Thread by @shevereshtus

A lot of people don't understand why so many people are mourning Charlie Kirk, it had such an impact on so many people, and why it will have a long term effect.

It has very little to do with politics, or religion, and everything to do with humanity.

A short thread.

I never watched a single Charlie Kirk debate prior to his death. I never watched him speak on any topic for any amount of time. I never read what he wrote. The most I knew of him were parts of clips here and there. Yet, his death really affected me.

I'm far from alone.

I still knew of Charlie Kirk. It was hard not to.

He was a man deeply passionate about what he believed, and wanted to talk to you about it.

He would show up to campuses, and he would be willing to give anyone time to discuss ideas if you were willing to discuss back.

Whether you agreed with him or not doesn't matter.

Both in the Jewish worldview, and in the Western world at large, the idea of free, spirited debate has been a cornerstone for at least a few centuries. In Judaism, it was always at the core of our religion.

To people he was, or at least became, a symbol of a world that was, when you could vehemently disagree about politics, but you could still have a discussion about it. Where you could still walk away and say 'I disagree with you, but I'm glad we talked'

This resonated with many.

When Charlie Kirk was killed, this is what many perceived:

It was not just an attack on a man, it was not just an attack on an ideology, but it was an attack on civilization.

An attack on decency.

An attack on all of us.

Away from the toxicity of social media, most people are good & want good things for others, even if they disagree on how to get there. They might disagree with you, strongly so, but they would never wish you harm over it. They just hope you don't get your way.

And that's fine.

The idea that a man who did not commit any crime but held ideas that were common to both parties even 20 years ago (most of what Charlie Kirk was said and believed were positions that Obama and most of the Democrats shared back in 2008, and if not, they did in 1998) should die?

A man who was a family man, a man who loved his children, who had a loving wife, and only wanted to talk to you and convince you that his way was how your life and the life of everyone would be better and improved, that man should be killed?

Publicly? In front of his family?

This is what shocked most.

The realization that there are evil people who will not be satisfied with simply disagreeing with you, who will not only be satisfied with murdering you in front of your family, but will laugh about it, mock your grieving widow, & wish for more.

9/11 was a shock to so many because it was a realization that the rest of the world was not like America. There were evil actors, who would do evil things, and we had been living in a bubble.

9/10 was a shock because it was a realization that some of those people are here, too.

To fly planes filled with civilians into towers filled with civilians over ideology was repugnant to decent, normal people. A line was crossed.

To shoot and kill a man in front of his family and the world over ideology is repugnant to decent, normal people. A line was crossed.

You can say that the death of a man is nothing like the death of nearly 3,000. And of course, you would be right.

The thing is, the death of Charlie Kirk was not just the death of a man. It was a severe blow to the very fabric of our society.

Let's hope it was not a fatal one.