It's been a rough week. If you have the time for a 5-minute video, I hope you'll spend a few reading my thoughts as well.
My political life began in the United States Marine Corps. It began with the rather rapid change from suburban/rural kid from a predominantly white public school to being a recruit in boot camp who ended up showering with a bunch of black guys. There were other groups present as well, but let's be honest and acknowledge that within the context of American history, that is one of the biggest changes that could have happened to someone like me.
Except, the Corps didn't see color. We were all green. While the pragmatists always recognized that there were dark green Marines and light green Marines, we were expected to serve together and support one another. Any green is green enough. The Marine Corps taught me strong tolerance for people of other ethnicities.
Within a year, I had to help clean out the wall locker of a young Marine who was discharged for the "offense" of thinking that he might be gay. This was long before "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." He'd never affirmatively done anything beyond hanging out and drinking beer with some gay civilians. This Marine was tough. He had won the Golden Gloves in his hometown. He was smart. He was attending some of the hardest aviation maintenance schools the Corps offered. But he said the wrong thing to the wrong person and his departure was so fast that it caused a low pressure pop of the air. A Marine leader said something along the lines of "Idiot. If he'd have just kept his mouth closed, no one would have cared." There's more to that story that makes it even more surprising if you buy into stereotypes. At the end of the day, the Marine Corps, taught me tolerance for gay folks. It turns out he wasn't the only gay Marine I'd ever know.
It became apparent early on that politicians would have a serious influence over my life. The policies they supported/opposed could result in poor equipment, poor training, poor living conditions, or sending my tender backside to the other side of the planet for worthy or unworthy purposes. So I started reading. Newspapers. Magazines. History, current events, you name it.
Eventually, I would develop an appreciation for a well defended argument. I wasn't always right, but I always tried to have the facts. "Steel-manning" is the phrase that pays these days. I was pretty good at. And some might say that I spent a little too much time at it. I'd spend time at the local library using the microfiche to find old magazine articles and bringing that new information back to the discussion. The Corps taught me to engage in good faith discussions with people who have a different point of view.
As a side note, Ronald Reagan once said something in the 80's about "welfare queens" who were defrauding the government. I had the singular privilege of watching two of my brother Marines go at it over that issue. One thought Reagan was full of it. The other thought he was spot on. Ironically, it was a dark green Marine (married with one child) who was raised in the inner city who said that he had witnessed everything Reagan was talking about and we ought to cut back on welfare. It was a light green Marine (single, girlfriend had a child) from the farmlands who was concerned that the government wasn't doing enough to support his girlfriend.
A second side note comes from the wake of the killing of Malice Green in Detroit. It obviously became a point of discussion. Let's just say that I learned a few things about the state of (then) modern policing from people who had lived with it. It was an honest exchange and we all got back to the business of being Marines. The Corps taught me that listening to other perspectives is a good idea.
Those kinds of sessions taught me the value of skepticism. At one point in time, I said something silly about the impact of marijuana on the behavior of marijuana users. I didn't know it was silly then, but it did motivate me to learn a thing or two down the road and I eventually changed my mind. The Corps taught me that just parroting the last thing you hear or failing to spend the time getting the "rest of the story" will inevitably cause something silly to fall out of your mouth.
After I left active duty, I continued engaging in what were then good faith discussions. Mostly online. Probably spent too much time at that and not enough time at more important things. At one point I had the modestly rewarding experience of pointing out the many problems with nationalized healthcare systems and having someone tell me a few months later that they lived in a country with a national healthcare system and this person had discovered that I was right. They had experienced the government deciding to deny them care.
I started a blog where I wrote about different topics including current events. And eventually, the world changed. Not for the better. And my engagement has largely waned over the years.
The liberals in those conversations were eventually replaced with progressives, socialists, and communists. Where the liberals might be persuaded by facts, the rest were thoroughly engaged with dogma/propaganda. It became quite rare to experience an exchange where someone said "Dann, you've got a good point." I wasn't looking for utter victory. I wasn't seeking to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women. Just a recognition that perhaps their position could use some refinement and perhaps there is a middle ground where we could both find agreement.
