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So long, Charlie

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I only really knew Charlie Kirk through South Park.  When I heard he got shot in Utah, I thought it was a joke or at worst he staged it to try to give himself some cred like Trump got for that shooting in Pennsylvania last year.  Next day I heard Young Charlie was dead and that it wasn't a joke but rather a day of national mourning, at least for the MAGA faithful.  The Chief Magster even ordered flags flown at half mast to honor the "the truly great American patriot," although it oddly coincided with the commemoration of 9/11. I suppose in Magaland Charlie is a patriot, but everywhere else he was just seen as a loudmouth bigot with a podcast. The episode has since been pulled from Comedy Channel so as not to show any offense to the fallen conservative ideologue. 

My biggest worry is the fallout from the incident as Magsters worldwide have sworn vengeance, although the assassin will probably turn out to be one of their own.  I was shocked to learn how far Charlie's message has spread.  Even in Estonia, a parliamentarian asked for a moment of silence to honor his fallen hero.  Befuddled, the parliament stayed quiet for a few seconds not sure who Charlie Kirk even was.  Right-wing MEP's tried to do the same at Europarliament but the gesture was rejected.  I don't know what you call MAGA in Europe, maybe MEGA. Who knows?

It used to be left-wing hotheads bore the brunt of these killings, but as Malcolm X once infamously said, the chickens have come home to roost.  Charlie was the wunderkind of the MAGA world, its best hope to influence the hearts and minds of young Millennials and Zoomers, or so we have been led to believe.  The fact that his death was announced on 9/11 is probably no coincidence.  For many on the right, the assassination confirms all their worst fears in a "deep state."  They will never accept the lone gunman with a number of conspiracy theories being hatched as I write.  

It's pretty hard to google anything that provides much of a backstory to his long list of indiscretions, as Google is filled with the ongoing manhunt for his assailant and all the eulogies being paid to the MAGA idol, but this is a guy who aired so many ugly and nasty grievances, not to mention conspiracy theories, that I was shocked to learn he was only 31. So, I turned to Wikipedia for a laundry list of all the things Charlie spoke out against in his tumultuous short life.

He had ascended quickly in the religious conservative world and I was surprised he hadn't yet run for office, but he had made Turning Point USA into such a lucrative gig with speaking engagements all over the country.  Not bad for a guy who dropped out of Harper College and started writing essays for Breitbart alleging liberal bias in high school textbooks. The Magaworld was ripe for young conservative hotheads speaking out against the liberal establishment and his audience grew by leaps and bounds.  He was soon hobnobbing with the MAGA elite, including Donald Trump himself, towering over the Donald at a CPAC conference in 2023.  

Young Charlie even teamed up with Jerry Falwell Jr. to form Falkirk, a center for faith and liberty at Liberty University.  This was before Jerry got called out by a "pool boy" for his threesomes at a Miami hotel. It has since been renamed Standing for Freedom Center. No telling what interest Jerry had in Charlie, but the young MAGA Republican kept to the straight and narrow, getting married in 2021 and quickly fathering a daughter and son.  He glorified a woman's subordinate role to a man and his wife Eva dutifully complied, or so it seemed. They often spoke together at these faith-based summits.  For Charlie, The Handmaid's Tale was a playbook not a cautionary tale of where our country is headed.

American Taliban is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about guys like Charlie Kirk.  They have no interest in freedom except on their own terms.  Their aim is to subordinate Americans to a Christian Nationalism where the Old Testament trumps the Constitution.  Yet, many on the right are heralding Charlie as a "great patriot" including the MAGA-in-Chief who will probably stage a state funeral for the slayed podcaster.  We are all supposed to acquiesce to the wishes of the right-wingers even at MSNBC and Middle Tennessee State, where a journalist and assistant dean were fired for making untoward comments about Charlie's death  Sorry, but I don't hold Charlie Kirk in such high esteem.


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