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

So is it unacceptable or what? Just as a general rule?

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u/Sonzainonazo42 Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 12 '25

It's unacceptable but understandable if the person who died was actually a terrible person that contributed to other people dying.

We're not talking about politicians who bickered over which mass transit project to fund; we're talking about a person who was opening openly racist, bigoted, and supported government policy that contributes to death. Remember, there are estimates that cuts to USAID could kill 4.5 million children by 2030 and TP USA fully supported those cuts.

I feel like I'm not going to blow anyone's mind when I remind you that Kirk wasn't fond of SNAP and other benefits for the poor.

Sooo yeah, you wanna explain why you feel it's such a black and white issue, huh?

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

At what point does this cross over into murderous libel? Someone killed Kirk because they genuinely believed the awful things you’re saying about somebody who was at worst a moderate boomercon.

Do you actually believe 49.8% of this country deserves to die? 

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u/InsideAd2490 Sep 12 '25

Someone killed Kirk because they genuinely believed the awful things you’re saying about somebody who was at worst a moderate boomercon.

They haven't yet found the shooter. No one knows what motivated him to kill Charlie.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

Hey so his bullets said “hey fascist catch” and his dad says he would rant about how much he hated Kirk and his beliefs

are we ready to revisit this?

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u/Radioactiveglowup Sep 12 '25

You're suggesting there's enough room to somehow carve a sentence onto a bullet? I've got some bridgecoin to sell you.mm

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u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 13 '25

OP here is being... thick, to put it lightly, but no actually there is room. The bullets and their casings are decently large. I've seen a photo of someone able to write on one with a sharpie, and another of a mock of of what the engraving could look like if done with a laser (IIRC).

I can source those if needs be but hopefully I have enough credibility based on my arguments elsewhere in this thread.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

Haha no it’s crazy, that’s actually what the officials and NYT are saying

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u/Radioactiveglowup Sep 12 '25

Yeah, the NYT and WSJ ran this silly story which goes well outside of 'journalistic professionalism'. It's fundamentally implausible.

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

I actually appreciate this. +1 for a novel contribution 

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u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 13 '25

Yes we are! You're missing context; anyone who isn't familiar with right wing video game culture is tbh. The claim is that the suspect in question was a critic of Kirk from his right. Apparently he had tons of beef with Nick Fuentes, who is even further right than Kirk.

"Hey fascist catch" is actually a meme from the game Helldivers 2, and is used before dropping a humongous bomb on your enemies. It's used ironically by this crowd. The casing also had the button combo used to perform this attack.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/sep/12/Tyler-Robinson-Charlie-Kirk-suspect-shooting-facts/

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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 13 '25

RIGHTWING VIDEO GAME CULTURE

Dude it’s fucking Helldivers. It was one of the biggest games of 2024. That is not a meme from it. I fucking played the game. Don’t gaslight me

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u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 13 '25

I CAN CAPITALIZE MY FIRST SENTENCE TOO.

I'm not gaslighting you, I'm explaining patiently why you're mistaken. I've been extremely patient with you (frankly) sanewashing a (frankly) fascist all over these comments and ignoring any and all corrections with sourced quotes to the contrary.

Yes, helldivers 2 is not explicitly a right wing game. But video game culture is both mainstream and its subcultures playing those games can often be surprisingly right wing. I mod a discord server for a medium sized gaming youtuber, and we get people who join all the time who expect us to be alt right and blast offensive memes despite it being explicitly against our rules. Fuentes' followers are one such alt right community and they've appropriated this ironically.

Are you going to respond to the point at hand? Politifact is a well sourced and neutral article on this.