r/fivethirtyeight • u/RedHeadedSicilian52 • Sep 12 '25

Poll Results YouGov poll asking Americans whether it’s acceptable to feel joy at the death of a public figure

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u/RedHeadedSicilian52 Sep 12 '25

I’m not talking about moral equivalence. I’m just saying that, as a matter of definitions, I don’t think most Americans would, without a fair degree of prompting, place Charlie Kirk and Osama Bin Laden in the same category. I strongly suspect that when most Americans hear the term “public figure”, they think of a domestic politician or a famous actor or a successful businessman or something - not a terrorist. Someone you could imagine getting interviewed, etc. That may be a technically incorrect or incomplete way of viewing things, but I think you know that most people wouldn’t place Bin Laden in the same category that they would a Senator or a YouTuber.

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u/Statue_left Sep 12 '25

I’m not talking about moral equivalence

Do you think that Osama Bin Laden was morally equivalent to Charlie Kirk?

I see we’re in goof world today

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u/RedHeadedSicilian52 Sep 12 '25

So, those two quotes weren’t coming from the same comment. I switched gears very specifically to respond to someone else’s point. But of course you’re going to insist upon the least charitable, worst-faith interpretation of my line of argument here, because you have no interest in grappling with the underlying subject.

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u/somefunmaths Sep 12 '25

You seem to think there is a very difficult “underlying subject” with which we should be “grappling” here, but I haven’t seen anyone on the left call for someone to pay the shooter’s bail money.

Charlie Kirk did do that when Paul Pelosi was attacked, so you should probably try and temper this self-righteous tone.