ndsipa_pomu
5 months ago
There seems to be a lot of hypocrisy in the different treatment of the killings of Melissa Hortman (and husband) and Charlie Kirk.
Tadpole9181
5 months ago
Yesterday, Fox News advocated "involuntary lethal injection" for innocent homeless people (that post has been flagged and [dead] already). They certainly won't be fired.
The day Kirk died, Fox was quite literally calling for war. Then when we found out it was a conservative shooter, it's still the left's fault because them not mourning Kirk is worse than the killing and the President says he "couldn't care less" about bridging the divide between Americans.
It's just ridiculous how brazen it is at this point.
zahlman
5 months ago
> Yesterday, Fox News
No, one specific show host.
> for innocent homeless people
No, specifically for those who are mentally ill, and only if they refuse help. Still abhorrent, but also unrelated.
> The day Kirk died, Fox was quite literally calling for war.
I legitimately have no idea what you're referring to.
> Then when we found out it was a conservative shooter, it's still the left's fault
Shootings are the fault of the shooter and no other person.
We did not find out that the shooter is conservative. This is speculation, and many of the initial bases for this speculation were quite spurious.
> because them not mourning Kirk is worse than the killing
As far as I can tell, nobody has said anything remotely like this.
> the President says he "couldn't care less" about bridging the divide between Americans.
The political divide. And it's not clear what he could in principle do about it.
TimorousBestie
5 months ago
> No, one specific show host.
In his role as a spokesperson of the network, at a performance he has not yet been censured for, afaik. Until Fox puts out a response, he represents them.
> I legitimately have no idea what you're referring to.
Jesse Watters called for vengeance and retribution on The Five, said that liberals are “at war with us.” GP is a reasonable rephrasing.
> The political divide. And it's not clear what he could in principle do about it.
Use the “bully pulpit” of the presidency positively for once?
He’s the least powerless person in the country. No president before has ever wielded the power and authority he does.
Tadpole9181
5 months ago
I appreciate you responding on my behalf, thank you.
zahlman
5 months ago
> In his role as a spokesperson of the network
Prior to being fired, was Dowd a "spokesperson of MSNBC"?
I don't think so, and I don't think this is a fair way to characterize Kilmeade either.
> GP is a reasonable rephrasing.
I'm not really convinced.
> Use the “bully pulpit” of the presidency positively for once?
It beggars belief that this would lead to de-escalation from Trump's opponents. In fact, I've seen him take a conciliatory tone before, only to get decontextualized and further vilified.
TimorousBestie
5 months ago
> Prior to being fired, was Dowd a "spokesperson of MSNBC"?
During the 24ish hours it took MSNBC to fire him and issue a public statement, yes. This isn’t rocket science.
> I'm not really convinced.
Your double standard in this matter is evident.
zahlman
5 months ago
> During the 24ish hours it took MSNBC to fire him and issue a public statement, yes.
I disagree, and don't understand your basis for the claim.
> Your double standard in this matter is evident.
I don't know what you're talking about.
CMay
5 months ago
To be fair, Charlie Kirk was probably much higher profile than Hortman. Charlie traveled the nation widely, visited other countries and had online influence outside of his in-person visits. You could say many entertainers and politicians do that too, so what makes him special?
I've heard Charlie's efforts changed the outcomes of elections. Despite some views being unpopular, the overall promotion of face to face debate is seen as generally healthy. He probably lost his temper or cool too much, and in that sense there have been more tactful or calm debaters, but at least he tried in very unwelcoming territory.
No disrespect to any school shooting victims or the Hortmans, but just objectively, Charlie both seems and is evidenced by the internet reaction to be higher profile and of higher concern for the national conversation in respect to the individual event.
That's without even mentioning just how public the footage of the killing was comparatively or that his wife and children watched it happen in person. It's also worth mentioning that he was fundamentally opposing the exact thing that killed him. He wanted to promote life and suppress death.
It's clear to me that he was an imperfect messenger, but he had the energy and the will which he did not waste.
ndsipa_pomu
5 months ago
> It's also worth mentioning that he was fundamentally opposing the exact thing that killed him. He wanted to promote life and suppress death
I'm no expert on him, but that doesn't ring true to me. Here's some things that he said that don't seem to agree with your view:
> We must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty... We need to be very clear that you’re not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. But I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment - Charlie Kirk
> Gun control, like vaccines and masks, is focused on making people feel ‘safe’ by taking freedoms away from others. Don’t fall for it - Charlie Kirk
I got the impression that his "debates" were designed to be highly asymmetric with himself being thoroughly prepared and going up against young people who weren't experienced debaters. The format was also designed so that there would not be enough time for the audience to fact check the various untruths that Kirk would put forwards.
Despite people describing him as not endorsing violence, he did seem to call for violence against out-groups such as potential immigrants and he advocated for the January 6th violent attack on the Capitol - I think he arranged for a bus load of people to go to fight for Trump.
Personally, I find his racist and sexist views abhorrent and his twisting of Christianity into a hateful, cruel doctrine. His dislike of the word "empathy" is a clear red flag for being thoroughly evil.
