I’m sick and tired of hearing about gun deaths in the U.S. I’m tired of the hemming and hawing from the “gun folks” when you bring up stricter gun laws and their tired arguments of bad guys getting guns whether there’s stricter laws or not(why bathe? You’re just going to get dirty again.) I’m tired of hearing about “thoughts and prayers” to the families of people that were killed because a gunmen shot them at school, church, grocery store, in their living room while they watched TV, at a family reunion in a park, or in their car minding their own business.
I’m fucking tired of it.
A school shooting happened in Colorado yesterday. Two students critically injured, as well as the shooter turned the gun on themselves. And their was the assassination of Charlie Kirk, one of the co-founders of Christian Right non-profit Turning Point USA as well as being a hate-spewing racist, misogynist homophobe. After answering a question about mass shootings and retorting about gang violence someone shot him from over 200 yards away in the neck. He died in front of hundreds of people, including his wife and kids.
As much as I abhor Charlie Kirk and his garbage life view he had a right to say it. We all have that right to say what we think or feel. And others have the right to agree or not agree. But just because I don’t agree with him doesn’t mean I’d want him dead. Maybe have someone knock his teeth down his throat, or break his nose. But killing people because of their worldview is something that happens in banana republics, Fascist regimes, and Communist governments. Or states run by dictators and warlords. It’s not supposed to happen in the United States. For better or worse, we have a right to our views, be it healthy views or hateful ones. But we don’t get to act out on those views, and also we’re not free of consequences when shouting those views from the rooftops, podcast mics, or stages on college campuses.
Now, I can’t remember one time when the White House ever flew flags at half mast when there were multiple deaths at a high school or elementary school due to a school shooting. Yet, yesterday our administration flew them at half mast…not for the Evergreen, CO school shooting. Nope, it was for Charlie Kirk. The far right Christian conservative who put his backing behind Trump via his non-profit Turning Point USA. In fact, I never heard anyone from the US government even mention the school shooting. Just Trump tweeting about what an American hero Kirk was and all the good he’d done. The “good” being helping Trump get back into White House.
The same people salivating at the thought of immigrants being eaten by alligators down in Florida’s “Alligator Alley” are the same ones crying and wailing about the guy that spewed hate and loved debating and demeaning college kids. The list of garbage, hate-filled quotes from Charlie Kirk is long and laborious so I’m not going to share them here. But please, if you want to raise your blood pressure this morning by all means google him. But here’s the thing, it seems Charlie Kirk truly died for his beliefs, so I guess hats off to him. He stated gun deaths are unfortunately worth it, in order to preserve the 2nd amendment.
Well, if that’s how he felt then I guess thanks for taking one for the team.
Don’t be mad at me for saying that, or think that I’m being thoughtless and callous. That’s exactly what he believed, so I guess he died for those beliefs. I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t want some sniper killing him in front of hundreds of onlookers and his family. Whoever did that needs to be found and punished accordingly.
I would like to hear some of these folks that are so distraught over Kirk to sound a little distraught over school shootings as well. Or the folks screaming for the head of the guy that stabbed the young Ukrainian woman on a bus to maybe be a little concerned for the Ukrainians still in Ukraine being murdered by warmonger Putin. Or maybe, even be a little worried of the fact that our President is likely a Russian asset and has been for 40 years(hey, if you believed Hillary Clinton was in a pedophile ring that met in the basement of a New Jersey pizza shop you sure as hell can believe Trump is a Russian asset.)
I’m really worried for the state of my country. I think a lot of people outside looking in are as well. The only ones living in a fantasy world are this administration, wanting us to avert our eyes from the truth and look at all the bright colors off in the distance. This administration is getting away with one of the biggest shell games ever. I know Republicans would not back a pedophile scam artist, and yet they are. And it’s making me pretty sad, and pretty mad.
Oh, and Trump is in the Epstein files. Don’t forget that.
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All I will say is this. I agree. If you ever need to bail out, I hear Australia is nice this time of year. I’ll consider that as Canada dives deeper into the abyss.
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I’ve got some connections in Scandinavia. That might be plan B.
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Beautiful people and amazing history – but I want to get warmer, not colder!
Is this the world you envisioned when you were younger and more optimistic?
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To be honest, I was never much of an optimist. Cautiously hopeful, maybe. Even as a little kid growing up in the 70s/early 80s there always seemed to be something awful happening. When I became a parent I wanted to believe that the world was inherently good with bad peppered in here or there. But what’s happening now is just a wall of absolute denial. The worst case of holding your nose from the stink and just dealing with it. Things seemed rigged before, but now it feels like no matter what we do or how many facts are proven and displayed in front of people they’ll close their eyes and say “nope”. I’m just getting through now, sharing my thoughts here and have stopped even considering changing anyone’s mind. But to answer your question…no. I did not see the world ending up here where we’re at in 2025.
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I used to believe in Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic vision of the future. That one day we would overcome our differences and unite as one. I used to think technology would bring us together, but instead it has divided us like never before. I don’t know what to think anymore. That’s the truth. I am fortunate to have met some wonderful people from all over the world, you being one. I wish we could all start a musical colony somewhere and just separate from the world, like in Tolkien myth.
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If we can make that colony happen, you know I’m in. And I think the most optimistic I was was probably the first 5 years of starting this site. Meeting you and all the other fine folks in the blogosphere it felt like connecting worldwide, but in a very micro, personal way. It was like, “Hey, these cats up in Canada, the UK, Scotland, Australia, and Europe are all getting by just like I am.” Thanks to my rogue government the US is becoming the hateful bully on the playground. Roddenberry had a thoughtful, progressive, and enlightening outlook on the future. It’s sadly being overtaken by the paranoid, outsider view of Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury, and HG Wells.
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