There are those who are divorced from the center and are anxiously waiting for an excuse for justifiable violence.
“Thirty-four percent of college students recently said they supported using violence in some circumstances to stop a campus speech, according to a poll from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression published a day before the Kirk shooting. Since 2021, that share has risen from 24 percent, which was already unacceptably high. Surveys of older adults are similarly alarming.”
Thank you for your consistently moderate and common sense voice, especially today. I don't always agree, but I do always enjoy your sharp thinking expressed so reasonably and so well. We need a lot more human beings like you.
Political violence isn't on the rise, it may even be declining slightly. But it is getting better documented, had a slight shift in targeting, and it is far far harder to hide it. That is the big big change, and what that change may bring is anyone's guess. Kennedy, MLK, Malcom X, Reagan shot, These were just to big and had to get a lot of coverage, but at the same time hundreds of other were dying by the one and two all over the place. I grow up during part of that. Kennedy was killd the year I was born. They would make the head lines in their home town, but that was about it. IT is now far harder to sweep it under the rug. That makes the chance of an explosive reaction to it far higher, and much more likely to spread. Some think that censorship is the answer, but I have doubt. That is more likely to make things worse not better. Other have the idea of getting people focused on conflicts overseas, Russia, Middle East and SE Asia to keep things from blowing up here. But that has big big problems too. Good men are dying. But good men have been dying for standing up for my enter life. Most of the time it doesn't explode, and most of the time there is someone to step into their shoes. What is most likely is that there will be nothing offered by any side that will make thing better. Both will say if you just did it our way, this kind of thing won't happen. But history doesn't support that idea.
Mr. Thomas is correct, I was absolutely not surprised by this heinous act. Great article, Katharine and all too true. RIP Charlie Kirk (1993-2025)! May his memory be a blessing! I don’t care who it is, I could be someone who I vehemently disagree agree with, they have the right to free speech and the right not to be murdered for it even I really don’t like them. I didn’t care for Charlie Kirk at least as a political commentator. But I’d never celebrate his death. The normalization of political violence in this country is shocking and appalling and has been getting steadily worse over the past eight years. We are so close to civil war is frightening. The only time we were closer was 1860. Our republic is in its most difficult period since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We need to turn down the temperature on our political rhetoric and we need to start de-polarizing America and make serious strides at it in the next ten years or America will cease to be. I truly believe that in my heart. There will be no America in ten years if this keeps up. Red and Blue America will get a divorce and that’ll be the end of that. The war will start there with one side trying to impose their will on another. That can’t be aloud to happen we’ve got to save this Republic and restore it to its greatness.
Is this the America Nathan Hale had he regretted he had but one life to give for? Is this the America Dr. Joseph Warren and Casimir Pulaski gave their lives in battle for? Is this the America that Thomas Paine envisioned when he wrote Common Sense? Is this the America that is a shining city on a hill the Pilgrims dreamed of? Is this the America that the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day put their lives on the line for? Is this the America Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers died fighting to build a more prefect union for? Is this the America that Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were assassinated while governing because they cared so deeply about it they devoted their lives to public service?
Those are questions we need to answer and fast if we want a better future for us and our children. How would George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln feel about America if they were alive today? They’d be absolutely horrified! I can just see John Adams and Ben Franklin in Heaven right now weeping for America. I can see Jack and Bobby Kennedy cursing our generation for ruining the great country they worked so hard to serve. I can see Walt Disney, Jim Henson and Mr. Rogers shaking their heads and wondering why the lessons they sought to teach us are being ignored. I can see Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, and Omar Bradley questioning whether their service really accomplished anything. I can see Sitting Bull, Fredrick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Larry Itilong, and Susan B. Anthony decrying how identity politics and third and fourth-wave feminism are undoing all they worked for. I see Uncle Sam himself asking where he can get a refund for all the time and effort he waisted trying to representation our nation with pride when we have him such a broken down old hunk of junk to represent.
Unfortunately, the leadership of our government is not helpful in making us as citizens feel safe or secure in the future of our democracy. Indeed, we no longer have a democracy an for most of us this is not normal American life that we have grown up with or can see that it’s not sustainable for the future.
Back in 2012 I was debating my commie🤣 brother about what I see that society is headed to if we don't intervene. (I was debatibg the then rise of frequent language being used by the left.
I put it this way.
>"I don't like what you say"
>"I don't like what you say, you ideas are dangerous"
>"I don't like what you say, you are dangerous, we must stop you from speaking"
>"I don't like what you say, we must by force, stop you from speaking"
>"I don't like what you say, you are dangerous we must build camps herd you into those camps and kill all of you because you destructive to the greater good of the world.
We are now at the point where next step is the camps.
There are those who are divorced from the center and are anxiously waiting for an excuse for justifiable violence.
