HAGIOGRAPHY

As of me writing this post, the afternoon of Thursday, September 11, 2025, we don’t yet know who killed Charlie Kirk. The MAGA right is already claiming it’s someone on the left, with unconfirmed reports that bullet casings from the shooter’s weapon were inscribed with anti-fascist and pro-transgender messaging. The response from the left has been mostly calming in nature, with very few traditional media and social figures celebrating his death or fomenting further violence. Even if the perpetrator is ever found, we may never know the details of what happened and why it happened. Not to get too conspiratorial, but when was the last time you could fully trust information disseminated by an authoritarian regime? But, that’s not what I want to focus on today

Before I go any further, let me make my feelings on Charlie Kirk clear. Because of the ideas he espoused and his own behaviour, I hated him when he was alive. I wanted him to go away and never be heard from again. It’s not good that he’s dead, but it’s good that his voice will never be heard again. I feel awful that his children will grow up without their father. I have zero sympathy for anyone else whatsoever.

What I do want to focus on today is the reaction to Kirk’s death. As the world creeps towards authoritarianism, and as the United States has fully dunked itself in those waters, I am rarely shocked or surprised by anything I see or hear. Upset? Yes! Shocked? No. I’ve read way too much history, and recognized too many patterns, to be surprised by any of this. Are we at a point where we can accurately describe what’s coming next? No, not precisely. But the options are narrow; therefore, the surprise should be minuscule.

Ezra Klein, well into two decades of being a disingenuous buffoon, wrote an article for the New York Times entitled “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way.” I’m not going to link it here for many reasons, not the least of which is that I don’t want the NYT (a trash newspaper, published by craven ghouls that would give Vidkun Quisling a run for his money) to receive any support whatsoever. Several Republican politicians lionized the Turning Point USA founder as a genius political activist and called for a statue of him to be erected next to that of Martin Luther King Jr. Many pundits and political commentators called for war on Charlie’s behalf.

Before this event had taken place, had you asked me to predict the response, I would have expected all of these people (especially the latter two groups) to behave exactly as they have. Their stock in trade is duplicitous contrivance. And, when it comes to the death of a person, the final word of analysis on their lives, humans absolutely suck at being honest.

The heart attack has taught me a lot of things, highly placed amongst them, a much closer relationship to my mortality. I’ve written about that in HEGHLU'MEH QAQ JAJVA, I DON’T KNOW THAT GUY, and THE BEFORE TIME, AND THE AFTER TIME. When I examine my mortality, I often think about three things: who will attend my funeral, and how will it go; what sort of legacy do I leave behind; and what do people think of me in general?

One thing I am completely certain of, is that I don’t want anyone saying anything falsely glowing or positive about me that isn’t true. I fully aware that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m mostly comfortable with that. If you didn’t like me in life, please don’t come visit me in death. Hell, I’d rather people lied and said untruthful, negative things about me than said untruthful, positive things about me. I don’t like either, but I know which one I hate more. If you’re looking for an analogy to explain that, think of Brad Pitt as Billy Beane in Moneyball.

“I hate to lose more than I need to win.”

And that leads me further into thoughts on hagiography. I believe that humans are so desperate not to be thought of poorly, especially when in death, that we have come to accept the act of unnecessarily rehabilitating bad people. Or, even in a much more mundane and blameless way, at least finding it painfully difficult to even say anything negative yet truthful about the deceased. We’ve all done it; standing around at a funeral, hearing people swoon over the great virtues of poor, old, dead uncle Harold. I can forgive not wanting to mention that he could be mean sometimes (who isn’t?), or that he was a terrible driver. But, why do we gloss over the whispered but confirmed stories of his infidelity, or the fact that he didn’t like brown people? I get it; we’re there to honour the dead. However, I think we do ourselves a disservice as a society when we extend this to public figures who were absolute fucking assholes.

For many reasons, all of this reminds me of Scalia’s Tears. My good friend, Aaron “Lemur” Mintz, was the first to promote to me the existence of the cocktail that had been invented to celebrate the passing of same-sex marriage legislation. Aaron was a lawyer himself, and a passionate advicate for fairness and equity. He was a constant source of thoughtful, humourous, and prescient ideas. I recall us saying that we’d hoist the same concoction again, to celebrate Scalia’s death. Sadly, Aaron took his own life a few months later, so it was never to be. Scalia was a terrible person, about whom I cannot think of a single good thing to say. It would have been fitting to commemorate festively with another soul who, conversely, and as far as I was aware, exclusively, a positive source of light in the darkness.

I have nothing good to say abot Charlie Kirk. Though it has been claimed that he was a champion of free speech, you’d have to be a blithering idiot to believe that. Amongstly many examples, his work on calling out and endangering educators is a perfect explanation of why this claim is as spurious as the sun is hot. He was a vehement racist, whose thought processes were incompatible with the crucial truth that women of colour own a foundational place in our society. His ardent and misguided support of the second amendment made it clear that he held very little value for life or public safety. His promotion of various conspiracy theories and other harmful dross made anything that spewed from his gob indecipherable from the truth. You don’t have to take my word for any of this, you can go research it yourself.

Thanks to the good people on Bluesky who have been putting these lists together

While you’re at it, have a look at who is saying complimentary things about Charlie Kirk. And keep a log of all of those who refuse to provide a measured analysis of him as a public figure. At best, these people cannot be trusted to provide you with reasonable information about anything. At worst, they support what Charlie Kirk espoused, and are enemies to truth, justice, and fairnessl.

Charlie Kirk was a monstrous, evil, lying troll. The world is a better place for his voice being silenced, but it should not have happened this way. In a much better world, “truth will out” and he would have been dismantled by perspicacity and veracity. I’m sad that has been taken away from us as well, as it would have been a far better lesson.

But now we sit and wait for the blow back. One congressman has stated he’ll do everything in his legislative power to destroy everyone online who speaks against Kirk. Others are calling for 10:1 ratio of killing those on the left. There was a time when the world could look to an American President to calm the fanned flames and call for reflection, consideration, and a shared sense of justice. But Trump has already installed an industrial fan to power those flames into the stratosphere, calling for a partisan, dangerous, and cruel sens of justice.

There are boots on the ground in LA, DC, and elsewhere. Soon there will be boots on the ground in Chicago and every other Democrat-run city in the US. Congress is stalling on the release of the Epstein files, and, even if they do release them, the administration will do everything in its power to distract and discredit. Israel bombed Hamas leaders in Qatar, as they further their genocide in Gaza. Poland has exercised article 4 of the NATO agreement after Russian drones violated their airspace. Putin continues his war of aggression in Ukraine. These examples are a mere fraction of the unrest in the world.

A pot of water does not boil instantly the moment it’s placed on a hot burner. It happens slowly at first, and then it is too late for anything inside. The water is bubbling.