Day 2 Thoughts
Added 2025-09-11 19:32:08 +0000 UTCTikTok continues to suppress and censor my page. Just another day at the office. Listen, feel however you feel. If you saw the up close footage and felt nauseated or traumatized by it, that's appropriate. You aren't wrong for reacting that way. Gun violence is horrific. It's disgusting and tragic and senseless. However, I will say that if you feel like people need to be more reverent or respectful of the man Charlie Kirk was... I think you might need to slow down and really think about that one. We, on the left, have always been on the side that abhors gun violence. We have never cheered for it or celebrated it. We have always hated it and wanted our government to take a strong, meaningful stance against it. Charlie Kirk wanted the opposite. He was on the complete wrong side of this issue. He was a victim of the world he helped to create and uphold. He wanted to live in a society where someone has the right to buy a high-powered, long range sniper rifle and show up to an event to kill someone. That's not me being cruel or insensitive, that's me being honest. That is just the empirical, irrefutable truth of the matter. It's important that we stay clear on what's true right now. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones!
Comments
Excellent take as always. Have you considered covering Horst Wessel and how textbook the moves these conservatives are making are? I totally get if you don’t have the bandwidth for it right now, but there are too many parallels (down to Goebbels labeling it extremism before he was even pronounced dead) and I don’t see anyone talking about it.
Jaye
2025-09-22 00:55:32 +0000 UTCYeah, where were their cries to end political violence with Melissa Hortman and her husband? And the slew of other right wing ideology-driven killings and mass shootings? We are living in an absolute hellscape rn
Scott Phillips
2025-09-16 03:45:39 +0000 UTCThis whole week feels like our current timeline just keeps freying...
Britt
2025-09-12 22:14:38 +0000 UTCI'm not kidding when I say that every time I hear Republicans talk, I feel like I'm on crazy pills. I literally start questioning whether I'm understanding correctly the words coming out of their mouths. Trump posted just days ago that Chicago will "find out why it’s called the Department of WAR"...?? And yet, "the radical left" is *responsible* for... the gun violence...?? Thanks for your posts, Austin. When I see your righteous anger match my own, I feel validated. It's weirdly cathartic even if I can't do much more than rage about it...
A Penguin
2025-09-12 06:09:02 +0000 UTCThey try to constantly bundle a bunch of other issues together because they think that if they can enough lies on as fast as possible one of them will be adjacent enough to the truth that their cult will believe it all
Andy
2025-09-12 00:35:19 +0000 UTCThank you for saying this. I responded the way he responded to the gun violence, using his own words, and was basically told I was a demon. I am sad I don't feel more empathetic toward him (the only ones I feel for is his kids) because just a few years ago I would have been devastated. I know I've changed but I feel like I've been desensitized by all the "thoughts and prayers" and the non action of lawmakers where gun violence is concerned. Even watching the actual video is something I would have never done in the past! But even that didn't affect me the way it used to. As the "right" in my life always said , "You live by the sword, you die by the sword." And he did.
Beckie
2025-09-12 00:04:58 +0000 UTCMan Austin, you look as tired as I feel. And I don't say that to mock you. All this is just so incredibly frustrating, because the solutions to most of the problems your country has are so, so simple. Try to keep your head above the water, I appreciate what you do. And try to get some sleep, buddy :)
Tobias N.
2025-09-11 23:51:05 +0000 UTCSpitting facts as usual. Hope you're okay. Sounds like you've been awake all night. I have
Channel Dave
2025-09-11 22:50:00 +0000 UTCEh, it was a single shot from a scoped rifle. I want gun control too because I don't believe in the virtue of school shootings, but common sense gun control almost always allows hunting rifles. Also, I know this contradicts my above comment but the winds might need to shift on this issue for the left unless you really think you can cooperatively govern with fascists and zealots that want you dead.
Chairdevil
2025-09-11 22:11:25 +0000 UTCYeah we had to put our flag at half mast today in Minneapolis. It was only called at the state level when it was a shooting in our city just 2 weeks prior. Not a fucking peep from Trump for the shooting at the church. Our staff definitely lowered it for the young people yesterday and 2 weeks ago, not the white supremacist.
Sam Quincy
2025-09-11 21:29:32 +0000 UTCI suggested in tiktok comment that maybe people shouldn't breakout the pitchforks until there's a suspect at the very least. Apparently that's a community violation. Calling for a civil war against "the left"... ya, all good.
hadsie
2025-09-11 21:10:01 +0000 UTCNailed it austin 👏
Anthony Ocean
2025-09-11 20:57:49 +0000 UTC👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Sejl
2025-09-11 20:34:42 +0000 UTCThank you for continuing to speak on this. I'm literally losing my shit watching these ppl do their mental gymnastics to saintify him & argue with us. I saw 2 flags flying at half staff today on my way to a doc appt (one was in the neighborhood I live in)! Not for the children who lost their lives, for this asshole. If you haven't read Dr. Patton's latest piece, I highly recommend it. https://open.substack.com/pub/drstaceypatton1865/p/charlie-kirk-called-gun-deaths-the
Lucertola
2025-09-11 20:31:59 +0000 UTCOk, I think this is much bigger in that CK is going to be a martyr for the republican cause. I’m also thinking the shot was done by a professional. Now instead of Maga & the Epstein List, T has them putting flags at half mast & calling him a great guy. He wasn’t an elected official. This shooting is different & the way they are blaming all leftists is crazy
B&C Smith
2025-09-11 20:15:07 +0000 UTCWhat brilliant wordplay!
Sheila Lynne
2025-09-11 20:09:06 +0000 UTCI've been seeing Facebook posts where people are like, "I am Charlie Kirk." I immediately unfriended.
Anne
2025-09-11 20:07:59 +0000 UTCI feel like a crazy person for even considering conspiracy theories about this shooting. But this absurd and dangerous rhetoric on the right is scary. Austin, help me not feel so crazy please. Also, yes to everything you said.
Halley Harris
2025-09-11 20:02:12 +0000 UTCI mean, every day can be your last. I think it’s brave to stand up and argue for what you believe in even in enemy territory. They need to be faced with facts and even the empathy they so loathe when it suits them.
Andrea Lindsay
2025-09-11 19:57:50 +0000 UTCWhenever mass shootings like these happen, gun and ammo sales spike. Until that stops, the problem won’t be solved. Unfortunately, I’ve come to the realization that a lot of people think like Charlie - they’re fine with this happening as long as they get to keep their guns. It’s really disheartening. 💔
Jaime L
2025-09-11 19:54:30 +0000 UTCYou can almost cut the tension I feel at work today with a knife. Someone said,”Well see what comes of it.” I said, “What do you mean? Nothing will come of it. Nothing ever came from the democratic lawmakers who were murdered or even when children are gunned down in schools.” I’m for sure outed(sp?). And, the different one in the office. They’re focused.
Carilyn Done
2025-09-11 19:47:50 +0000 UTCShe is such an ignorant trunt!
Kimberly Transtrum
2025-09-11 19:39:46 +0000 UTCIt’s so concerning seeing this uniformed call for Dems to be rounded up or punished for their “violent rhetoric”. I don’t know that I believe conservatives are unified enough or will ever be unified enough to exterminate whoever they deem to be a democrat or whatever. Like civil war won’t go the way they think it will. Unfortunately, I do think political murders will continue to happen…
Andrea Lindsay
2025-09-11 19:39:35 +0000 UTC
