they are at war with us
september 10, 2025
4:22 pm CDT
Charlie Kirk died this afternoon after being shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University, on behalf of his organization Turning Point USA.
This blog post was almost about something different: an Israeli affiliate said on Al Jazeera, in essence, that children in Gaza deserve no empathy for all they go through. I wanted to write about why that pains me, especially as someone with no strong opinion on the politics itself–which itself is a position, in some ways. Omar El Akkad and Mehdi Hassan would have a field day with me. And I promise I will get to that but now things have changed, and we are temporarily moving on.
These days I watch almost no TV except for moderate cable news and football. (A blog post about why is forthcoming.) It’s mostly Al Jazeera and BBC, for both CNN and Fox News are headache-inducing to me. Not everything is breaking news, and the world is not burning… most of the time. But sometimes, on days like these, when I open BBC News at 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon to read that a man I generally dislike(d) was shot at a political rally promoting an ideology I more than generally repudiate, I will want to know what my own country is saying about it.
And what they are saying! A Fox News anchor said (direct quotes) “they are at war with us.” And that stayed with me for the wrong reasons. Not only because of the divisiveness, not even the bigotry that followed (“trans shooters” was also thrown around, even though it’s actually not even a phenomenon to speak of.) But because it’s true.
We don’t currently know who the shooter is, Democrat or Republican, and it doesn’t really matter. Obviously they are extremist to a point that no party can identify with. I definitely did not like Charlie Kirk, but the last thing on my mind is to kill him. (I’m taking care to not reference mental states, because that’s work best left to psychologists. But clearly, they are unhappy.) So obviously, to me, and probably to you and your friends, shootings are not partisan issues. But to everyone? No. They are at war with us.
Who do we think the “us” and “they” are in that sentence? You’re smart. You can figure it out. Democrats orchestrated the assassination of a Republican political figure? And that’s how extremism formulates, maybe even creating more situations like this one. And we are in deep trouble if such rhetoric continues. Not only is it a us v. them, but it’s all-out war. After all, they’re using guns: first on my president and then on his microphone, effectively.
I know this post is a little bad. I’m getting back into political analyses after many months off, so please excuse my lack of thoughts. I may just write random personal bits until I “get my jive back.”