Posted on: 09/12/2025 @ 07:46 AM
Over the past few weeks I've been putting together a blog series. A series on my political leanings and worries. One of my worries was the continual divide in this country and identity politics. Seeing politics as a blood sport and the other team as less than human. With recent events, my worries seem to be validated. A validation that I did not want. Now my fear is things will get much, much worse.
When Charlie Kirk was killed, the reactions exposed something ugly. The left brands itself as the party of empathy but plenty of people cheered. “He condoned gun violence, so he got what he deserved.” The right, meanwhile, talks about law, order, and values. Yet some voices immediately called for retribution.
This isn’t empathy. It isn’t values. It’s tribal bloodlust wrapped in moral branding.
Part of what’s fueling this is the belief that words are violence. Kirk’s statement that gun deaths are “the price of the Second Amendment” has been reframed as condoning school shootings and therefore his murder was somehow justified.
That’s the logical dead end:
If words are violence…
Then violent retaliation becomes “self-defense.”
And suddenly, killing someone for what they said feels righteous.
But words aren’t bullets. Debate isn’t murder. When you erase that line, you give extremists permission to escalate. And once political violence is on the table, it doesn’t stop with your enemies.
The left preaches empathy but celebrates when someone they hate is gunned down.
The right preaches values and law & order but abandons them the moment vengeance feels good.
If you hate gun violence, you condemn it universally. If you love values and law, you uphold them universally. Otherwise, you don’t have principles. You have a team jersey.
If you really believe in principle, it has to apply even when it cuts against your own side. Violence is wrong no matter who the victim is, and words (even ugly ones) are not bullets. The moment we treat speech as violence, we give ourselves permission to answer with actual violence and that’s how societies unravel. Standing on principle means condemning violence universally, not just when the other team is hit. Anything less is just tribal rhetoric dressed up as morality.