Charlie Kirk is dead and I can say whatever I want about it. I can mock him, satirize him and, should I choose, make disgusting comments about the manner of his murder.
However I respond, or don’t, is up to me. If America is great, it’s because we believe in free expression. That’s the promise of the First Amendment. As Charlie Kirk himself wrote, “Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment.”
Kirk and I didn’t agree on much, but we certainly agree on that. Apparently, though, the Trump administration sees things differently, with Attorney General Pam Bondi and other prominent figures in the White House, including JD Vance and Stephen “Nosferatu” Miller, promising to crack down on “hate speech” and “radical leftist organizations fomenting violence” in the days since Kirk’s killing. If that doesn’t send shivers down your spine, you should have your spine examined. (Unless you’re Marco Rubio, in which case there’s no need because you don’t have a spine.)
Bondi said over the weekend during an episode of a podcast hosted by Katie Miller—yes, the wife of Nosferatu—that her department “will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, and that goes across the aisle.”
Yes, that fresh chill you feel isn’t the coming autumn. It’s something else entirely. The last time it was here, Senator Joseph McCarthy was hauling people in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Lives were upended and ruined over ludicrous assertions of communist sympathies. Now, Americans are being targeted, and even fired, not just for “hate speech” but simply for paying insufficient fealty to a murdered influencer many people hadn’t heard of a couple weeks ago.
Moreover, nobody from the administration has explained what they mean by the term “hate speech.” They can’t, in fact, because to do so would be to implicate their own leaders. If they try, it’s with typical bad-faith arguments like this from conservative commentator Matt Walsh: “The left will cancel you for saying objectively true, good and normal things. To the extent that the right cancels you, it’ll be for saying objectively abhorrent, perverse and sick things. And this distinction matters.”
In other words, according to Walsh, free speech is fine as long as it’s “objectively true, good, and normal.” But only by his definition of “objectively,” of course—if one were to color outside of those lines, one deserves whatever happens to you. That’s, literally, the opposite of free speech. (Walsh was, go figure, among many figures on the right criticizing Bondi’s message promising a crackdown on “hate speech” across the board.)
By the way, there’s nothing wrong with a private company firing somebody for offensive things an employee says. Actions—and words—have consequences. The problem is a company or institution firing somebody for what they think the government will do if they don’t act against an employee for speech they worry the government may find offensive.
As so many have pointed out in recent days, the person most responsible for spreading hate-filled rhetoric in this nation is the human whoopie cushion currently serving as President of the United States. Pam Bondi, if you’re looking at both sides of the aisle, come get your man.
Of course, some speech is already illegal. The examples are obvious and usually involve yelling “fire.” But that’s not what they’re talking about. Katie Miller, in setting up the answer I already quoted Bondi as giving, asked, “Do you see law enforcement going after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people?”
Got that? We’re going to have law enforcement “put cuffs on people” for saying things the administration doesn’t like. And what “groups” is she even talking about? What leftist “groups” are out there preaching hate and violence? I can think of rightwing groups doing so—The Proud Boys, Patriot (“Jews will not replace us”) Front, and a number of militias—but none on the left. I’m not saying they don’t exist, they probably do, but none with the same visibility, reach and administration support as the ones on the right. But I suppose we already know they’re not going to do sh-t to those groups because the first thing Trump did when he got into office was pardon a bunch of their members after they invaded the Capitol and beat up a bunch of cops.
Now, it’s entirely possible that Bondi and Vance and Miller were feeling a little touchy after their friend died, and that’s understandable. It’s possible that their extraconstitutional talk is just that: talk. You know, the kind that’s protected under the First Amendment. But I don’t think so.
Instead, I suspect Charlie Kirk is worth so much more to them dead than alive. Here, at least, they have their MAGA martyr. Ashli Babbitt, the woman shot and killed by a D.C. police officer during the January 6, 2021 insurrection, just received a hero’s funeral from the Air Force, but the broader American public couldn’t quite get behind her. Kirk, though, is the perfect victim: a popular, prominent conservative gunned down in broad daylight. Even better, a white dude, a family man, a churchgoer. They will, literally, whitewash his words and erect a statue of him in the Capitol, which would be fitting considering his group, Turning Point USA, sent 80 buses to Washington on January 6. Those seeking to canonize him figure, probably correctly, anything they do in Kirk’s name will go largely unopposed.
“Should I feel confident in saying that the someone who advocated for free speech would be appalled at the actions being taken in his name? Maybe. Or, who knows, maybe he would have celebrated the administration’s crackdown on the left. The fact is, whatever Kirk would have said and done is now largely irrelevant because this administration has decided to co-opt his legacy as their own. ”— Michael Ian Black
Which means if you’re a lefty with a social media account and a job you’d like to hold onto, you better watch your mouth. I’ve been inundated the last week with warnings from people I love to watch what I say, to be careful, to tread lightly. They’re well-intentioned and I could not disagree with them more. But now, more than ever, it’s vital that Americans not self-censor. Now, more than ever, it’s important for people to express themselves.
It doesn’t need to be crass or crude or, to use Matt Walsh’s word, “perverse.” When we allow fear to dictate our speech, we’re not allowing the administration to stifle our First Amendment freedoms. We’re doing it ourselves. As a comedian and writer, let me state without equivocation: f–k that.
As I was finishing this piece came word that Jimmy Kimmel has been placed on an indefinite hiatus following fairly tame remarks he made regarding Kirk’s killer on his show.
This nonetheless prompted threats from Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who said that “[ABC] can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
They did it to Colbert. They’re doing it to Kimmel. Are you starting to get it?
Button up, friends. The chill you feel presages the advent of a cold—and chilling—American winter. The snowflakes? They’re in charge.
The post Opinion: Plot Twist: MAGA’s Free Speech Warriors Are 100% Snowflake appeared first on The Daily Beast.