(I've noticed that he had anti-gay views which he justified by using parts of the Old Testament, but in my view that is denying the sacrifice of Christ which was to put an end to the old beliefs of a vengeful God and instead usher in an empathic world view of welcoming and providing for the poor and homeless)
CMay
5 months ago
The quote about the second amendment seems consistent with promoting life, because the second amendment helps protect all the others. It would be fair to argue that this requires nuance, because if someone commits murder with a gun, they are treading on someone else's rights. On the other hand, if the government becomes corrupt and manages to establish some dictatorship, the government could decide to kill tens of millions of people which we have seen in history. Suddenly with that potentiality, taking away everyone's guns isn't promoting life anymore.
There have been some very unfortunate outcomes from governments taking guns away from the people. It would be wise to take this seriously and with an open mind if you are a person of character. Examples: Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda. Obviously, the founders were drawing on examples that long predated these, so this is not a new phenomena and it repeats through history.
People have made arguments about guns being useless against the all powerful government hardware, but if the armed population greatly outnumbers the government they can use many different tactics to impose inefficiencies on them.
> I got the impression that his "debates" were designed to be highly asymmetric with himself being thoroughly prepared and going up against young people who weren't experienced debaters. The format was also designed so that there would not be enough time for the audience to fact check the various untruths that Kirk would put forwards.
Only watched a few of his things, but I did see him offer multiple times for people to use their phones, ask ChatGPT, look things up. Someone who asks a question doesn't have to be ready for any question the way Charlie did, they only had to be ready for the questions related to the topic they were going to ask about. They had their own time to prepare either long before the event or while standing in line.
He also went to Cambridge Union, where people were more practiced at debate and well-read.
> Despite people describing him as not endorsing violence, he did seem to call for violence against out-groups such as potential immigrants and he advocated for the January 6th violent attack on the Capitol - I think he arranged for a bus load of people to go to fight for Trump.
Those sound like they need context to better understand, if there is anything to them. If you have an original source, I would look into it.
> Personally, I find his racist and sexist views abhorrent and his twisting of Christianity into a hateful, cruel doctrine. His dislike of the word "empathy" is a clear red flag for being thoroughly evil.
This also seems to lack a lot of context. I don't know if he's sexist or racist, only that I haven't seen anything which should obviously be labeled that. I have seen things which overly sensitive people might consider as sexist or racist, but with objectivity, they didn't appear that way to me. As for the empathy thing, I've seen that claim plastered over the internet, but when I looked it up I think he just said he preferred the word sympathy rather than empathy which makes it clear people are taking it out of context very disingenuously.
He does have some unpopular opinions, so there are people motivated to spread lies to push people away so they get turned off by all the claims about him such that they never even attempt to look at what he actually said or that when they DO hear what he said they are primed to interpret it the way they were told to interpret it. I disagree with him about some things, but the disinformation campaigns against him are atrocious all the same and are likely what got him killed.
ndsipa_pomu
5 months ago
I fundamentally disagree with just about everything you've said, so I'll just focus on Charlie Kirk's obvious racism.
> “I'm sorry. If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified,” - Charlie Kirk
CMay
5 months ago
> I fundamentally disagree with just about everything you've said
Well, it's good to disagree. I mean, if you're wrong, you could get millions and millions killed. Hopefully you would agree that if there was a real risk of that, other people would contest you logically and push back. Presumably you are a person who would care about that.
> “I'm sorry. If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified,” - Charlie Kirk
That wasn't racism, that was about the idea of pilots being hired under a system where there's a sort of race quota. He was talking about a system that is already race oriented, which he rejects. He was operating under the understanding that if there is a race quota, then merit based selection (which everyone who ever flies should want their pilot to be there on merits) might fall to the side.
I think people understand now that the pilots and air traffic controllers still have to pass rigorous tests and standards, but any sort of race based selection is bound to make some people feel uneasy.
When Affirmative Action was put in place, it was done with the understanding that it was double-sided, in that it could make people selected for their race feel less worthy and people of that race who got there fully on merits may feel like they're treated as if they didn't earn it when they did. It was never meant to last forever, because it's good for people of any race to feel happy and proud of their achievements and not like they were handed to them. To feel like they deserve the respect they get.
That issue stemmed from the relative lack of minority parents who had professional careers, which means they were less likely to pass on that inspiration and knowledge to their kids which could also make their kids less likely to pursue those kinds of things. By trying to smooth the pathway to certain education or career paths, it was about reducing the burden and difficulty of taking those life paths for people who weren't as integrated into them yet.
That makes a lot of sense to me and the choices were complicated, but it seems like people made the right choices so long as they're temporary.
The issue is more complicated in industries or careers that heavily involve public safety or national security. While it is possible to maintain standards and demand that everyone of any race rise up to those standards, if schooling opportunities weren't as good for some, there have been real risks of people lowering standards to meet quotas in various cases. That's a legitimate concern. So long as that doesn't happen in public safety or anything critical, it's probably fine.
After a generation or two it's less of a problem, especially with the internet, because there are so many ways and opportunities to learn now that a lot more people can get an early start on their learning and foster their talent so by the time they're moving into a career they don't have to grow into it as much.
phendrenad2
5 months ago
Yeah, it's weird. I suspect that if someone celebrated the deaths of the Hortmans, the very people celebrating the death of Kirk would be very upset.