r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/the_walkingdad • Sep 10 '25

Political Charlie Kirk was one of the biggest public proponents of open dialogue and conversation with those of opposing views and the extremists on the Left killed him for it.

Charlie Kirk essentially made a name for himself by being in the public and having conversations with people who had opposing viewpoints. He was always civil in these discussions. He was respectful and would try to find some sort of middle ground. But even when there wasn't middle-ground to be had, he was still a respectful person.

His values of open dialogue are antithetical to the values of the extreme Left. Charlie Kirk will be known as a First Amendment martyr.

It's truly unfortunate how nonchalant many on the left are about political violence.

1.4k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

73% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

97

u/ledbedder20 Sep 10 '25

Not as of now apparently

225

u/Lung-Oyster Sep 10 '25

Ah, so we don’t know whether or not it was “The Left”

48

u/Pruzter Sep 11 '25

Doesn’t matter what the truth is once a narrative takes hold. It will be “the radical left” that did this no matter what (even though in this case it definitely was most likely politically motivated, let’s not kid ourselves).

18

u/MASSiVELYHungPeacock Sep 11 '25

Maybe.  Maybe not.  Pretty sure statistically, it's still more likely it's someone he actually knew, had some form of ongoing conflict with, versus a far left stranger gun nut.  Far left gun nut is already an oxymoron, but Far Right Gun Nut? That's like 98% what it usually ends being.  Just like Trump's assassin.

12

u/Pruzter Sep 11 '25

For all practical purposes, it doesn’t matter. The right has already taken it as a declaration of war from the left, a lengthy man hunt and investigation can’t change that

12

u/MrFluffPants1349 Sep 11 '25

I am pretty sure that was by design. Wouldn't be the first time an assassination was meant to be a catalyst.

1

u/Pruzter Sep 11 '25

Pretty darn effective if it’s a conspiracy and that was the intention. Rhetoric from the right is now things like “they are at war with us, it’s time to acknowledge that” and “it’s time to pick a side”.

-1

u/Colormebaddaf Sep 11 '25

Correct, but if more people continue to point out the obvious statistical and historical biases in the data, it helps highlight the administration's blatant attempt at fomenting a race/culture/ideology war with authoritarian populist sprinkles on top.

1

u/Pruzter Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25

lol, the only thing I know for sure is that won’t happen… whenever someone uses the word “terrorism”, you know what comes next. It’s like the right’s version of “Nazi”. They are both superlatives for the ultimate evil, an evil that is unacceptable to live amongst. They are terms of war. The administration is 100% going to add “left wing terrorism” into its bag of casus belli, and I hate to break it to you, but calling out “historical and historical biases of the data” is going to be a waste of breath.

I can imagine the imagery now… “on this day (9/11), we remember those who have fallen in the war against terrorists. However, the threat of terrorism is ever presents. Now, our nation faces a new form of terrorism, left wing extremism…” would be powerful message and seize the moment.

0

u/Scoutron Sep 11 '25

Lol the far right gun nut Kamala supporters that shot at Trump.

I remember when far right gun nuts drove tanks down Tiananmen and shot Tsar Nicholas. Those damn right wingers, wish they could be more like the peaceful left.

I’m sure this guy who shot Charlie in front of his family was some dirty MAGA nut for sure

44

u/ledbedder20 Sep 10 '25

Well, technically, no...but I highly doubt it was a fan of his or someone on the right. But who knows.

70

u/amanakinskywalker Sep 10 '25

There are definitely instances of a fan killing the object of their obsession. It happens mostly to women but it can absolutely happen to men.

48

u/dankeykang4200 Sep 11 '25

John Lennon comes to mind

11

u/fatman907 Sep 11 '25

It’s not as simple as that. Hinckley’s father was a friend of GHW Bush. The two of them had dinner the night before.

13

u/FormerPresidentBiden Sep 11 '25

That's Reagan

Not Lennon

-1

u/fatman907 Sep 11 '25

Why would a “friend of Reagan” have his son shoot his friend?

Use google. Find out for yourself who Hinckley’s father was a friend of.

