A friend sent a commentary from “Rob Dreher’s Diary,” writing from Hungary, on Charlie Kirk’s assassination which had many, too many, insights to reprint.
Here’s one about the reaction of conservatives quoting from Triggernometry podcaster Konstantin Kisin:
Dreher writes of the views of an expert on civil wars:
‘Last night in Budapest, I participated in a panel with the UK scholar David Betz, the academic expert on civil wars. I’ve been promoting his work all year, since I first heard it (see here for a podcast interview in which he lays out his theory about why the West is ripe for it). The event was not recorded, I’m sorry to say, but if you watch that interview, or read my past writing here about Betz, you know what he said. But there was more.” [Emphasis added.]
More:
“If, God forbid, it comes to America, it will not be the followers of Charlie Kirk that start it.
“If it were, we would have seen them burning down cities, like the Left did post-Floyd.
“It will come because of the violent Left, and right-wing extremists, as well as young men of the Right who have become violently radicalized, because of things like the Kirk murder. (They hate Jews too; anti-Semitism has become normalized on the radical Right as well as the radical Left.) These people are out there — and they’re ready to fight. I know conservative fathers who are this very day trying to de-radicalize their sons, who are ready to take up arms. God help them. God help us.”
From the UK publication Daily Sceptic, an anonymous writer called Eugyppius about the Charlotte train car murder:
“What we are seeing here is an ideological and also a psychological reaction to a very dark truth at the heart of American society.
“This truth is that the American black population commits violent crimes at rates that are so high, many Ukrainian refugees would be safer staying home than fleeing to certain US cities.
“Consider this: aside from Mariupol, the war in Ukraine has directly caused around 11 civilian deaths per 100,000 people every year since the Russian invasion in 2022.
“That is less than the intentional homicide rate of the city where Zarutska was murdered in August.
“… And Charlotte is far from the most dangerous place our young Ukrainian could have fled to. Detroit (32 per 100,000), Baltimore (35 per 100,000), San Juan (37 per 100,000), Memphis (48 per 100,000) and New Orleans (54 per 100,000) are all vastly worse.
“To put it as bluntly as possible – and with as little racial sensitivity as I dare – the US black population is largely responsible for imposing on many American cities a civilian homicide rate equivalent to or far exceeding that seen in a modern country fighting a war on its own territory.
“This fact has made the progressive American political establishment crazy, and it has developed an entire ideological system to avoid confronting this terrible, ruthless reality.”
Dreher continues:
“Charlie Kirk’s murder is a Rubicon. We now know — the evidence has been widespread on left-wing social media this week — that the USA is home to lots of people — including teachers, nurses, soldiers, and others in positions of responsibility —who are prepared to murder, or to support the murder, of people like us for the crime of believing in what Drew Pavlou quaintly termed “old-fashioned values.”
“We can’t live like this. We must not live like this. Whatever it takes to cast this demon out from the body politic, we must do. Now.“
“Spiritual Warfare Is Real
“Earlier this week, the radical feminist website Jezebel posted an article talking about how they hired witches to curse Charlie Kirk.”
“Two days later, an assassin’s bullet tore through Charlie Kirk’s carotid artery.
“He leaves behind a widow and two fatherless children, all three of whom saw their husband and father shot to death, and who have to live with that memory for the rest of their lives.” [Emphasis added.]
Now, let expand on the spiritual warfare aspect of the murder
Reflect first on this man’s celebrating Kirk’s being shot from X:
A bit long, but Rabbi Jonathan Cahn expounds on spiritual warfrare:
From McHenry County Board member John Collins:
Today we gather in the shadow of yet another act of political violence. The
assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah was a shocking and tragic event. Only days
ago, our nation also mourned the senseless killing of Melissa and Mark Hortman in
Minnesota. These events remind us that violence—no matter where it strikes or
whom it claims—is tearing at the very fabric of our communities and our
democracy.
Let me be clear: no person, regardless of their views, should face violence. I extend
condolences to the families of Charlie Kirk and to the loved ones of Melissa and
Mark Hortman. Their lives were taken too soon, and their deaths must stand as
warnings of what happens when anger and fear replace dialogue and respect.
But we cannot stop at mourning. We must look honestly at the climate that feeds
this violence. The rhetoric and imagery promoted by our current president, Donald
Trump, has far too often normalized aggression and dehumanization. When leaders
wink at violence, or use words that paint political opponents as enemies, they are
not just engaging in partisan politics—they are endangering lives.
Charlie Kirk himself was no stranger to inflammatory rhetoric. He was a fierce
defender of the Second Amendment, even to the point of minimizing the real
human cost of gun violence. He built a career on sharp, polarizing words that left
many in our communities feeling targeted and demeaned. And yet, the First
Amendment guarantees him the right to speak those words, just as it protects our
right to disagree, protest, and call out harm.
That balance—the right to speak freely, and the responsibility to speak
responsibly—is at the heart of our democracy. What we cannot allow is for that
balance to be destroyed by bullets. Disagreement is not a license for violence.
Passion is not an excuse for assassination.
If we truly want to honor the memories of Charlie Kirk, Melissa Hortman, and
Mark Hortman, we must commit ourselves to rejecting violent rhetoric wherever it
comes from. We must hold our leaders—up to and including the
president—accountable for the words they use. And we must recommit ourselves
to a political culture where ideas, not weapons, are the tools of persuasion.
Only then can we begin to break the cycle of violence that has already cost far too
many lives.
