RIP Charlie Kirk

[Straight Arrow]

Defense?

Yep. You, I ... and even this guy have a right under the Constitution.
(Let's you and I keep avoiding the need to assert that right. )

 

[rjthehunter]

Wow I'm impressed with everyone. 8 pages and it's not locked. I guess a highly controversial subject can be discussed without a separate online war starting.
I haven't seen the news today. Did they catch the shooter?

It's weird to call it a highly controversial subject. It is being made into one, but it shouldn't be.

Once found guilty, I hope they put him down like a horse w/ a broken leg.

 

[noharleyyet]

Probably a dumb question, but would the father get the $100K for the information leading to his son’s arrest?

Not really a dumb question...a miniscule number in light of the multiple families forever impetuously shattered.

 

[Redmt]

Yep. You, I ... and even this guy have a right under the Constitution.
(Let's you and I keep avoiding the need to assert that right. )

Yeh, I get the right to have your day in court but how do you defend yourself? The old Texas defense of " Well he just needed killing" doesn't fly anymore.

 

[Redmt]

It's weird to call it a highly controversial subject. It is being made into one, but it shouldn't be.

Once found guilty, I hope they put him down like a horse w/ a broken leg.

I kinda meant the controversial sides taken here. It might have been a bad choice of the term.

 

[Irrelevant]

What seems scariest about the current moment is that, due to fractured media, partisan echo chambers, “alternative facts,” distrust in expertise, tribalism, etc. we simply can’t all agree on what’s obvious anymore.

^This is everything. Every one of those individual issues plays into and supports the others. When we allow leaders (from politicians to podcasters) to fabricate alternative realities, then base large-scale societal decisions on those make-believe fairytales, then yeah, we're sowing our own crazy. We're complacent in creating a petri dish that fosters these radical misperceptions when we don't hold ourselves and our opinions to the same standards that we hold our adversaries' opinions.

The earth is flat
Sandyhook was a hoax
Birds aren't real
Elections are rigged

 

[Caseknife]

I think that we as a society worldwide have seen the erosion of morality over the last couple of decades. People have lost the sense of what is right and what is wrong. Has social media brought that on with the ability to reach untold numbers of people of which 99.9% are total strangers? We can spout off stuff without getting immediate in-person scrutiny with no real world consequences. All it seems to do is incite vitriolic responses from people at times.

We are quick to come up with excuses for people's actions, poor parenting, mind altering drugs, fell in with the wrong crowd, minority, etc, but they are still just excuses. We have lost our moral compass and we may not be able to right that ship.

 

[cgasner1]

It's weird to call it a highly controversial subject. It is being made into one, but it shouldn't be.

Once found guilty, I hope they put him down like a horse w/ a broken leg.

Utah wants blood. My guess is he takes a plea and never see a court room and we get to pay for him to spend the rest of his days in a jail cell

 

[Bow Bullet]

Just gonna say the FBI director's handling of this manhunt was an embarrassment. Despite the live-tweeting, this guy would still be at-large if his father turned him in after he confessed to him.

Before this morning's announcement, I hadn't watched any news coverage on the search since yesterday afternoon. What did he do that was an embarrassment?

 

[corndog1]

^This is everything. Every one of those individual issues plays into and supports the others. When we allow leaders (from politicians to podcasters) to fabricate alternative realities, then base large-scale societal decisions on those make-believe fairytales, then yeah, we're sowing our own crazy. We're complacent in creating a petri dish that fosters these radical misperceptions when we don't hold ourselves and our opinions to the same standards that we hold our adversaries' opinions.

The earth is flat
Sandyhook was a hoax
Birds aren't real
Elections are rigged

You left one out

 

[Irrelevant]

You left one out

I left dozens out.

 

[thebestusernamesaretaken]

I see a lot of posts making this about the evil of the left, but I don’t think you can separate this from the broader picture of the mental health crisis and performative violence in our country. Someone who is mentally well does not murder someone they disagree with. Full stop. Just like someone who is mentally well doesn’t go into a school and kill kids. There has to be more action to address this, not just thoughts and prayers. We can’t just accept that this goes along with owning guns.

Not so sure I would agree with this statement wholly... (not the part about the left - it seems that this assassin wasn't really a leftist but was indoctrinated in a right leaning family and changed his mind latter).

I agree with you that mental health issues are very real and should have support. However, I do think that history provides us with numerous examples of seemingly and generally accepted as normal folks willing to do horrible things to other people because they disagree with them or identify as something else.

 

[shb]

^This is everything. Every one of those individual issues plays into and supports the others. When we allow leaders (from politicians to podcasters) to fabricate alternative realities, then base large-scale societal decisions on those make-believe fairytales, then yeah, we're sowing our own crazy. We're complacent in creating a petri dish that fosters these radical misperceptions when we don't hold ourselves and our opinions to the same standards that we hold our adversaries' opinions.

