Responding to a younger YouTube creator (I really enjoy his videos – they elaborate history). He NEVER has strayed from his mission – until yesterday. For some reason he felt he needed to talk about Kirk’s murder … and seemed to me to put Kirk up on a pedestal.
This creator said things have gotten way worse in the last 20 years… blaming this on a trend towards irreligion in our country….
My response:
Things have gotten worse? You didn’t live in the ‘50’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s….
Perception can become someone’s reality, instead of the actual reality. Remember “alternative facts”?
Political rhetoric drives perceptions. Lies, misinformation and disinformation included in propaganda rhetoric serve to drive perceptions.
You promote Kirk as a person of deep religious faith.
A truly religious person seeks truth and rejects lies.
Kirk propagated the lie of a stolen 2020 election.
Kirk told an audience at a Trump election rally in Georgia last fall that Democrats “stand for everything God hates” and adding: “This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way.”
Did Kirk lose himself in his fame, fortune and notoriety?
To be absolutely clear: None of any of this justifies violence and hate should- he did not deserve to be the target of violence nor hate.
We ALL should clearly stand up against violence and hate – period, full stop. No pointing fingers at anyone else, as Trump did in his response, blaming the radical left a number of times.
As an aside: some history about the evolution of our political rhetoric:
In the 1990’s, Newt Gingrich told his fellow party members to start using very biased words when talking about their political opponents. See below for his “story”….
Rhetoric drives perception.
The lust for political power drives continual escalation in rhetoric to drive ever more divisive perception.
Politics is all about the quest for power – our political “leaders” have lost their way in their lust for the golden calf, the false idol of power here on earth.
Gingrich in 1990:
“1990 – Gingrich’s political action committee, GOPAC, sends out a memo titled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control” to several thousand Republican candidates running for state and local offices. It includes a list of words they should use to describe Democrats:
“decay, failure (fail) collapse(ing) deeper, crisis, urgent(cy), destructive, destroy, sick, pathetic, lie, liberal, they/them, unionized bureaucracy, “compassion” is not enough, betray, consequences, limit(s), shallow, traitors, sensationalists, endanger, coercion, hypocricy, radical, threaten, devour, waste, corruption, incompetent, permissive attitude, destructive, impose, self-serving, greed, ideological, insecure, anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs; pessimistic, excuses, intolerant, stagnation, welfare, corrupt, selfish, insensitive, status quo, mandate(s) taxes, spend (ing) shame, disgrace, punish (poor…) bizarre, cynicism, cheat, steal, abuse of power, machine, bosses, obsolete, criminal rights, red tape, patronage.”
1990 – Speaking privately to a group of supporters, Gingrich says he’s changing his public role from “explainer of political tactics to explainer of cultural change.”
“CULTURAL CHANGE – no longer political tactics…. Let that sink in…..
the empowered electorate 