The
murder of MAGA-mentored youth icon Charlie
Kirk intensified the country’s debate on free
speech. What it is, who gets it, and who pays
the price - sometimes, the ultimate price.
Under authoritarian rule, all aspects of human
behavior must be manipulated and controlled.
The current wanna-be dictator has been giving
us lessons since Day One of his
administration. Just as he promised.
I
ran across a YouTube video of an unidentified
man responding to the Kirk phenomenon. When
explaining his own views on the issue, he
captured my attention with phrases like
“strategic indifference,” “selective
compassion,” and “selective sympathy” as it
relates to how society views the humanity of
people who differ from the status quo. The
comments were matter of fact and compelling.
It got me thinking about how the Kirk incident
was being used to modify behavior using the
most basic methods of reward and punishment.
MAGA understands that to stay in power and
minimize the opposition, you have to first
manipulate the hearts and minds of a country
using a fear strategy. The fear strategy pits
families, neighbors, co-workers, parishioners,
and anyone else perceived as The Other against
each other. While we’re busy fighting one
another, authoritarian power is being
consolidated.
The
hateful speech of Kirk and others like him is
twisted to be protected under the First
Amendment. Subsequent laws have been enacted
to qualify and clarify speech in this country.
Hate speech can lead to hate crimes, and
targeted constituencies must be protected.
These constituencies are often targeted based
on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual
orientation, gender, political views, and
economic status. Over the years, Kirk trashed
all of them under the guise of free speech.
When
people reacted to Kirk’s death and his life of
spewing hateful, divisive speech, they were
shut down, criticized, and attacked. The first
grouping was the Democrats, whom the MAGA
minions said owned
the murder “100 %.” (More on this in my
column, MAGA
Blames Political Violence in the U.S. on
the Left.)
This opened the door for justified attacks on
anyone considered to be left by right-wing
crazies. The Left has been narrowly defined as
anyone who doesn’t march to the MAGA drums.
This definition puts most of us in danger.
The
high-profile casualties of free speech
initially included late-night show host Jimmy
Kimmel and Rep. Ilhan Omar. It went on to
include those in newsrooms and communications
departments, like MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd and
Charlie Rock, the Carolina Panthers’ comms
person. There were numerous sightings of
individuals who had been sanctioned or fired
by their employers at lower levels. Somehow,
the concept of freedom did not apply to their
speech. Their public whoopings are examples of
what will happen to you should you dare speak
against the authoritarian regime. Without
strong, organized opposition to the extremist
right’s illegal power grabs and intentional
manipulation, people will fall in line - the
easy way or the hard way.
We
who believe in freedom cannot afford to go
down alleys and side streets in our struggle
for civil and human rights; we must stay on
the main road. With every misstep, the
defenders of democracy lose valuable ground to
the trump regime. We must intensify and focus
on our strategic goals.
The
No Kings2 national mobilization is on October
18. How can we replicate what the people in
Italy did with their national strikes?
Disruption of capitalism’s business-as-usual
doesn’t have to be reckless acts of protest.
We are in the phase where political violence
by MAGA supporters is being encouraged and
protected at the highest levels. We are also
now in the phase where we are fighting, not
just to save this democracy, but for our own
lives.
