Sorry, I couldn’t resist the urge to write about this Charlie Kirk thing, despite the real risk that Bondi’s Thought Police might come a’knockin, no matter how carefully I couch it.Truth is, like most of you reading this, I stay in my own media silo. Which means, NY Times, Washington Post, PBS, major network news and, now and again, CNN. Oh, yes, and MSNBC.
With zero exposure to social media and the Dark Side media, I’d never heard of Charlie Kirk before his unfortunate demise. So, I’m not going to preface my comments with saying how shocked I was, or horrified, or spout any of the hypocritical, public-facing, hand-wringing of those who inhabit my media sphere. They have to do that. I don’t. For me, it was just another news event. Another shooting. Something most of us have become inured to. Certainly, I agree with the idea that any type of politically-motivated violence is deplorable, especially when it gives one side of our divide an excuse to persecute the other. But the accompanying narrative about this guy, the martyrdom being promoted by the Dark Side, that has been leaking into my information channels got me wondering.
That image of an open-minded debater, inviting people to come and join him in honest discussion of issues just didn’t square with some of the comments that have come my way from people on my side of the divide. I felt that reading them and watching selectively-plucked video clips might be giving me a very out-of-context view of this guy. So, I went to the source and watched several lengthy YouTube videos of his college campus events. Very revealing.
OK, the guy had a brain the size of a planet. He was an incredibly skilled debater. Which, of course, doesn’t require you to actually believe what you say. He was also a polished performer. And bringing those college kids to a microphone in front of hundreds of their peers, with their one-issue question scribbled on a piece of paper, was less like open discussion and more like bringing lambs to the slaughter.
As an advertising and marketing copy writer, I understand and practice the art of persuasion. And to be successful at it often involves not being 100% truthful. By emphasizing certain positive points, amplifying them in a wrapper of emotive words, and conveniently omitting any downsides of whatever you’re trying to sell, you can get people to think and/or do what you want them to.
Charlie Kirk seemed to have an encyclopedic array of facts and examples immediately at hand, and an extraordinary talent for being able to bring them up and seamlessly connect any number of them to counter whatever feeble argument his “victims” presented as they stood, knees knocking, in his presence. He would then overwhelm them with both the speed and cadence of his replies, quickly diverting when someone was actually able to deliver a touch. I know he would have eaten me alive, and probably you as well, had we stood at that mic.
This recent exposure hasn’t convinced me that he wasn’t sincere in his beliefs. Nor that he was in this for the money and fame, and not on a crusade to persuade people to think as he legitimately believed. But as to being sincere about free speech and open dialog, I have real skepticism. I kept waiting for someone to present an opposing point and have him respond, “Well, I hadn’t considered that.” Or, “Maybe you might be right about that.” Didn’t happen. These were one-way discussions–Charlie’s way or “Next question.”
Granted, watching an hour or so of this one aspect of his life does not qualify me as an expert on Charlie Kirk. And I’d invite anyone to “Prove Me Wrong.” But, I wish the assassination had never happened, and I could go blithefully along without ever having heard of this guy. The world would be better with him still in it. For as our democracy crumbles amid lies and abuses of power, so many with lesser skills than he, but with the vilest of motives, have been agitated to even greater evils by this event. So, I can honestly mourn his loss. But not as much as I mourn losing Jimmy Kimmel. Though I don’t think HE’s dead quite yet.
©2025, David B Bucher
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