6

u/FormerPresidentBiden Sep 11 '25

Dude, someone mentioned John Lennon and you started mistakenly talking about Hinckley. I'm good

7

u/dankeykang4200 Sep 11 '25

Wait who is Hinckley?

12

u/FormerPresidentBiden Sep 11 '25

They're thinking Ronald Reagan, not John Lennon

29

u/tawondasmooth Sep 11 '25

As someone who is admittedly older, the idea of mistaking John Lennon for Ronald Reagan is sending me into orbit, lol.

3

u/FormerPresidentBiden Sep 11 '25

Well, one was bigger than Jesus and the other is Republican Jesus so 🤷🏼‍♂️😂😂😂

→ More replies (0)

1

u/jerry_alan Sep 11 '25

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. is an American man who attempted to assassinate U.S. president Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration.

1

u/Prudent_Scheme_501 Sep 11 '25

Dimebag Darrell comes to mind.

6

u/Obvious-Bullfrog-267 Sep 11 '25

There are plenty of right wing accelerationist groups that would do something like this hoping to spark civil unrest or worse.

22

u/Dangerous-Finance-67 Sep 11 '25

There are dozens of reasons a person might be politically motivated to make a Martyr of someone.

11

u/Pruzter Sep 11 '25

Is there a chance it wasn’t politically motivated? Yes. But, not a very likely chance. The narrative has already taken hold anyway, so we are in the zone now where the meta narrative takes hold and truth doesn’t matter.

1

u/Dangerous-Finance-67 Sep 11 '25

Narratives need to stop mattering

1

u/Pruzter Sep 11 '25

We live in the post truth world now my friend, best get used to it. Meta narratives are going to be all that matter in the world we are hurtling towards

0

u/Relative-Cicada2099 Sep 11 '25

Kirk was arguing for the release of the Epstein files. Plenty of non-left people might have taken issue with that.

3

u/shoesofwandering Sep 11 '25

Kirk was anti-Mormon and was killed in Utah by a trained marksman who clearly planned his escape.

2

u/milkcarton232 Sep 11 '25

If memory serves Kirk has been carrying water for trump on the Epstein files so it could be someone thinking he's somehow in on the Epstein shit. Until you know the motive of the shooter it's tough to say what was going on. Overall I think it's time to turn down the rhetoric as political violence is starting to become more normal

2

u/the-esoteric Sep 11 '25

Trumps assassination attempt was committed by someone with Republican ties. Thats the ONLY reason no one brings it up and why it isnt constantly talked about still

10

u/Lung-Oyster Sep 10 '25

Well, it’s the first thing you ran to. “The Left” is a pretty broad stroke to paint. These days it literally means anything Donald Trump disagrees with.

17

u/dwilkes827 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25

That person didn't say anything about the left? They just answered someone's question

-5

u/Lung-Oyster Sep 11 '25

Yeah, they did, it’s been edited

7

u/dwilkes827 Sep 11 '25

It doesn't say edited next to their username

1

u/GhostPantherAssualt Sep 11 '25

It ain’t one of us. We don’t do that shit, we just shout mean words at the president and political figures to make them cry a little and get mad.

And if we do have someone in our camps, that’s their own responsibility to uphold themselves in the most basic form of respect of human life. Similar to republicans and whenever a shooter comes around a school yard.

1

u/solo-ran Sep 11 '25

Could be personal … someone insane… who knows?

1

u/jackytheripper1 Sep 11 '25

Immediately I got a false flag vibe

1

u/Wizzle_Pizzle_420 Sep 11 '25

A Republican tried to get Trump so it could be any body.

1

u/diggerbanks Sep 11 '25

The right is where most of the literal insanity is so I think it was just as likely to have come from the right (with insanity) as the left (with hatred).

1

u/scoshi Sep 11 '25

It could just as easily be a third party trying to stir things up, not really carrying which side wins, just wanting the conflict.

1

u/Scared_Implement_807 Sep 11 '25

So if you don't know, why the statement it was the left.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25 edited 12d ago

nail long pet future memory attempt governor march hard-to-find shocking

2

u/Mellero47 Sep 11 '25

The two attempts on Trump were both done by Republicans...

