The Two Americas
Brian Kilmeade is, in my humble opinion, the dumbest news anchor in American history.
Kilmeade has worked at Fox News for nearly 30 years now. In 2009, while discussing Alzheimer’s research, Kilmeade said Swedes were less likely to get Alzheimer’s because of their “pure genes” and the fact that Swedes marry only Swedes unlike Americans who “keep marrying other species and other ethnics.” Where to begin? That Brian Kilmeade thinks different nationalities of Homo Sapiens belong to different species? That Kilmeade believes genetic diversity decreases population health instead of increasing it? Or the basic fact that “pure genes” is a phrase straight out of Nazi eugenics?
Any angle you’d like to view this one from makes it clear - Kilmeade is a racist moron. You really need to watch the clip to understand just how bad this was.
Kilmeade issued one of his now numerous apologies, effectively saying he didn’t MEAN it when he blamed interracial marriages for increased disease. Fox News took no action at all.
Last week during a discussion of homeless people with mental health issues committing crimes, Kilmeade said that the government could simply solve the problem by executing homeless people with mental health issues.
An anchor of the most popular right wing news network said the solution to crimes committed by the homeless is for the government to execute them before they commit any crimes. Problem solved!
This was yet another eugenicist comment the Fox anchor had to apologize for. Brian Kilmeade is a eugenicist. He is a racist. And in response to that, Fox News has taken no corrective actions at all - ever.
Matthew Dowd is a political commentator with a background of working for both major parties. While discussing the Charlie Kirk assassination, Dowd made the following comments. Dowd has noted this was said before we knew Kirk was targeted - a reasonable claim given there was ANOTHER campus shooting that happened at the same time.
He’s been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that is the environment we are in. You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. And that’s the unfortunate environment we are in.4
Dowd was directly responding to Katy Tur’s question about the current political environment. Every word there was true. Kirk was extremely divisive and hateful. I am not focusing on Kirk’s bigotry here, but he attacked MLK Jr, said the Civil Rights Act was a huge mistake, said that doctors assisting transgender patients should face Nuremberg-style trials (HALF of the Nazis convicted at Nuremberg were executed), said he questioned the intelligence of Black women (in a dig at non-existent affirmative action), was nervous if he got on a plane with a Black pilot, and said women should abandon their careers to have as many children as possible with men they submit to.
Kirk was racist. And an antisemite. And sexist. These statements are true.
Matthew Dowd was fired for making them.
The Washington Post fired Karen Attiah, the sole remaining full-time Black columnist, for commenting about how differently we treat white men who commit/advocate for violence vs minorities and women. She was correct. We do. The Post called this “gross misconduct” and even said she had endangered her colleagues.
On Twitter, a MASSIVE movement has begun to identify anyone viewed as insufficiently mourning Charlie Kirk so their employers can be contacted, in hopes of their getting fired. This is not a small effort. They have identified tens of thousands of people they want fired for offering the mildest criticisms of Kirk. I saw someone caught in this who was a part-time cashier at a Dollar Tree. No one is safe from this mob.
The government has joined in. Marco Rubio, continuing his long trend of screening immigrants based on criticism of conservatives, has said he will revoke the visas of anyone he feels celebrated Kirk’s death. Pete Hegseth has already begun firing members of the military for the same reason. Stephen Miller and Trump have vowed retribution against left-wing groups they are vaguely connecting to the Kirk murder, including the typical lie that George Soros is paying protestors nationwide. I have been to numerous protests against Donald Trump these last 9 years. I am 100% open to receiving money for those protests yet, for some strange reason, no conservatives claiming it’s common for protestors to get paid by George Soros have ever been able to direct me to a place I can pick up a paycheck. (Because this is just another conservative lie/conspiracy theory). Rep. Clay Higgins announced he wants a bill mandating social media companies ban anyone celebrating Kirk’s murder - for life.
Trump ordered flags to half-staff for Kirk, an EXTREMELY rare honor for someone who is not a politician. Today when asked why he did not order flags lowered after the assassination of Melissa Hortman, Donald Trump did not know who she was.
Senator Mike Lee openly mocked Hortman’s assassination and blamed it on “Marxists.” Her killer was a lifelong Republican. Lee is now incensed over criticism of Kirk.
In 2022, a man broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home with the goal of assassinating her. She was not home and he ended up trying to murder her husband, viciously attacking him with a hammer. Elon Musk spread a conspiracy theory about the attacker and Mr. Pelosi being lovers. Multiple elected Republicans posted memes about the attack and made jokes.
Those same Republicans are now seeking to ruin the lives of anyone who even accurately quotes what Charlie Kirk said. A professor was fired for posting an article from 2023 about Kirk’s views on gun violence without commentary. Quoting Charlie Kirk is now grounds for losing your job because what Charlie Kirk said was horrible and it’s a sin to say Charlie Kirk said the horrible things he did.
This dichotomy applies to a wide range of things. From some of my Republican friends I have seen posts where they had absolutely no idea about the most horrible things Kirk said and advocated for. His own website had a section dedicated to getting professors fired and they are currently hailing him as a free speech advocate. A Trump voter last year revealed they had never heard of Qanon/Pizzagate, two of the foundational conspiracy theories in Trump’s base. Their information systems simply never addressed it hence their ignorance.
And that’s where the nation is now. We have a world where trade is getting absolutely destroyed by Trump’s tariffs and a world where tariffs are reviving the economy and foreign countries are paying tariffs instead of US consumers. We have a country where the 1/6 rioters were violently seeking to overthrow the incoming government and a country where the 1/6 patriots were peaceful protestors touring the capitol, concerned about election integrity.
We have an America where Charlie Kirk was a misogynist, a racist, an antisemite, and a man who wants doctors executed for helping LGBT patients - a man who wanted professors he disagreed with fired. And we have an America where Charlie Kirk was a peaceful free speech advocate known for engaging in debate.
One of these Americas is based in truth. The other is based in conspiracy theories and hatred.
Which one we ultimately become is up to us.
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