The Progressive Millennial

Come along with me on this journey of discovery as we create a better, more progressive world together.

[progressivemillennial]

On Charlie Kirk, Part 2: Now What?

It is at this time that I’d like to share that, of course, I don’t agree with political assassinations and look down upon political violence. Charlie Kirk should still be alive, and I do feel for his family and the people who loved him, and I wish anyone who is grieving him comfort in these dark times.

There have been calls from many to resist the temptation of backlash and to turn down the temperature of our political discourse and interactions. I agree that we should strive for peaceful, compassionate interactions with each other. We should seek understanding and show each other care and mutual support.

If we are going to lower the temperature, I think that means having a really hard look at Charlie Kirk’s words, actions, and legacy. After all, it was he who said the following of abortion:

“In fact, [abortion is] worse! It’s worse [than the holocaust]! It’s 45 million babies. It’s nearly eight times worse than the holocaust!”

Claiming that abortion is worse than the holocaust is quite heated and controversial language. If calling Charlie Kirk a fascist and anti-Semite is abrasive and promotes violence, is calling abortion worse than the holocaust any better? If abortions are mass murder—the liquidation of a whole set of people—should we not do everything to stop it, including violence?

If “they” are trying to eliminate white people, if Muslims are trying to take over America, if the left is Josef Stalin, should we not do everything in our power to stop them? All of these groups appear to be an existential threat to the country, no?

Charlie Kirk said and did many divisive, agitative, and outrageous things in his life that contributed to a faltering political culture in America. As a result, we cannot build statues to and honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy and simultaneously call for peaceful relations and turning down the political rhetoric. We need, instead, a very sober reckoning with his contributions to our country’s politics.

In the spirit of sharing ideas freely, I’d like to offer a dialectic: that very sober reckoning can come from us as individuals and in community with each other. As individuals, we need to consider the media we consume, the language we use, and the actions we take. There are politicians and pundits who profit off of our division and hatred of each other. We need to starve them of our attention. If we find ourselves thinking, saying, promoting, and consuming ideas that other humans are animals, that other humans should be disappeared or liquidated, that the people we disagree with are inherently stupid or crazy, that violence and hate are the answers, maybe we need to reconsider where we’re getting our information and how we’re using and processing it. We can hold ourselves to this commitment, but we can also hold each other responsible in community. If we hear our friends, family, and neighbors speaking reprehensibly of others, we can call them out with compassion.

How we move forward is not to aggrandize Charlie Kirk. We should not seek to destroy and own and obliterate each other like he did. Instead, we need to help ourselves and each other be better humans to one another. It is our shared humanity, that is both different and similar, that ultimately binds us together. Never forget that.

[progressivemillennial]

On Charlie Kirk, Part 1: What Charlie Kirk Meant to Me

People have been sharing what Charlie Kirk meant to them, and I’d like to share what he meant to me.

I’ve been involved in politics for the better part of a decade, sometimes devoting a great deal of time and sometimes very little. I’ve been called an activist, a propagandist, I’ve received death threats and great praise. While I have never had the platform or financial backing that Charlie Kirk has had, I can certainly understand to some extent what it’s like to be publicly political.

My first exposure to Charlie Kirk was the silly memes of him including a misappropriated or fake quote, and his head edited to look playfully misshapen. Otherwise, I was aware of his stewardship of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the college conservative organization. As I became more familiar with his work, his ability to achieve multiple ends with his debates stood out to me: he would champion free speech while also attempting to convert college students to conservativism and at the same time erode faith in public systems like universities.

While free speech is a stance that appeals to many Americans, it was apparent to me that this was not really as high of a priority as his supporters would believe. One can see this in a small sampling of the titles of TPUSA YouTube videos:

Charlie Kirk DESTROYS Student Using White Privilege Claims

Charlie Kirk Obliterates Every Pro-Choice Argument

We CRUSHED the WOKE LEFT in JUNE (Target, Bud Light, Disney & more!)

Charlie Kirk DESTROYS Professor Teaching CRT In Schools

Charlie Kirk’s TOP 10 Most SAVAGE College TAKEDOWNS

Charlie Kirk DEMOLISHES Leftist Lies on DOGE & Government Waste

The titles above express less of an interest in free speech and curious debate and more of an interest in establishing dominance over other people and/or their ideas and eroding trust in public schools, the media, and establishing anyone to the left of conservatives as leftists.

I also wondered why someone who was so interested debating the issues was so keen to debate college students: if I were so media trained, had my own talk show, and ran my own organization, if I were truly interested in having meaningful and thought-provoking discussions, wouldn’t I want to talk to other people who had seeming mastery over topics, like their professors? Like other media personalities? Why spend so much time “owning” novices?