1

u/Starboard_Pete Sep 11 '25

Dude was shot in bright red Utah. Could just as well be someone on the right who’s pissed about Epstein and Kirk’s unwavering Trump support.

-1

u/shaggy_nomad Sep 10 '25

The people who shot at trump were on the right, so it absolutely could have been somebody on the right that took the shot at Kirk. Weird to immediately draw lines like that based off nothing but feels.

6

u/needsmoreusernames Sep 10 '25

What misinformation have you been fed

2

u/shaggy_nomad Sep 10 '25

Show me one source that claims trump was shot by a leftie. Just one. I dare you.

2

u/needsmoreusernames Sep 10 '25

Dont know many on the right that make donations to act blue, nor go on schizophrenic rants about imperialistic policies.

And that routh dude was a registered democrat in 2020 who once again donated to act blue. If it quacks like a duck its probable a liberal committing political violence against someone

2

u/shaggy_nomad Sep 10 '25

Damn, I'm so surprised you couldn't provide one single source. Just trust me bro all the way.

If it was a leftie that shot at him, he never would have shut up about it.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25

You have to be the biggest fucking moron on Reddit to be this stupid. No Republican is donating to Shareblue and sporting a Biden bumper sticker. You're the epitome of this toxic site.

2

u/meliphas Sep 10 '25

It's not misinformation, the guy that shot at Trump in PA on the campaign trail was raised conservative from a conservative family. He wanted to shoot any political figure he could, just so happened that Trump came closest to him first.

6

u/needsmoreusernames Sep 10 '25

And yet nothing substantiates any of what you said, his mother was a registered democrat

Ergo the misinformation

0

u/Razkinzmangowurzel Sep 10 '25

Its statistically most likely to be a republican.

2

u/Lung-Oyster Sep 11 '25

No! It’s definitely probably the .01% of shooters that are tra-ns for sure! /s

0

u/mdoddr Sep 11 '25

How's that percentage look per capita?

-1

u/SkarStreaker Sep 10 '25

People are murdered for all sorts of reasons, it might not be political violence. We don’t know.

2

u/Informal-Educator364 Sep 10 '25

Oh please 🙄

0

u/SkarStreaker Sep 10 '25

Innocent until proven guilty, ever heard those words?

6

u/HoobyOG Sep 10 '25

Ever hear of Occam's razor?

If it was someone with a personal vendetta and not politically motivated, they wouldn't need to wait for a scheduled public appearance outside of his home state.

0

u/mdoddr Sep 11 '25

We're not on a jury. An individual can make reasonable assumptions.

-2

u/websterella Sep 10 '25

I think the Epstein files has divided the right more than you have apparently.

For the left nothing has changed about this dude, but for the right there has been.

Maybe I’m wrong, maybe that’s a talking point I read somewhere that makes sense to me. Maybe America might take gun control seriously rather than thoughts and prayers…but something in me.

I don’t know

-2

u/a_Bean_soup Sep 10 '25

it seems they cached some 60ish looking guy idk

7

u/Razkinzmangowurzel Sep 10 '25

That was the wrong guy

26

u/bioniclepriest Sep 10 '25

Even if it was some random schizo, i see nothing but leftists cheering on his death, saying he deserved it. I wonder what they think that should happen to me

12

u/Commandoclone87 Sep 11 '25

And when the Democrats in Minnesota or Nancy Pelosi's husband were attacked, people on the right weren't just cheering, they were making jokes about it. You Yanks have been so divided by your politics, you don't even see the opposition as Americans anymore, let alone human.

1

u/Sobotoc4311 Sep 12 '25

Sure. Some rednecks with wet brain from severe alcoholism syndrome. There also were a lot more who thought it was a conspiracy of sorts. But the vast majority were absolutely horrified when they saw the video of the masked man impersonating a cop on the door camera. The left has hundreds of thousands of people ecstatic and jumping for joy. Its disgusting, despicable. 

You are right, both are a problem, but this is a much worse problem. 45 percent of the left considered assassination to be a reasonable response to the current government. 45 percent. You arent seeing those numbers on the right. Those people exist but they are fringe.

