Letter to the Editor: Charlie Kirk Was Not Vile or Hateful
I grow weary of the pseudo-informed: those that get all their information from snippets and refuse to dig deeper. Unfortunately, they are often the most vociferous. In our current Information Age, we often choose to be more ignorant than preceding generations. We refuse to examine primary sources for ourselves. We lazily rely on talking heads who are incentivized to instill fear and hatred within us by distorting the truth. We do not reason. We regurgitate.
We swallow whole the hot takes of headlines and pundits and spit it back out as if it were truth. And when we cannot attack the ideas, we attack the person. This is how we get people celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death. This is how we get contributors to Neuse News purporting that Charlie Kirk said hateful and vile things. In the Neuse News article authored by Kristy Kelly, we are told just that.
Yet, we are not provided with any vile or hateful things that he said. We are to take her description at face value without digging any deeper. Trust her! Let your confirmation bias run rampant! Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you are going to be so bold as to make the claim, be so bold as to back it up with evidence. As Thomas Sowell famously said, “Show me the evidence!”
I expect better of journalists, both for small town outlets and major media corporations. Yet, my expectations are too often not met. We have let our journalistic outlets become Facebook, where news is distorted, trolls gather by the masses, and no one actually wants to have a real, genuine conversation about the very complex reality we live in. Perhaps this is my fault for not adjusting my expectations, but if we lower our expectations, lower the bar, we will certainly meet those low standards.
We have a duty, in this day and age, to seek the truth. The truth is more readily available than ever given our prolific access to information, but it takes a little bit of work to uncover it. Sometimes it takes a lotta bit of work. If we only consume our news in sensationalist headlines and 20-second sound bites, we should expect our worldview to be distorted, tainted, and misaligned with reality. That is exactly what has happened. That is exactly what is happening.
Those who have consumed Charlie Kirk’s message the least believe it to be the most vile and hateful. Those who have consumed his message the most understand the message for what it is. Charlie Kirk did not say hateful and vile things. Charlie Kirk preached God, family, and country. In that order. He preached self-agency, hard work, and dedication to a higher power. You can go to YouTube and see for yourself just by searching for his name. But do not watch others talk about what he said, listen to him say it directly.
You may disagree with him. That’s okay. There is no one that I agree with 100%. I do not even agree with myself all the time. And you may find Charlie Kirk to be divisive. That’s also okay. Truth itself is divisive.
But, if you find his message to be vile and hateful, I have news for you. Charlie Kirk is not the vile and hateful person. You are.
Jason Kops
Kinston, NC
Editor's Note: As with all columns and letters to the editor published by Neuse News, these are the opinions of the authors and not considered news or journalism, and not necessarily the views of Neuse News. If you'd like your letter to the editor published on any topic of local interest, please click here to learn more.
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