Setting aside Charlie’s professional reason for existence, I found myself often at odds with his arguments and beliefs: he didn’t think transgender people exist; he thought transgenderism is a mental disease, he said that we need a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming care doctor immediately, he called LGBT people groomers, he talked about the “anti-white agenda” and the “great replacement theory” where “they’re trying to replace us demographically. They’re trying to make the country less white. They’re trying to make the country more like the third world,” he compared the left to Josef Stalin and said they, “won’t stop until you and your children and your children’s children are eliminated.” He also stated that “if I see a black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘boy, I hope he’s qualified.’” He complained about sign language interpreters for deaf people, he called Covid vaccine requirements on college campuses medical apartheid. He blamed “Jewish dollars” for cultural Marxist ideas which are ostensibly destroying America, he blamed Jewish donors and secular Jews in cultural institutions, Hollywood, colleges, and non-profits for anti-Semitism, he said that “large dedicated Islamic areas are a threat to America” and that there is an ”attempted Islamic takeover of America.” He wanted to crush teachers’ unions and claimed they are the real threat to American education. More broadly, he wanted to end public sector unions.

To me, Charlie Kirk was a successful, ambitious conservative who was effective at winning converts and furthering conservative politics, but he was more than willing to humiliate, denigrate, and scapegoat other people to achieve those ends. I do not know his heart, but he appeared comfortable swimming in the waters of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, transphobia, and other lines of argument and reactionary politics to achieve his ends. But perhaps, for Charlie, the ends justified the means. We will never know because he’s dead.

[progressivemillennial]

Happy 4th of July! Reflecting today on the significance of "E pluribus unum" in American history and its application and meaning in contemporary America.

[progressivemillennial]

[progressivemillennial]

Happy Juneteenth! While many gains have been made over the centuries, may we continue the necessary work of liberating our society, our minds and our actions from the tyrannies of colonialism, apartheid, and violent inequality.

[progressivemillennial]

[progressivemillennial]

"If your tactics disrupt the order of things under capitalism, you may well be accused of violence, because 'violence' is an elastic term often deployed to vilify people who threaten the status quo. Conditions that the state characterizes as 'peaceful' are, in reality, quite violent. Even as people experience the violence of poverty, the torture of imprisonment, the brutality of policing, the denial of health care, and many other violent functions of this system, we are told we are experiencing peace, so long as everyone is cooperating. When state actors refer to 'peace,' they are really talking about is order. And when they refer to 'peaceful protest,' they are talking about cooperative protest that obediently stays within the lines drawn by the state. The more uncooperative you are, the more you will be accused of aggression and violence. It is therefore imperative that the state not be the arbiter of what violence means among people seeking justice."

-Kelly Hayes, "Let This Radicalize You"

[progressivemillennial]

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[progressivemillennial]

Flowers come in all shapes and colors and sizes. Some have yet to bloom, some are at the peak of their color, some are withering away. This is part of life.

We too come in all shapes and colors and sizes. Some of us are perfectly healthy, some of us are chronically ill or disabled or incredibly athletic or adequately able-bodied. We are old, we are young, we have just been born. This, too, is all part of life.

Societal forces sometimes deem certain forms of existence as ideal, but it's important to step back and remember that there really is no perfect way to be human.

We can just be--without shame or pressure to be something or someone else--and that is enough. We are enough, just as we are.

[progressivemillennial]

I was touring apartments in the Chicago area earlier this year, and a lot of them were the same places I looked into back in 2010. In every case, the rents had at least doubled.

As an example, I lived in a one bedroom apartment with a $795 monthly rent in a nice suburb in 2010. Now, just 15 years later, the rent for the exact same apartment is almost $1,700.

Back in 2010, I was able to afford that price in spite of having car and school loans to pay and an entry-level salary in higher education. Could someone with an entry-level salary--which has not doubled--afford that rent now? Only if they didn't want to eat.

The path we are on as a nation is not sustainable. Cutting programs for the poor and giving tax cuts to the wealthy while boosting military spending will not make it easier to live in America. Conversely, tinkering with Obamacare and promoting the status quo will only allow pressing problems to fester.

Bold reform is needed to address the urgent problems our society faces if we want to stem the suffering and precarity people are facing daily.

[progressivemillennial]

“If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”

― Marjane Satrapi, Iranian graphic novelist

[progressivemillennial]

It has often been said that "you should care about [group/issue x, y, or z] because they'll come for you next," and that can be an effective appeal.

But this is not solidarity.

Solidarity is being there for each other because we recognize the fragility and vulnerability in our shared humanity and the importance and validity of our diverse struggles. We all have needs sometimes, some more existential and urgent than others.

We find strength, comfort, love, and safety in each other. That is community. That is solidarity.

[progressivemillennial]

I've been thinking often about the unconditional nature of humanity this year. Once we start dehumanizing people casually (i.e. labeling Palestinians animals, calling transgender people it, referring to immigrants as illegals), we open the door to violations of human rights (i.e. ethnically cleansing Gaza, the legal and eventual literal eradication of transgender people, sending people to gulags overseas). This is understandable as human rights flow from one's humanity. Human rights don't apply to non-humans.

As Americans, if we believe that human rights are unalienable and Creator-given, then we must also acknowledge that one's humanity cannot be revoked, and certainly not by mere mortals such as you and I.

A better world is possible, one where all humans have inherent value and we strive to uphold the dignity and rights of every person, no matter who they are or where they're from. Let us imagine that world and agitate for it. We owe it to each other as humans.

[progressivemillennial]

[progressivemillennial]

Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, won't seek reelection to a sixth term in 2026

Barack Obama says he wouldn't have been a U.S. senator or president without the support of Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who has announced he's