Then there was the change in the major media. While a leftist bias in the media has long been an issue, there used to be a firmer wall between news and opinion reporting. That started slipping over the years until you get to the point where a major online dictionary changed the definition of a word during the nomination hearings for a potential Supreme Court Justice just to make the nominee look bad and the major media embraced that action in a manner that should have made George Orwell spin in his grave at 1984 RPM.
The combination of a dishonest media coupled with those who embraced a socialist/Progressive agenda and were disinterested in any other perspective sapped my motivation to engage.
Leftist/progressive politicians and leaders along with their allies in the major media have called every GOP nominee for President in this century a "Nazi". Mitt "Milquetoast" Romney was called a "Nazi" for a hot minute until it was clear that he had no chance of winning.
For the record, George W. Bush is not a Nazi/fascist. John McCain was not a Nazi/fascist. Mitt Romney is not a Nazi/fascist. And Donald Trump is not a Nazi/fascist. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms to make about each of them. Asserting that they are a Nazi/fascists is illegitimate.
The major media no longer maintains the pretense to reporting all of the facts, including the ones that are inconvenient for leftist/Progressive politicians and leaders. When something bad happens that makes the leftist/Progressive position look bad, the major media reports on it briefly at best or ignores it completely at the worst. If the folks on the right make a big deal about it, the media story is about the right-of-center response to the event and not the actual event itself. The most recent example of this phenomenon being the murder of a Ukrainian woman Iryna Zarutska. Killed by a man that a sane society would have put in prison for lesser crimes before he had a chance to take her life.
We have heard, time and again, the call for a "national conversation" over a broad range of issues. Leftist/Progressive politicians and leaders routinely call for a national conversation whenever some serious event occurs.
But the modern leftist/Progressive debating tactic is to hurl invectives like "Nazi", "racist" , "homophobe", "sexist", and "transphobe" whenever they encounter an opinion that does not perfectly align with the leftist/Progressive leadership's position of the moment. They do not use that language to be accurate. They use those words to say "shut up". Their objective was to have an opportunity to lecture and not to have a conversation. Within the modern leftist/Progressive leadership mindset, the very worst hate speech in the world is only two words long; "I disagree".
Which, unfortunately, brings us to Charlie Kirk. Love him. Hate him. Agree with him. Think he's full of it. Charlie Kirk was up for a "national conversation". It was the foundation for everything he accomplished. If someone wants a discussion, Charlie was up for a discussion.
A discussion where all sides get heard. Where all sides get fact checked. Where the flaws in everyone's arguments get exposed.
And I don't know how much I ever agreed with Charlie. He's a fast talker. I'm skeptical of fast talkers as they can toss out a lot of information that may (or may not) be accurate. In a world where news organizations are not committed to reporting all of the truth, some lies ends up halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on.
But if there was going to be a national conversation, Charlie Kirk was ready to be a part of it. Until someone told him to shut up. With a bullet.
There will be more to this story in the coming days and weeks. I am already seeing people twist little threads to change the narrative of this story. My usual advice is to wait about a week before getting ready to say something about an event. The easy and quick response is rarely the best one.
I will say that there are too many folks spoiling for some sort of civil war these days. As with every other person who graduates from boot camp, I have a solid understanding about the hazards of war. I served in a combat zone but never was in the thick of a fight. I just fixed airplanes on an air base hundreds of miles from the front. We weren't safe, but we were a long way from where the bombs and bullets were flying. Trust me. We don't want another civil war.
A final piece of advice is to remember that most folks are just folks. Don't let the politicians, activists, and other political leaders have too much influence. Remember when you are talking to a neighbor or co-worker, that y'all share a lot more than might divide you on an issue or two. Leave some room for reasonable disagreement. Leave some room for others to change their mind without pushing their back up against the wall. A little bit of what some folks call "grace" goes a long way.
