Everybody look what's going down

There are times when I don't blog because I can't think of anything to write about. Then there are times when so many things are happening that it's hard to settle on one topic.

Now is one of the latter.

You can't get on Facebook today without reading one opinion after another about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. People who know me could easily guess that I was not a fan, although that hasn't stopped hucksters on FB from trying to sell me T-shirts celebrating the man. FB needs to work on its algorithm a bit. 

Kirk was an alt-right gasbag who made an obscene amount of money serving up hate to unsuspecting incels across America. While he certainly had the right to free speech, he is no First Amendment martyr. I was once a news reporter, and you will not find a bigger supporter of the First Amendment that I. But the First Amendment merely says that the government cannot put you in jail for free speech. It does not say that free speech has no consequences. If I walked into a bar in an African-American section of town and shouted, "I can beat up any n***** in this place!", I would have every right to do so, but it would be a really stupid thing to do. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it. Knowing the difference is what makes us functioning members of society. Kirk fucked around and he found out. 

At the same time, I do not applaud Kirk's assassination. Not only was it morally wrong, but the potential for backlash terrifies me.

One of those T-shirts I've been offered says, "You took one, but we have thousands." The alt-right certainly knows a thing or two about foreshadowing.

I'm afraid this shooting will lead to many reprisals. The alt-right has already proven that they are capable of violence. I'm sure that anyone in America whose job is related to politics, regardless of their place on the political spectrum, has their security cranked to 11 right now. 

It's not just politicians who need to fear, though. It's all of us. Some of the mass shootings of the past few years took the lives of people who appeared to have little interest in politics besides voting--but the shooters still saw them as political threats in some way. Think of the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, the shooting at the Tops Market in Buffalo in 2022, and the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue here in Pittsburgh in 2018. 

I'm afraid there will be much more such violence in the near future.

Winter is coming.