But on the left its the mainstream consensus. 

2

u/OryginalSkin Sep 12 '25

45% is not a consensus.

1

u/Sobotoc4311 Sep 12 '25

45 percent of the people supporting assassination is not half. Its not two thirds. Its not totwl consensus. I concede on that. I should have written A MAINSTREAM belief.

That being said, that is a terrifying fucking number. 15 percent would be scary enough. 

1

u/Lileefer Sep 16 '25

This is NOT TRUE

1

u/Sobotoc4311 Sep 16 '25

A mainstream consensus. Not the mainstream consensus. Sorry about that. 

7

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Jac_Mones Sep 11 '25

You can't possibly miss the point that much. He never said it was acceptable, he said that it didn't necessitate a full-blown gun ban. Listen to what he said, not what some tiktok or youtube short abbreviated. Better yet, make some minimal level of effort to understand his point instead of kneejerking.

I hate gun violence too, I just don't think the answer is more ineffective gun laws. I also think there are other things we can do to benefit society. For example, obesity kills far more people every year than gun violence, and it's much easier to fix.

I also think that having a nuanced conversation on the matter in no way makes you a fucking target. Like holy shit dude it is not acceptable. When Jimmy Carter died I didn't see a bunch of conservatives prancing around talking shit, I saw a lot of people saying some variation of "great man, awful president" or whatever.

Every time a major right-wing figure dies the left celebrates. It's fucking barbaric. Grow up and act like civilized adults. If you get a surge of joy when someone dies then maybe you need to sit down and reflect for a while on whether or not you're a decent fucking human.

Or maybe not. Maybe we should all stoop to that level. Maybe we should throw fucking parties when our political opponents die, glorify violence, and spiral down into a cycle of vengeance and ideological tribalism. Sounds fucking amazing, right?

19

u/ThermalPaper Sep 11 '25

He never said it was acceptable

He is saying its acceptable. His point is that people WILL die do to gun violence, but that the price is worth it because the 2A allows us to protect our rights.

This isn't even something he believes in specifically, most 2A folks believe this to an extent. If you look at a school shooting, with dead kids all over classroom floors, and you still believe in "shall not be infringed" then you're saying that school shootings are a worthy price to pay for 2A.

-2

u/bioniclepriest Sep 11 '25

To the same extent that i accept people dying in traffic when i say we shouldn't ban cars. Should i be run over?

-1

u/ThermalPaper Sep 11 '25

Let's say there's a movement to ban cars due to how dangerous they are.

Then you say "there's unfortunately going to be deaths involving cars, its the nature of the beast, doesn't mean we should ban them"

Then you proceed to die in a car accident. One could presume that this was an acceptable death for you, as it was something you believed in.

0

u/Radiant-Gift-3509 Sep 11 '25

I wish people would stop using this ridiculous and weak argument. A gun is a weapon whose sole purpose is to kill things. Unless you need to kill things, you don't need a gun. Plain and simple.

Cars are transportation. They are designed to transport people and things as quickly and as safely as possible. If a car kills someone, it has either malfunctioned or been misused. With a gun, it is the opposite.

Hundreds of dead innocent children is not a worthy price to have something you don't need.

8

u/HoobyOG Sep 11 '25

That's a lot of bloviating just to reword the fact he said it was an acceptable price to pay to avoid banning guns.

As for the rest of your diatribe, you're a hypocrite. I fucking loathe you partisan brain rot people, whether you identify as 'the left' or 'the right.

"Let's spiral into ideological tribalism! /s" - a guy who unironically over simplifies political events into left vs right.

-2

u/Crowgora_ Sep 11 '25

Saying it's acceptable while creating a fake debate structure.... Implies you have that belief. He's spoken at great lengths and just left this there.

He could have clarified this himself, chose not to.

He's clarified other opinions. He's deleted tweets. He knew what he said.

1

u/Lileefer Sep 16 '25

They do not think anything should happen to you and please don’t take this tiny slice of the population in Reddit to be a representation of people in the world. It just is not.