“Thirty-four percent of college students recently said they supported using violence in some circumstances to stop a campus speech, according to a poll from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression published a day before the Kirk shooting. Since 2021, that share has risen from 24 percent, which was already unacceptably high. Surveys of older adults are similarly alarming.”
Thank you for your consistently moderate and common sense voice, especially today. I don't always agree, but I do always enjoy your sharp thinking expressed so reasonably and so well. We need a lot more human beings like you.
Political violence isn't on the rise, it may even be declining slightly. But it is getting better documented, had a slight shift in targeting, and it is far far harder to hide it. That is the big big change, and what that change may bring is anyone's guess. Kennedy, MLK, Malcom X, Reagan shot, These were just to big and had to get a lot of coverage, but at the same time hundreds of other were dying by the one and two all over the place. I grow up during part of that. Kennedy was killd the year I was born. They would make the head lines in their home town, but that was about it. IT is now far harder to sweep it under the rug. That makes the chance of an explosive reaction to it far higher, and much more likely to spread. Some think that censorship is the answer, but I have doubt. That is more likely to make things worse not better. Other have the idea of getting people focused on conflicts overseas, Russia, Middle East and SE Asia to keep things from blowing up here. But that has big big problems too. Good men are dying. But good men have been dying for standing up for my enter life. Most of the time it doesn't explode, and most of the time there is someone to step into their shoes. What is most likely is that there will be nothing offered by any side that will make thing better. Both will say if you just did it our way, this kind of thing won't happen. But history doesn't support that idea.
Mr. Thomas is correct, I was absolutely not surprised by this heinous act. Great article, Katharine and all too true. RIP Charlie Kirk (1993-2025)! May his memory be a blessing! I don’t care who it is, I could be someone who I vehemently disagree agree with, they have the right to free speech and the right not to be murdered for it even I really don’t like them. I didn’t care for Charlie Kirk at least as a political commentator. But I’d never celebrate his death. The normalization of political violence in this country is shocking and appalling and has been getting steadily worse over the past eight years. We are so close to civil war is frightening. The only time we were closer was 1860. Our republic is in its most difficult period since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We need to turn down the temperature on our political rhetoric and we need to start de-polarizing America and make serious strides at it in the next ten years or America will cease to be. I truly believe that in my heart. There will be no America in ten years if this keeps up. Red and Blue America will get a divorce and that’ll be the end of that. The war will start there with one side trying to impose their will on another. That can’t be aloud to happen we’ve got to save this Republic and restore it to its greatness.
Is this the America Nathan Hale had he regretted he had but one life to give for? Is this the America Dr. Joseph Warren and Casimir Pulaski gave their lives in battle for? Is this the America that Thomas Paine envisioned when he wrote Common Sense? Is this the America that is a shining city on a hill the Pilgrims dreamed of? Is this the America that the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day put their lives on the line for? Is this the America Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers died fighting to build a more prefect union for? Is this the America that Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were assassinated while governing because they cared so deeply about it they devoted their lives to public service?
Those are questions we need to answer and fast if we want a better future for us and our children. How would George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln feel about America if they were alive today? They’d be absolutely horrified! I can just see John Adams and Ben Franklin in Heaven right now weeping for America. I can see Jack and Bobby Kennedy cursing our generation for ruining the great country they worked so hard to serve. I can see Walt Disney, Jim Henson and Mr. Rogers shaking their heads and wondering why the lessons they sought to teach us are being ignored. I can see Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, and Omar Bradley questioning whether their service really accomplished anything. I can see Sitting Bull, Fredrick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Larry Itilong, and Susan B. Anthony decrying how identity politics and third and fourth-wave feminism are undoing all they worked for. I see Uncle Sam himself asking where he can get a refund for all the time and effort he waisted trying to representation our nation with pride when we have him such a broken down old hunk of junk to represent.
Let's not act surprised.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-many-americans-might-be-increasingly-accepting-of-political-violence/
Unfortunately, the leadership of our government is not helpful in making us as citizens feel safe or secure in the future of our democracy. Indeed, we no longer have a democracy an for most of us this is not normal American life that we have grown up with or can see that it’s not sustainable for the future.
you need to post this on X too.
Back in 2012 I was debating my commie🤣 brother about what I see that society is headed to if we don't intervene. (I was debatibg the then rise of frequent language being used by the left.
I put it this way.
>"I don't like what you say"
>"I don't like what you say, you ideas are dangerous"
>"I don't like what you say, you are dangerous, we must stop you from speaking"
>"I don't like what you say, we must by force, stop you from speaking"
>"I don't like what you say, you are dangerous we must build camps herd you into those camps and kill all of you because you destructive to the greater good of the world.
We are now at the point where next step is the camps.
It started before that. In 2009 Glen Beck used to go on Fox News every night and say Obama was planning to put people in FEMA camps.