I’m surprised to learn he was pro-Israel. I wonder if he was one of those evangelists who believes that we need to shove all the Jews into Israel to accelerate the coming of the Messiah.
I think he just hated Muslims and brown people a tiny bit more than he hated Jews.
My guess is that he felt that liberals were against Israel, which was a good enough reason to support it.
Kirk would hardly be the first US right-winger who supported Israel but hated Jews (the current administration is rife with them, after all). The various reasons for this are already well-discussed here.
It’s because US politics is deeply invested in Israel. And the reasons for this have also been hashed out ad nauseum.
To quote one writer, he was likely the sort of Christian who sees Jews as no more than “a quirky Protestant sect.”
Most of the biggest supporters of Israel I know (in my family and in the Catholic community of South Asian diaspora) are horribly antisemites. They just hate brown people especially Muslim brown people even more.
But even the two antisemites in our social circle (both business owners who are constantly carping on about the Jews controlling the banks and media “It’s not antisemitism if it’s true positive stereotyping”. One is Irish-American the other Serbian)
Why people are surprised by this, I will never understand.
There’s also a strain of antisemitism that gives Israeli Jews a “pass” out of a misguided belief that their values align perfectly with those of red-state America: muscular, gun-toting, militaristic, patriotic, etc.
Or a lot more; after 9/11 the Right went utterly, genocidally nuts over hating Muslims. I’m run into plenty who seem to simply regard Israel as a useful weapon for killing Muslims and barely even care about the “Jewish issue”.
I think this was mainly what was going on with Kirk. I couldn’t find very much evidence of blatant anti-semitism, but I didn’t look very hard. Apparently he accused Jews of promoting the kind of anti-white bigotry that they themselves historically experienced. Where he got this crazy notion I have no idea, but he did have a habit of making deliberately shocking statements as part of his attention-getting schtick. I assume his support of Israel was part of his alignment with conservative ideology, which in turn supports Israel because of how much they hate Muslims and Arabs.
Kirk was the sort of person (namely, a white nationalist) who would look at Jews not liking Nazis and interpret it as “Jews hating white people”.
Candace Owens obtained leaked audio of a call 11 days after Charlie’s death where Erika Kirk is absolutely beaming and giggling about all of the audience they reached and the merch they sold. I don’t find it quite as ghoulish as the commentary/news items suggest but it’s a clear piece of evidence that Erika Kirk is the opportunist playing the grieving widow.
You know what the biggest surprise is? She sounds like a very positive boss, thanking and uplifting her people. Cynically, she’s talking to the top organizers and this is a tactic to make them feel useful, but hey, a lot of bosses never give their employees enough praise or credit.
It’s turning out that Candace Owens seems like the only person on Earth who actually liked Charlie Kirk
It’s what Charlie would’ve wanted.
You know, I’m sure these people are all horrible. But I’m not going to criticize a widow for taking joy that her husband’s legacy is living on.
Especially the impressive merch sales. Balm to a grieving widow’s soul
Eh, if she was trying to praise and encourage people whose job it is to sell merchandise, this seems like a non-issue. I imagine if you followed anyone around nonstop for eleven days after their loved one’s death, you could probably get audio or video of a few moments that make them look uncaring when taken out of context.
Some day if you look up “merry widow” in the dictionary, you’ll see her picture. There have been people lose their jobs because they dared criticize Saint Charlie after his death, yet his own wife seems content to be a part time recreational grief performance artist and full time grifter as she flies around in Air Force Two at government expense and canoodling with JD “Maybelline” Vance. Charlie was a racist piece of shit and his wife is a shameless leech.
I can’t blame her too much, I’m also happy Charlie Kirk is dead.
Not me, death is too easy for him. Like Trump, he should be forced to live in failure and despair.
Moderating:
We are absolutely moving into Pit territory, and it just so happens we have a Pit thread on the subject already:
[wasn’t originally a Pit thread, but moved there by OP’s request after it went that direction]
Feel free to talk about Charlie Kirk’s wife continuing his agenda or grift depending on POV, but comments like this:
Belong in the Pit. No warnings, just a reminder that it’s still a P&E thread.
Point taken.