noise. (Much of which is not even random noise, but engineered to capture your rage, stir it, and monetize it.) The alternative is just sort of silly - to loudly excoriate others around you to lower the volume. It’s a quieter answer, but it’s the only sensible one. Good post.