The earth is flat
Sandyhook was a hoax
Birds aren't real
Elections are rigged

 

[thebestusernamesaretaken]

I've been watching Charlie Kirk off and on for a number of years. He was saying what most of us young American patriots were thinking but either didn't have the ability or courage to adequately articulate. I have seen a shift in his presentation/tone over the years. As his faith and family became more of the centerpiece, he would leverage that point of view to help articulate his perspective on an issue. I'm thankful for his courage to stand up for what he believed in and give young Americans a perspective that was often counter to what the main stream media was selling. I don't know how to explain the shift in society I've personally witnessed over my short 35 years on this earth, but something happened and it became less accepted to believe in core biblical principles. We've allowed society to shape our moral foundation and if you don't conform to it you are on the outside. I was sitting at the gas station about a week ago and had this random thought about who would be the next leader for the GOP. I remember thinking about Charlie and the shift I've noticed in him over the years. I thought he was on a trajectory to win the minds of a lot of Americans.

I think we went wrong when we started down the path of identity politics. Why are we trying to force the 99% to be accepting of the 1% and levering emotional response on controversial issues to build a larger camp. How much time are we wasting arguing about topics that impact less than 1% of the population? We should be calling a spade a spade, helping those around us and getting people the help they need. If we can't agree on what a mental illness is, then how can we begin to treat it?

RIP Charlie, a true patriot that wasn't afraid to go in the lions den.

there's no lions den; just people who disagree with you.

 

[Gulf of America]

Before this morning's announcement, I hadn't watched any news coverage on the search since yesterday afternoon. What did he do that was an embarrassment?

I pointed at it in my post, but live tweeting every inconclusive update. He said they had the subject in custody only to have to later admit the person they’d arrested was not connected. You’re the FBI director, not a podcaster (anymore), people expect authoritative truth from your announcements, not the same rampant speculation every other yahoo on twitter is spouting.

 

[thebestusernamesaretaken]

There is nothing "standard" about it. Everybody processes stress and sadness differently. It's what you do with it that matters. I'm not shitting on anyone's kids. We don't even know the age of the person that committed this act, but I'm willing to bet they didn't have the best upbringing. I've witnessed a lot of horrific things working in law enforcement, I've been in dark places, but I wasn't indoctrinated enough to kill a man for speaking his opinion.

I believe this assassin's father is a right leaning law enforcement officer.

 

[Carnage2011]

Utah wants blood. My guess is he takes a plea and never see a court room and we get to pay for him to spend the rest of his days in a jail cell

No way they let him plea out of it. The death penalty is the only option. Cox is going to bury him..

 

[thebestusernamesaretaken]

Utah wants blood. My guess is he takes a plea and never see a court room and we get to pay for him to spend the rest of his days in a jail cell

The Governor already stated that he was going to go for the death penalty on national TV.. before they caught him.

 

[SAJ-99]

I pointed at it in my post, but live tweeting every inconclusive update. He said they had the subject in custody only to have to later admit the person they’d arrested was not connected. You’re the FBI director, not a podcaster (anymore), people expect authoritative truth from your announcements, not the same rampant speculation every other yahoo on twitter is spouting.

You need to lower your expectations. Patel was a former podcaster. Given unsubstantiated opinions is the definition of the job.

 

[bts09]

I think that we as a society worldwide have seen the erosion of morality over the last couple of decades. People have lost the sense of what is right and what is wrong. Has social media brought that on with the ability to reach untold numbers of people of which 99.9% are total strangers? We can spout off stuff without getting immediate in-person scrutiny with no real world consequences. All it seems to do is incite vitriolic responses from people at times.

We are quick to come up with excuses for people's actions, poor parenting, mind altering drugs, fell in with the wrong crowd, minority, etc, but they are still just excuses. We have lost our moral compass and we may not be able to right that ship.

I think it's less that we've "seen the erosion of morality over the last couple decades" and more that "[w]e can spout off stuff without getting immediate in-person scrutiny." I think there has been less religion in this country in the last few decades (at least as measured by church attendance), but I don't necessarily equate that with morality. It's hard to argue (historically) that we as a country were more "moral" decades ago if we're defining that as: doing what is right. I don't think anyone would look at the roadblocks we put up to desegregation and civil rights in the 1960s and say: that was us acting morally, right? Or the way we decided as a country to turn a complete blind eye to the horrors of Japanese internment camps in the Second World War. My point is, I think many of us want to think that all of a sudden, we're living in a time of moral decay, etc, but the larger truth may just be that we're living in a time of extreme echo chambers and lessened consequences for doing things that are morally objectionable. I don't believe we're any less moral now--I think we just have a better window to who many of us have always been.