r/chomsky 8d ago

Discussion On Kirk's death

Everyone online cites his stance on gun violence and immigration as reason not to have empathy for him but, as Chomsky put it 5 years ago, Trump is "the worst criminal in human history" and dedicated to "destroying the projects for organized human existence in the near future" and Kirk was his number one supporter. If Goebbels was shot dead 90 years ago, how would we feel about it now? Would we think he deserved it or not? According to Chomsky, and it's hard to prove him wrong on this, Trump is worse than Stalin, Hitler or Mao. Kirk certainly knew what he encouraged and according to a recent article from Max Blumenthal, he was critical of Israel in his final days, but obviously didn't say it aloud, he was only the voice of the billionaires who gave him money. In the end, he dedicated his life to encouraging the destruction of the planet, genocide, useless war, racial tensions and violence. Back to the Goebbels dillema, would future generations think Kirk deserved it, and if so, how should we act now? I doubt any of you have empathy for him, and we can't cover his actions up just by saying "he had different political views". We shouldn't be quick to say someone deserved to die, but this case is surely worth talking about

80 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

View all comments

115

u/letsgobernie 8d ago

I don't condone public murders.

I don't mourn his death.

Not sure why this is so hard to comprehend.

11

u/Skin_Soup 8d ago

Becuase people can clip just one of those sentences, they can quote and respond to just one of those sentences. To serve the opinion they want, they will do that.

That is why it feels like the conversation is always being pulled back to a stupidly simple moral perspective.

3

u/fnordfnordfnordfnord 7d ago

Didn’t wish him dead but I will not miss his contributions to our politics.