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werdna

(1,110 posts)
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 12:05 PM Sep 11

My Trans daughter's response to the shooting of Charlie Kirk.

He was a deplorable human being with deplorable viewpoints that probably cost many people their lives. He was a covid conspiracist, and took a direct part in bussing people to the Jan 6 insurrection, and also encouraged the riot. His actions more than likely lead to people's deaths. He was incredibly anti-lgbtq+, racist, anti semitic - name a marginalized group of people, and he hated them. He was misogynistic, and pushed a viewpoint that parents should "not let their daughters ever be prescribed birth control under any circumstance" because he felt the medications "made women angry and crazy, and that aligns with what the democrats want" He was a christian nationalist who argued to abolish the separation of church and state. He perpetuated russian propaganda on the ukrainian war and described the ordeal as a "Border dispute." He claimed that the issues at our southern border were far more important than the Ukrainian war and called those issues "An invasion." Israeli politicians described him as "A friend of Israel" and mourned his death. He was in support of israel. Here stood a man with so much hate in his heart, as well as the money and popularity to spread that hate to a wider audience. His actions and words undoubtedly cost people their lives in the pandemic, and has likely caused the suffering of many trans people- parents of trans adults and children who listened to his words, trusted him, and decided to enforce his views on their children-. I view him the same as trump. Someone who decided to forgo all human decency and became a monster who spewed nothing but hate and bigotry. I will not mourn him. May his soul move on to his next life, so that it may move beyond these horrid actions and either atone for them, or grow and take actions that counteract them.

I hold the belief that someone can cause so much damage to others in their life on such a scale that it becomes nearly impossible to truly understand the harm they've caused. I believe that people such as those forsake their humanity. They do not act in the best interests of the human race, and as such, symbolically become un-human. It can be easy to look at someone like Kirk and call it a loss of human life, but it's also impossible to tell just how much more damage he would have caused in the future. Just as it's impossible to say how many lives were lost because of his words, it too is impossible to say how many lives were saved because of the loss of his life.

To clarify: this scale goes beyond cold blooded murderers. It goes beyond a mass shooter who, in a moment of derangement, fired upon an open crowd. Those people are horrific, yes. Those people cause harm on the scale of tens to hundreds. People like Kirk cause harm on the scale of hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands.

People like Kirk, who's ideologies around mental health and gun laws enable that moment of derangement.

Kirk once said "I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our God-given rights."
I do not think he ever considered that he might be among those "Some gun deaths every year" when he said this. He treated the victims of gun violence as nothing more than a number and a statistic. He became nothing more than a number and a statistic in his own eyes.
It can feel cold to try to justify a death and call it just, or a good thing. But know that all of this comes not out of a hate for Kirk, but out of a love for the people whom he hated. It comes out of a love for my fellow trans folk, whom he sought the erasure of. It comes out of empathy for the palistinians and ukrainians who have been unjustly slaughtered in both genocide and war. It comes out of solidarity for every victim of gun violence whom he dehumanized. It comes out of compassion for the ethnic minorities that he feared. And it comes out of a love for all of humanity, and a hope for a brighter future.
~SolariaStarz

Emphasis mine - werdna

21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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My Trans daughter's response to the shooting of Charlie Kirk. (Original Post) werdna Sep 11 OP
My congratulations on raising an intelligent, thoughtful human being. Attilatheblond Sep 11 #1
I agree that you should be very proud of raising this wonderful person LetMyPeopleVote Sep 11 #2
Werdna, please thank your daughter for this immaculately written and perfect summation of what Kirk stood Leghorn21 Sep 11 #3
Damn, so well written by your daughter vapor2 Sep 11 #4
This is a long version of why some murders are ok hueymahl Sep 11 #5
Some murders Keepthesoulalive Sep 11 #7
And I can call out truth hueymahl Sep 11 #8
You seem invested Keepthesoulalive Sep 11 #11
Hi, hueymahl.... littlemissmartypants Sep 11 #15
That's certainly one interpretation Torchlight Sep 11 #13
"He treated the victims of gun violence as nothing more than a number and a statistic" Ray Bruns Sep 11 #6
Well she nailed it BaronChocula Sep 11 #9
Charlie, his ilk, supporters and fellow gun humpers are ok with me, you, your kids and your grandkids 3Hotdogs Sep 11 #10
Thank you. ❤️ littlemissmartypants Sep 11 #12
A Video from the UN: The Shocking Link Between Hate Speech and Genocide Halevay Sep 11 #14
welcome to DU! RussBLib Sep 11 #16
huh? Quazie Sep 12 #17
Post removed Post removed Sep 12 #18
you looking to flame out? RussBLib Sep 12 #19
Message auto-removed Name removed Sep 12 #20
They diid a good job doing so !! GP6971 Sep 12 #21

Attilatheblond

(7,290 posts)
1. My congratulations on raising an intelligent, thoughtful human being.
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 12:12 PM
Sep 11

She sounds like someone worth knowing. Her existence and voice gives me hope for our species.

