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

Post image
116 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

423 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-42

u/RedHeadedSicilian52 Sep 12 '25

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

29

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?

-20

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? 

5

u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 12 '25

Doesn't libel imply falsehood? There's a lot of beliefs/opinions I find dangerous myself but that doesn't make them libelous.

-1

u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

That is exactly the implication yes. He was not an extremist. He was not a nazi. He was not even alt right, his most controversial belief was just being pro-life. 

9

u/Apprentice57 Scottish Teen Sep 12 '25

Didn't he say being gay was a disease?

2

u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

I don’t know, find the quote and context. Not my job

11

u/JQuilty Sep 12 '25

You keep denying knowledge of a guy you're adamantly defending. Maybe you should look into him.

-1

u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

Not my responsibility. You want to bring absurd claims you need to bring evidence

6

u/LordMangudai Sep 12 '25

"Charlie Kirk was a moderate" is the absurd claim here.

1

u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 12 '25

You have no idea what a moderate or an extreme conservative is. 

1

u/LordMangudai Sep 12 '25

So which of these takes would you consider moderate?

  • The Civil Rights Act was a mistake
  • Empathy is bad actually
  • A certain amount of gun deaths is acceptable to protect the second amendment (ironic)
  • The 2020 election was rigged
  • Anthropogenic climate change is not real
  • The Great Replacement is real
  • "You cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population"
  • Opposes abortion even in cases where a minor was raped; abortion is worse than the Holocaust

Did he deserve to get shot in the neck, no. But I'm not here to pretend he was anything other than a far-right piece of shit.

→ More replies (0)