FriendlyJordies did a video about the Kirk Assassination, and...hmm.
He does that thing that is always his least attractive trait, acting like he's the voice of the sensible old skool liberal rationalist who has lots of fun but is just a normal guy like you and me. What Bill Maher used to do, back before he got too rich and cranky to remember how. Also, this in general is bullshit.
Look. Being the Voice of the Suburbs is a choice, and is obviously going to make you popular. But that also inevitably makes you the voice of privileged white people who often don't know what the hell they're talking about and have utterly useless takes.
He seems to be of the opinion that all of Kirk's virulent racism and violent Christofascist fantasies was just a wacky bit that no one should have taken too seriously. That doesn't mean murdering him was justified. But Jordan doesn't seem to allow for any POV where the people Kirk was attacking are allowed to be genuinely terrified and enraged by what he said.
He seems to be implying that they are required to not take it seriously, when a man dehumanizes them and dreams of a world where they don't have rights, or worse. "It's just speech! Why is everyone so worked up??"
Jordan, it doesn't work that way anymore when people like Kirk control the government and are making policy based on this hate. Again, not a justification for assassination. But it shouldn't be a shock when that happens, IF it happens for that reason, in a country where guns are cheap and plentiful.
At what point is speech evil enough to be classified as something besides "just someone having a big of a laff," Jordan? When does it get taken seriously as a genuine threat that needs to be addressed, if not after the State starts putting it into action? When are people Kirk classified as subhuman allowed to get mad about that? And why are YOU the judge of that, white Australian man?
Again. That doesn't mean murder is justified. But it DOES mean people are going to celebrate that when it happens. Because the monster openingly threatening to destroy their lives is dead.
"WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST LIVE AT PEACE IN THE FREE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS??"
Because most of the white people have decided that Nazi shit is cool, Jordan. Gay people asking for acceptance didn't cause this problem of political polarization. People like Kirk got us to this point, not WOKE professors trying to explain why racism is bad.
You can't "both sides" this, unless you're an asshole or oblivious. And we don't even fucking know what that deranged weirdo who pulled the trigger was even on about, as Jordan points out, here. So blaming politics for fracturing society isn't helpful.
"HE DIDN'T SAY THAT, HE SAID IT IS A TOLERANCE FOR VIOLENCE IN GENERAL, AND EVERYONE HAVING INTERNET BRAIN-ROT!"
Yes he did. But every Western country has that. Look at what just happened in the UK. Those aren't unique American issues. Gun availability is, and that's part of this.
But he focuses so heavily on the idea that Kirk was killed as part of a "political assassination." Even if he doesn't blame a side, he's implying that a whole political complex here is to blame. One where people kill over speech. Because, again, that's all he classifies Kirk as doing - just saying some stuff. Just asking questions, man!
Turning Point USA was doing much more than asking questions. Don't misrepresent the project Kirk was involved in. AGAIN, not a justification for murder. But don't trivialize what he was doing to make some kind of bullshit Sensible Centrist point about how we all need to suck it up and tolerate hate speech. We shouldn't have to. That's a stupid privileged argument. And one that might not have dick to do with any of this, in the first place.
And I know Jordan got targeted by violent actors himself, for speech. And I respect that. But that was him pissing off corrupt officials and violent criminal gangs by putting a spotlight on what they were up to. That isn't what happened to Charlie Kirk. It's apples and oranges, here.
I just think he's very quick to brush off legitimate anger from Americans who are being specifically targeted for who they are. They're going to delight when someone like Kirk is killed, and they're not evil mutant freaks for doing that. I'm sorry that unsettles you, in your big nice house. But they didn't end up here in a vacuum, and aren't responsible to you for how they feel.