LetMyPeopleVote

(169,983 posts)
2. I agree that you should be very proud of raising this wonderful person
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 12:13 PM
Sep 11

Thank you for posting this.

Leghorn21

(13,953 posts)
3. Werdna, please thank your daughter for this immaculately written and perfect summation of what Kirk stood
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 12:15 PM
Sep 11

for and what he was - EXACTLY what he was. I’ve been looking for just such a “eulogy” and will be sending this around to family and friends—

WELL DONE

Keepthesoulalive

(1,830 posts)
7. Some murders
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 02:37 PM
Sep 11

We acknowledge murder is wrong unless the state does it. That doesn’t mean we can’t breathe a little easier now that he’s gone. Her life is in danger because of his hate, she can process his death however she chooses.

hueymahl

(2,846 posts)
8. And I can call out truth
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 02:41 PM
Sep 11

Her processing does not make the thoughts moral or right, and it is important to call that out. If for no other reason than so she can get feedback on her process.

Keepthesoulalive

(1,830 posts)
11. You seem invested
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 03:01 PM
Sep 11

Why so worried about a hate monger. There are children being murdered in school, Gaza and people being murdered off the coast of Venezuela. He is dead and I hope the person is found and punished. I did not wish for him to be murdered but I am not going to invest energy in false grief. Perhaps you might consider giving sympathy to the people he has hurt and wronged, that is truth.

littlemissmartypants

(29,842 posts)
15. Hi, hueymahl....
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 03:15 PM
Sep 11

I just wanted to check and make sure that you know that you're in the LGBT Forum right now. Were you aware of that? Sometimes, I forget to check on the origin of a post which is important because each forum has its own guidelines for content.

Just checking on you. I hope that you're okay. ❤️

Ray Bruns

(5,604 posts)
6. "He treated the victims of gun violence as nothing more than a number and a statistic"
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 02:29 PM
Sep 11

Because that’s what psychopaths do.

BaronChocula

(3,345 posts)
9. Well she nailed it
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 02:46 PM
Sep 11

All this is what's missing from what little news coverage I'm willing to look at. He was a champion of the American white nationalist movement and that description should precede his name in every headline.

3Hotdogs

(14,571 posts)
10. Charlie, his ilk, supporters and fellow gun humpers are ok with me, you, your kids and your grandkids
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 03:00 PM
Sep 11

getting shot because it supports their fixation on the 2nd Amendment.

As long as they get to have as many guns as they want, in all places and at all times, well fuck me, fuck you and anyone you care about.

Your kid - dead tomorrow? So what? Tough shit. Everyone's got the right to own guns.


Once we get clear about how they think and the end game of it all, it will become easier to defeat them.

Halevay

(1 post)
14. A Video from the UN: The Shocking Link Between Hate Speech and Genocide
Thu Sep 11, 2025, 03:10 PM
Sep 11

Kirk grew into a truly charismatic figure and a masterful communicator. It's tragic how he squandered his talents.

Source https://www.un.org/en/video/shocking-link-between-hate-speech-and-genocide

Genocides do not start with bullets or machetes, they begin with hate speech.

The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate speech. The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda began with decades of hate speech exacerbated by ethnic tensions. The Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina began with constant nationalist propaganda throughout party-controlled media channels demonizing the Bosnian Muslim population. In recent years, the world has witnessed several mass atrocities. In many of these cases, hate speech was identified as a “precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide”.

While the use of social media and digital platforms to spread hatred is relatively recent, the weaponization of public discourse for political gain is unfortunately not new. As history continues to show, hate speech coupled with disinformation can lead to stigmatization, discrimination and large-scale violence.



P.S. This excerpt from a profile of him in the Independent stood out to me:

When he finished high school, Kirk hoped to attend the prestigious U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but his application was rejected. He would later claim that this rejection was not based on his academic performance, but that his place had been given to “a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion”, later saying he was being sarcastic."


Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/charlie-kirk-death-turning-point-usa-b2824186.html

Response to werdna (Original post)

Response to RussBLib (Reply #19)

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