In a democracy, there can be no justification for a political assassination or the use of violence to eliminate an adversary, as was the case with Kirk. It is morally wrong. Moreover, if the intention of the killer was to fight fascism, it was politically counterproductive.
Irrespective of what crossed the assassin’s mind, he has given the global far right a martyr they can venerate and an opportunity to stand as champions of free speech.
But nobody is under an obligation to mourn someone who said detestable things, who lacked any sense of empathy, and who actively spouted misinformation about climate change and vaccines.
Far-right parties even expected a minute of silence in the European Parliament to honour the memory of their icon.
Let’s be clear here about who we are talking about.
This chap called for a
Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. He argued that “some gun deaths every single year” are worth having “so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” He called on women “to submit to their husbands.”
He asserted that it is a fact that there are “prowling Blacks who go around for fun to go target white people.” He called civil rights martyr
Martin Luther King an “awful person.” He even described the Civil Rights Act, which banned discrimination on the basis of race and segregation, as
“a huge mistake.” Disturbingly, for him, empathy
“is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage.”
Of course, Kirk should not have been killed for saying these things. But while I condemn the assassination I would never mourn someone who said these things. One can feel sorry for his family for their loss, but it stops there. For sure, the European Parliament or any official body should never honour him.