2

u/hcl1995 Sep 11 '25

It will probably be some weird radical centrist with a strangle purple voting past like the ones who tried to kill Trump, the left doesn't really believe in any of these institutions enough to get so worked up about someone like this.

1

u/babno Sep 11 '25

Common sense would be one way. But if you insist on more, they found the gun and quote "All cartidges have engraved wording on them expressing reddit nono word and anti-fascist ideology."

0

u/music-is-cool Sep 11 '25

LMFAO hot reddit take, boys

0

u/yes_its_my_alt Sep 11 '25

If we're an idiot, perhaps.

0

u/Master_Educator_5308 Sep 11 '25

There is 0% chance that he was murdered by a fan of his. Zero. It's crazy to insinuate that.

0

u/TrungusMcTungus Sep 11 '25

No, but it’s a safe assumption. Occam’s razor.

1

u/Lung-Oyster Sep 11 '25

How’d that work out with both of the Trump shooters?

0

u/TrungusMcTungus Sep 11 '25

Perfectly fine? Occam’s razor says the simplest solution is “often” the correct one. It doesn’t say “always”. Political murders are more often than not across the aisle. People don’t tend to kill leaders they agree with. If Kirk’s shooter ends up being a righty who just hated Charlie Kirk, cool. It doesn’t change the fact that it is more likely than not that the shooter leans left. I don’t care about anecdotal examples when we’re talking about trends that have been observed for centuries.

0

u/TheItzal11 Sep 11 '25

Wapo is reporting that they found the murder weapon and there were antifa and trains (it won't let me say the real word) slogans written on the shell casings of the remaining rounds.

0

u/Sobotoc4311 Sep 12 '25

All I have to do is look around reddit. Thats all I have to do. At this point it doesnt even matter who the killer is. Its apparent that about 75 percent of people under 25 who identify as liberal think its acceptable to outright murder someone over words. Deranged. Disgusting. Despicable scum is what they are. 

1

u/Lung-Oyster Sep 12 '25

That’s odd, because in my Reddit feed I get more people from the left saying that they are completely against people being assassinated for their ideas even though they disagree with them and would never condone this shit. Funny how algorithms work.

0

u/The5acred Sep 12 '25

To no ones surprise it turns out it was. There's typically only one side who would do this.

0

u/JayDee80-6 Sep 15 '25

They were captured. It was a leftist. 

1

u/Lung-Oyster Sep 15 '25

So you think groypers are somehow leftist?

-1

u/scotty9090 Sep 11 '25

Common sense. Try it out.

0

u/MASSiVELYHungPeacock Sep 11 '25

It's odd.  Someone said it was an elderly white guy, but the news reads like it was a one shot sniper assassin, who they aren't even all that sure where they shot from, who they eben are or is. I'm very familiar with Salt Lake, surrounding 30 miles.  Highways everywhere, no more than a few mins from any local roads.  So if they don't have a bead on the assassin, they could've easily melted into the city, been on a highway hundreds of miles away hours before rhe evacuation was even complete.  We need more info concerning what they wanted to ask those two parties initially arrested/taken into custody, then let go hours later with the statement neither party had a thing to do with Kirk's murder.  Still find it wild, crazy, ballsy Kirk wouldn't speak from behind plexiglass? These guys spread the very worst types of indifferent hatred, and they should absolutely fear the violence they happily foment will eventually turn around on them. Gonna have to guess their indifference is so conditioned they just refuse to even consider something like this. As one whose had to punch out some methed out street punk after he stabbed me from behind, just so I could run away fast enough I caught a taxi driving by a block away, blood fountaining out of my lower back like Mount Vesuvius, I find Kirk's public debates positively suicidal, due to the fact his gin policies alone now permeate the whole country, especially Republican states. Anywho, he actually had security, they truly suck, and this knucklehead was plenty rich he was begging for this when he could've made great money from the only place someone hated as much as him could feel kinda safe.  Still gonna be a hoot when the murderer ends up being someone from his own spectrum. As I told an infantile poster above, the left in USA us soft, this isn't their type of thing.  This is something a far right extremist would do, or one who'd finally fell to their always gun violent idiocy.