When I first heard the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I couldn’t believe it.

Although I didn’t personally mourn Kirk himself, there was definitely something shocking and traumatic about the way in which he went out.

His martyrdom was something of an inevitability.

But now we’re almost a month removed from the incident, and I’m exhausted.

I’m exhausted by the faux-victimization. To me, it’s always been a thing in conservative spaces, but Kirk’s death has exacerbated the matter by a lot.

Kirk dying isn’t indicative of oppression. The crime was committed by a lone gunman with an unknown motive, and, as far as we know, no coherent political stance. Even if the gunman was undoubtedly left-wing, it wouldn’t change the fact that over the last five years, 54% of politically motivated murders have been committed by those on the right.

Being rightfully called out for associating with a detestable president isn’t indicative of oppression either. The First Amendment has always gone both ways. If you have controversial opinions, you shouldn’t be surprised that they get a response.

I’m also exhausted by the far-right’s expectation of empathy for a man who said that it was “a made-up, new age term.” 

Why am I being pressured to worry about Kirk’s death when there are issues that are far more worthy of my time?

Minnesota representative Melissa Hortman was also the victim of a politically motivated assassination in June. She was killed inside her home, alongside her husband and golden retriever. The killer intended on targeting over 45 other state and federal officials, all of whom were Democrats.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s legal rights have been consistently denied throughout his deportation case, along with the rights of 316 Hyundai-LG workers from South Korea, who were described as being “treated like prisoners of war.”

There was a school shooting in Colorado the same day as Kirk’s assassination, and a black student named Demartravion “Trey” Reed was found hanged on his college campus not too long after.

At this point, over 65,000 have died in what the United Nations has described as a genocidal takeover of Gaza.

What about all the LGBTQIA folks living in this country?

What about George Floyd, and the countless other victims of police violence?

Why does the empathy only go one way?

Because of course it does. Not only are most of these issues directly linked to the ignorance of the American right, they are openly mocked and ignored by them.

Everyone in Gaza is a terrorist, all immigrants are gang members and job stealers. George Floyd was a drug addict, and everyone who identifies as queer is here to groom your children. Kirk himself described gun violence as unfortunate, but ”prudent” and “rational.”

Simply put, there’s no room for nuance in this line of thinking, and it doesn’t help that liberal politicians are going along with it all.

Former president Joe Biden stated that he was praying for Kirk and his loved ones. So did former vice president Kamala Harris and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Out of all these responses, there was not one attempt at acknowledging who Kirk was as a person, other than vague statements about personal disagreements and how horrifying the event was.

At best, these responses are poor attempts at being the bigger person. At worst, they are shallow and grossly accommodating.

Two things can be true at once: Kirk didn’t “deserve” to die, but he certainly wasn’t acting in good faith when he was alive.

To me, not only is this sort of fake-nicety lame, but it’s also partly the reason why we got to this point in American politics.

But then again, this is Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Hakeem Jefferies we’re talking about, so I shouldn’t be too surprised.

Ultimately, I don’t have much of a solution to the exhaustion, the selective empathy, the faux-victimization, the absolute spinelessness. It would be easy for me to say that we should look at the death of Charlie Kirk in a much more critical light, but I’ve been familiar enough with the current, fascist-like state of the GOP to know that no matter how foolproof my argument is, I won’t be changing any minds.

From my perspective, the best thing that the left can do right now is to survive, thrive, support those in need and make our voices heard. The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk may have been inevitable, but that doesn’t mean that we have to accept what it entails.