When people stop talking, really bad stuff happens. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When civilizations stop talking, civil war ensues.
When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group.
What we as a culture need to get back to is being able to have reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option.
— Charlie Kirk, 1993 - 2025
Those words hit harder today, after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Some saw him as a champion of the free exchange of ideas, others as a “dishonest huckster.” Regardless, his murder is an unjustified tragedy.
Before today, I only knew him from the viral clips that made their way on my feeds from time to time. I didn’t know how popular he was or the influence of his Turning Point organization.
You cannot form an opinion about someone from a sample of clips edited for virality, but take the one from which I took the quote at the start of the post. In it, I see echoes of Popper’s description of rationalism:
Perhaps I am wrong and you are right; anyway we can both hope that after our discussion we will both see things more clearly than before, just so long as we remember that our drawing closer to the truth is more important than the question of who is right.
— On Freedom, from the All Life Is Problem Solving essays collection.
What makes Charlie’s death even more tragic is the vicious callousness of the reaction in certain corners of the internet. Sickening. Despicable. Morally rotten.
At such an emotionally charged moment, it’s crucial to remember that those celebrating are a vocal but tiny minority. Most people are recoiling, including Charlie’s political opponents.
Once again, I return to Popper: “It might be well for all of us to remember that, while differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.”
fears Charlie’s death will be a turning point for the worse, “tonight feels like some sort of invisible line has been crossed that we didn’t even know was there.”If this horrible death marks a turning point, my hope is that it will be a return to an honest, earnest, polite exchange of ideas. Let it be the moment we all say enough with the nonsense, and bring back the nuance.
Let’s go back to talking instead of shouting.
Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk.
Condivido tutto ciò che hai detto, parole pacate e piene di buon senso su un fatto gravissimo sul quale buona parte dei media dà notizia, non potendo farne a meno, ma molto sottovoce.
Ancora una volta sorge spontanea la domanda: ma se ad essere brutalmente ucciso fosse stato un giovane e brillante attivista del campo avverso, la reazione dei media sarebbe stata la stessa?
Una risposta certa non potremmo mai averla, la mia idea personale però è: certamente no.
R.I.P.