"Je Suis Charlie"

A nice headline for a Free Press editorial, drawing the entirely coincidental verbal connection to the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo murders.

It also reminds me of a passage I mentioned after those murders, from Rebecca West, writing about the English in 1940 as they anticipated the German attack on England after the fall of France:

Let nobody belittle them by pretending they were fearless. Not being as the ox and the ass, they were horribly afraid. But their pale lips did not part to say the words that would have given them security and dishonour.

Perhaps this wasn't so with Hebdo, and the Charlie Hebdo editors really were fearless (see, e.g., this quote from Stephane Charbonnier). Perhaps Kirk hadn't really foreseen the risk to him (though it sounds like had faced serious threats before). But whenever I have occasion to think about true courage, it is West's words that come to my mind.

Comments

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Nice one. I wish all the keyboard heroes spouting off in favor of killing lefties in honor of Charlie Kirk would stop dishonoring him with their hypocrisy.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Crooks was a bitter clinger MAGA Republican—a true DEPLORABLE!! Looks like the Kirk shooter has a similar profile to Crooks and Mangione…good Republican boys who descend into madness and their families unfortunately don’t get them the medical attention they need!

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Like I said ...

[Roger S]

None were Republicans.

[AmosArch]

I see a ton more leftoids justifying Charlies death. I've seen zero rightwingers saying that we should kill leftwingers....I'm sure there are a couple crazies out ther but can you show me where you found this to be a predominant or significant sentiment?

[Snorkle]

Here's a handy reference:

https://bsky.app/profile/junlper.beer/post/3lynte3wmkk2p

Of course this is just nutpicking; they're all nobodies like Elon Musk and Libs of Tiktok.

But since this was Redcap-on-Redcap violence, Republicans (including, sadly, Eugene) appear to have zero interest in reflecting on this near-Reichstag Fire false flag. (That Trump appears to still be pushing, but it is hard to tell if he's coherent enough to realize this was a power struggle among his Brownshirts, or if he does, if he wagers he can still pull one off.)

I'm also leaving the country, I found work abroad. I rather suspect if I don't, there's a disturbingly high chance I'll be dead or in a concentration camp within five years otherwise.

[AmosArch]

I don't see any one saying to go out and kill lefties. I see people saying they are ready to defend themselves. Which is understandable given how many people including here are justifying the assassination.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

No. Why would I bookmark every crazy? Expand your horizons. I've seen several compendiums of stupid tweets. Hell, there was one here on Reason, at least.

[Riva]

I have certainly read more than a few contemptibly disgraceful comments mocking, insulting and lying about Charlie Kirk and seemingly being gleefully about his assassination. I am not personally aware of anyone here "spouting off in favor of killing lefties" although I concede that there are more than a few disturbed commenters here.

[Bubba Jones]

Bravery is doing things even when you are afraid.

I think "fearless" in these contexts is usually meant to imply they didn't let fear control them. Not that they were foolhardy.

[Martinned2]

Here is a translation of The Song of the Eighteen Dead, a poem from 1941 celebrating the first Dutch resistance fighters to be executed by the Nazis. The poet, Jan Campert, later died in a concentration camp himself. The poem is often recited at occasions of official remembrance.

The Song of the Eighteen Dead

A cell is but six feet long
and hardly six feet wide,
yet smaller is the patch of ground,
that I now do not yet know,
but where I nameless come to lie,
my comrades all and one,
we eighteen were in number then,
none shall the evening see come.

O loveliness of light and land,
of Holland’s so free coast,
once by the enemy overrun
could I no moment more rest.
What can a man of honor and trust
do in a time like this?
He kisses his child, he kisses his wife
and fights the noble [hopeless] fight.

I knew the task that I began,
a task with hardships laden,
the heart that couldn’t let it be
but shied not away from danger;
it knows how once in this land
freedom was everywhere cherished,
before the cursed transgressor’s hand
had willed it otherwise.

Before the oath can brag and break
existed this wretched place
that the lands of Holland did invade
and for ransom her ground has held;
Before the appeal to honor is made
and such Germanic comfort
our people forced under their control
and looted as a thief.

The Catcher of Rats who lives in Berlin
sounds now his melody,—
as true as I shortly dead shall be
my dearest no longer see
and no longer shall the bread be broke
and share a bed with her—
reject all he offers now and ever
that sly trapper of birds.

For all who these words thinks to read
my comrades in great need
and those who stand by them through all
in their adversity tall,
just as we have thought and thought
on our own land and people—
a day does shine after every night,
as every cloud must pass.

I see how the first morning light
through the high window falls.
My God, make my dying light—
and so I have failed
just as each of us can fail,
pour me then Your grace,
that I may like a man then go
if I a squadron must face.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

So does that make you Antifa??

[Botaglove]

According to Utah officials + police interviews with his family, Tyler Robinson hated Charlie Kirk because Kirk wasn't conservative enough. (Robinson reportedly admired Nick Fuentes).

