Next in Line

Having seen conservative evangelical Charlie Kirk sent to his eternal reward last week in Utah with a single sniper shot to the neck, one wonders which media personality the enemies of the current US regime would like to see ended next.

To be clear, I’m not alleging Kirk was killed by a leftist — that remains to be proven in court. That said, both the Canadian and American political left are not shy about voicing their delight all over social media that the fatal bullet hit home.

So then, no speculation required. They are happy to tell us who they hate most. [Linked graphic has language issues.]

Based on this admittedly tiny social media sample, by my count Ben Shapiro and J.K. Rowling are the frontrunners:

Ben Shapiro (10)
J.K. Rowling (6)
Joe Rogan (2)
Matt Walsh (1)
Dennis Prager (1)

To be fair (if fairness even matters at this point), it’s not specifically Christ or Christians that’s driving these expressions of hatred. Prager and Shapiro are Jews, who are out of favor with the rank and file right now anyway (and trending downward), while Rogan is agnostic. Only Walsh unambiguously claims the Christian faith, and he’s at the bottom of the pile.

The choices are mysterious in that not one of these folks marked for death by the haters can be legitimately categorized as Far Right or White Nationalist:

• Shapiro draws young men toward the middle of the political spectrum and heavily promotes American involvement in foreign wars, something Democrat politicians love as much as Neocons. His opposition to Donald Trump was virulent until it became obvious his presidency could not be stopped;
• Rowling is a leftist fallen out of favor for refusing to go all the way to Crazytown with trans rights;
• Rogan’s offense is nothing more shocking than regularly platforming the Right to give balance to his coverage of the political spectrum;
• Matt Walsh gets his salary from Shapiro’s Daily Wire; and
• Prager is a minor media figure at best.

In short, these folks are mostly right-leaning media centrists rather than active politicians or radicals. Like Kirk, who was certainly no radical. He was a sensible, articulate young man reflecting the views of 60% of the American people, and his support came from all manner of ethnicities. He was a Christian, no doubt, but not one overly concerned about ruthless adherence to the teaching of scripture, as this post effectively demonstrates:

Voila. Very much in the middle of the road (too far to the Left, if you ask me), yet Kirk remained insufficiently docile and malleable to be acceptable on somebody’s political spectrum. (I have yet to buy into the storyline of the current media patsy on offer. He doesn’t pass my sniff test, so let’s leave crime and punishment aside until more conclusive proof of guilt is available.)

What the outpouring of vitriol in the wake of Kirk’s demise suggests, if it suggests anything at all, is that the Left is more concerned about silencing those engaged in deconstructing their narrative than anything else. It also suggests they are far more troubled by the increasing popularity of the political middle ground than by the emergence of White Nationalism, or by actual Far Right activists. That makes sense. Opposition from the political center is far more dangerous to their agenda in the long term.

Oh yes, all prospective victims except Rogan are vocally pro-Israel. As was Kirk until very recently.

Food for thought there.