If you’ve read the headlines lately, or opened any social media app, you’ve most likely seen the news that right-wing political activist, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University.
I’m not here to discuss whether he was a good person — if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 19 years, it’s that people will believe what they want to believe — but I am here to discuss the wedge that has been driven through the American people, furthering the gap between sides of the political spectrum.
In the last few years, there has been a divide — left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative — and it has been widening as social media spreads people’s ideologies across all platforms.
People can post whatever they wish whenever they want, whether it’s true or not, with almost zero supervision. Sides are picking platforms to populate to keep their ideologies within their groups while shaming anyone who disagrees with them.
But since the assassination of Kirk, shaming others for their opinions has become the least of America’s concerns.
The mentions of “civil war” have been on the rise since the shooting. This mainly comes from right-leaning influencers, like Andrew Tate, a media personality known for his misogynistic views, who posted just “Civil War” on X, formerly known as Twitter, after Kirk was shot. Posts containing civil war rhetoric on X have jumped from the normal 18,000 to 210,000 times as of Sept. 9.
Left-leaning X users have been reportedly “celebrating” Kirk’s death and making fun of his assassination. A TikTok user by the name of angelasrightofficial, posted a video of herself saying, “Live by the sword, die by the sword. He did say that gun deaths were an acceptable side effect of gun rights,” which was later posted to X by Wall Street Apes with the caption, “Liberals are celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death.”
I personally did not agree with Kirk — our views never came close to aligning, I’ll be honest. I’ve watched many of his debates and quickly turned them off. I am neither celebrating his death nor doxxing people for speaking ill of him. I refuse to take part in this war against each other, all over a man who died in the way he lived: controversially.
This debate, this war that’s formed, is harming everyone in America. As the sides split farther, so do our chances of ever peacefully living again.
We already have enough outside threats as it stands; more internal wars seem unnecessary and frightful. I highly urge everyone to recognize we are all human — if we don’t bridge the gap between left and right soon, there will be no sides left to argue.
