angrypoolman said:
yes dude I know what you said. i was not arguing against it. i was narrowing the scope of the sentiment because it is only sensible to do so. I am not going to compare today's current american politicians and political commentators to political leaders in other countries that spew rhetoric im not familiar with, I am going to compare him to his peers because that is the only sensible thing to do. the point you are making is not profound at all. of course there are people we would celebrate the death of, such as scum bags who murder innocent women trying to take public transit home after a day of work. i would never wish this on somebody who i have a political disagreement with, no matter how much I thought their rhetoric harms society. do you know why? because I understand that people argue for the things they do because they believe if more people adopt their viewpoint, it will be better for society. thats why people engage in political discourse. its all for this same exact reason. I dont care how much you disagree with the things he said, if you are going to excuse this and give us all this mental exercise to imagine the worst person we can and celebrate their death in order to provide cover who are doing the same for charlie kirk because "they are just using a different yardstick" or whatever, then that speaks more about who you are and what you are about than it does about charlie kirk, because he would never, ever go that low. |
The thing with political figures is that what they say is often much more important than what they do, and their words have much more power than what one single individual can do. That's why when you think of the worst people in history while having the faintest knowledge of the history of humanity, a whole lot of them are politicians. Hitler didn't do a whole lot of bad with his own hands, you know. He just influenced millions of people into doing so. With his words. Same with Stalin, Mussolini, Pinochet, any other autocrat in history. You cannot equate the power of the words of a public, political figure in the public stage, with the power of the words of your uncle on Thanksgiving dinner.
Charlie Kirk was not just a forum poster who talked about politics, he was a think-tank founder, a conspiracy theorist, an activist, and effectively a part of the US government. He didn't "just say stuff", which is bullshit from the get-go, but he also actively worked towards a more regressive (not conservative, regressive), intolerant, violent country. People are not celebrating his death "just because they disagree with him", and you know that, they are doing so because of what he had done and was still doing as part of the neo-nazi US far-right.
You seem to just have heard about the guy, because no one with any knowledge of him would say he would never "go that low", because if there was one thing he was good at was going lower and lower each and every day. Vinther1991 gave some good examples above, and a quick glance at his Wikipedia page would provide you with plenty more. He was the closest thing to the KKK Trump was able to get away with associating with directly.