So what happens now to the Republican notion this is all the Democrat's fault?

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

The notion in 2025 someone politically “radicalized” has never posted anything on the internet would be evidence that he isn’t politically radicalized. What you are repeating is “hearsay” and would not be admissible in any court of law because the parents could be rationalizing and coping and not remembering things correctly. Plus the media personalities promoting that hearsay have very obvious agendas in that they hate Democrats and make money by people listening and reading to their content.

[Michael P]

Really?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/sep/12/charlie-kirk-shooter-suspect-latest-news-updates-donald-trump-utah?page=with%3Ablock-68c47b768f086519d327114d#block-68c47b768f086519d327114d

Now, that's based on an anonymous source, so it's suspect -- but that's one source more than you provided.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/charlie-kirk-shooting-tyler-robinson-hate-b2825465.html says that Robinson's complaint was that Kirk was full of hate, rather than not conservative enough.

[ah....Clem]

There's a lot of wish-casting around Robinson's motives and political leanings.

One side desperately wants the shooter to be a trans gay illegal immigrant socialist professor. The other side wants him to be a MAGA kook and serve as an example of how MAGA is being split in two. I'd take such pronouncements under advisement pending more solid info.

Your quote comes from former MSNBC anchor David Shuster, but I haven't seen anything concrete to back it up. The Hindustani Times has a reasonable synopsis of the buzz on Xhitter, Reddit, et al. Make of it what you will.

"Radicalized right wing kook" would be the smart way to bet, but at this point I wouldn't bet more than a beer or two either way.

[NvEric]

Hope quells Fear to enable Courage. The process takes an instant or an eternity.

The battle between factions becomes pointless. Directions taken lead to nowhere when driven by fear and hate. Even determination is useless when the path is pointless.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Politics as a hobby is a very unproductive hobby. We need more tribalism and less engagement because the beauty of only having two parties is that you simply figure out which one promotes the values that are important to you and vote for them. And if you accidentally make George W Bush president then vote for the opposite party in a few elections or just don’t vote at all. But don’t spend valuable time listening to podcasts and reading blogs about politics because it’s all just a waste of time!! What Kirk did was valuable to his family and I respect anyone providing for their family…but what he was doing wasn’t good for the country and neither is what AOC and those people do.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Rebecca West was eloquent against fascism, and against lynching in the U.S. She was doubtless a profoundly insightful spokesperson for liberty.

But she seemed to me so grounded in personal liberty as a universal value that it was impossible to induce her to endorse the use of, for instance, political freedom, to undermine the substance of liberty. I concede that exploitation of political freedom to suppress personal liberty might seem to some to be at the center of EV's legal critical expertise.

I am less convinced, or at least not as convinced as I would be about that in the case of West. I am not surprised that EV admires her. I question whether West would have reciprocated. It would seem out of character for West to endorse Charlie Kirk, but in character for EV to do so. I have never seen EV write that anti-racism is the real racism, nor seen him rebuke anyone who does write that. West's body of work stands as that kind of rebuke.

[Jmaie]

Could you clarify what you mean by using political freedom to undermine the substance of liberty?

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Considering Lathrop's history, a plausible guess is he means using politics to restrict liberty, which could justify restricting political freedom to save liberty. "We have to destroy democracy to save democracy!" kind of thing.

[gormadoc]

He's been consistent on this for years. He believes that websites and their owners should be held to the same standard as newspapers and their owners.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Jamie — Sure. West wrote a masterful piece for the New Yorker about one of the last lynching trials in the U.S., which she attended. In it she detailed how lynch-law supporters claimed a power to do as they pleased to exonerate those on trial. They were outspoken against what they described as attempts by outsiders to interfere with their style of life, and their style of governance. It was an outright claim to use political freedom, defined their way, to deny liberty to blacks. West's reporting made them pay an undying price for that.

[thesafesurfer]

The shooter may or may not have been a Democrat, but what is undeniable is the how much so many Democrats love what the shooter did.

All the Democrats had to do was the bare minimum, either stay silent or offer condolences and some generic comment on free speech and how political violence is never okay. But they couldn’t even do that. Why? Because all they have is this pathological need to impose their views and opinions on everyone with no dissent allowed.

Charlie Kirk has left a legacy, One part is exposing how psychotic his opponents have become.

The most important part of his legacy is all those young people he inspired who adored him. They will remember the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It will shape their youth the way the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr., RFK, and JFK shaped generations before.

Gen Z knows that he was killed to silence him, and they will remember how many psychotic Democrats did not display a shred of decency and attacked and ridiculed him in death.

[Roger S]

Yes, I am amazed at how many Democrats are cheering Kirk's death.

[ah....Clem]

Examples, please.

Like, actual prominent people in positions of responsibility, not random trolls on the interwebs.