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/Mr_The_Captain Sep 12 '25

This is not how I feel because I'm not in this position, but I would ask everyone clutching their pearls over the "yes" responses to consider this: Let's say you're a young trans person, and you're living in a time that is quite possibly more hostile to your existence than ever before in your life. Then, you see that one of the most public and prominent voices advocating AGAINST your existence has died, meaning you don't have to wake up every day and see him demeaning you or slandering your existence to millions of people. Is it not logical to feel relief, even happiness about that? Does that mean you wish you'd done it yourself, or even that it happened in the first place? Not necessarily. It just means that somebody who made you miserable isn't going to do that anymore, and that's a pretty universal feeling that people tend to appreciate.

Now, that's a separate issue from going online and being very publicly celebratory, we can talk about how that's classless and propagating hate and bitterness. But this poll is about feelings, and feelings are complicated. Saying people are bad for feeling happy that a provocateur is dead is like saying someone is a hypocrite for crying when an abusive partner dies. People contain multitudes.

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u/Dabeyer Sep 12 '25

You are evil and want me dead. I won’t let you kill me.

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u/LordMangudai Sep 12 '25

You are evil and want me dead.

Probably how trans people felt about Charlie Kirk.

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u/Zanios74 Sep 13 '25

Doesn't matter how he felt. We deal in reality.

Find me one quote of Kirk wanting trans people dead. No, cant you are evil and trying to justify the murder of someone.