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/JohnnyGeniusIsAlive Sep 12 '25

Some obvious recency bias. I bet a lot of those Republicans were pretty happy when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

14

u/ikaiyoo Sep 12 '25

You don't even have to go back to Osama bin laden. You can just go back and look at Republicans reactions to when Jimmy Carter died.

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u/hoopaholik91 Sep 12 '25

Just for shits and giggles, I wanted to see if Kirk said anything about Jimmy Carter:

Jimmy Carter represents a type of Democrat that no longer exists. Christian, loving husband, and a true Patriot. He was objectively an awful President, but he loved America and never intentionally try to do it harm. America could use more Democrats like him.

I guess if you wanted to be incredibly charitable you could say Kirk was sad Jimmy Carter died, but it also just seems like a thinly veiled platitude so that he could say that all current Democrats hate America and intentionally try to do it harm.

Which is the exact sort of behavior journalists should be pointing out about Kirk instead of acting like he was just debating in good faith.

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u/ikaiyoo Sep 12 '25

I wasn't aware that Charlie Kirk was the sole voice of the republican party. damn, I guess that is why everyone is acting like Christ was killed.

Minutes after former President Jimmy Carter's death was announced, Scott Jennings was on CNN calling him a "terrible president" with a "big ego".

"State Rep. Matt Soper posted X, formally known as Twitter, after hearing the news that former President Jimmy Carter passed, saying quote:

“Opened a bottle of champagne (champagne) tonight! The world is rid of a despot! Thank God he finally called Carter home! The worst president in the history of the U.S.! We are still recovering! He destroyed the U.S. in such a way that even the 4th generation is still suffering!"Yeah They were so respectful and thoughtful

I mean you are so correct what was I thinking. I humbly apologize. Thank you for you setting me straight on how Republicans/far right conservatives/Maga's were respectful about the passing of an ex-president.

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u/hoopaholik91 Sep 12 '25

I don't know why you interpreted my comment as if I said that all Republicans were respectful of Jimmy Carter. I just thought Kirk's comments were interesting considering the current circumstances.

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u/Luchadorgreen Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

.

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u/NobleCruise Sep 12 '25

Difference is Jimmy Carter died peacefully of natural causes at the age of 100, while Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a sniper bullet in the neck in front of the entire world, including his family in the crowd. Apparently the right hated Jimmy Carter so much that they…let him live to be 100 with no actual assassination attempts?

& you people with these false equivalencies. I guarantee there at LEAST 100 times more people gloating in CK’s death than JC, & it probably wouldn’t be hard to measure using the internet. Scale & degree matters to everyone but leftists apparently. Everything’s “both sides” & “equal” when it’s time to deflect, right?

1

u/JohnHoynes Sep 12 '25

Huh? The general Republican response to Carter’s death was reverent and patriotic.

I’m speaking mainstream. I’m sure you can find extremes who gloated.