I had a falling out with a friend over my indifference towards Charlie Kirk’s death. Was she dramatic or AITA ?

[joseline]

As you may have heard, Charlie Kirk who is a political activist in the US got shot recently in public.

now I don’t wish death on people. I am not excited that he died like many unhinged people on the internet used to be but I am not sad at all. It’s not because of his inflammatory racist, cold hearted, bigoted rhetorics that I am not sad about his death but it’s simply because I could care less about celebrities. I never grieved about celebrities deaths and I will never.

but I had a falling out with a friend because she brought it up and I just shrugged. That made her angry and she called me cold blooded and brought up the fact that he was a father.

i responded ok and ? And she stormed out of my apartment.

The main reason why I don’t care is not because I hate Kirk. It’s because I generally don’t care about what goes on in the US. I do not care about that country and its people. I’ve never been there. I do not care to ever visit. Even less now since I’ve travelled to various other countries in Europe and south east Asia as well as the Caribbean.

Kirk is American who was living in America and I am British and I live in London UK. Nothing to do with us and our country.

Was I an asshole or is my friend dramatic ?

Nice try, but the OP claims she has never been to the US.

I mean. I don't care that he died but it has nothing to do with his location.

Do you have the same opinion on Palestinian children?

And the correct response is assassination?

There was a fatal school school shooting the very same day as Kirk’s which is barely mentioned. Those children will not have been publicly supporting gun ownership. I don’t wish what happened to him on anyone but he certainly was pro-gun and admitted himself that that meant people would die. I still wouldn’t wish it on him but it’s the children I feel sorry for.

Going to school with a Kevlar plate built into a child's backpack definitely shouldn't be seen as normal.
When it comes to the school Shootings it's almost as if children are disposable.

tbh I'm not surprised the school shooting barely got a mention. It's the 47th this year in schools and the only fatality was the shooter himself.

It must have been terrifying for the other students and the two critically injured, but unless and until they change the gun laws and the culture around guns, this sort of thing is going to keep happening.

I thinks its because you don't see a video of someone being murdered everyday. That's why its effecting people. Its the first time iv seen anyone being shot or murdered. Most murders arent filmed and if they are their not graphically spread all over social media their usually cctv footage that is blurred out.

Reading your post your Americanism “could care less” jumped out at me , and I noticed you also used “apartment”. Leads me to suspect you’re American. If that’s the case, I’m not sure why you’re pretending to be from London?

And ‘could care less’. Ghastly American nonsensical statement. Please don’t import it here.

You think you don’t need help, but you really do

I realise you could quote me a bunch of out of context things Charlie Kirk said. You can distill him to a sentence, trying to make out he’s satan, but anyone who knows anything knows you are wrong. ‘Divisive’ is used in a derogatory way when someone says something you don’t like, that’s all, it means nothing when you use it like this,

What do you want from a conservative? What can they say that you would allow? They aren’t going to agree with you, so that’s not going to happen, so what is actually acceptable that conservatives can say?

It seems they aren’t allowed to be anti abortion, Christian’s, ‘for family’, prefer meritocracy…that’s ‘divisive’. It’s hard to know what is acceptable

Maybe next time you want to pretend you are British ask AI to edit your post OP.

@highlight

Why on earth are you asking other people to choose your conservatism for you @hamstersarse ?

It's yours. You get to choose it.

You just can't expect everyone else on the planet to agree with you – even other conservatives.

It's very childlike to stamp the feet and say, "you're not letting me" if anyone dares disagree with you.

And what's with this pretend-playing you're being silenced? The man who owns one of the biggest communications channels on the Planet, X/Twitter, is yelling your message through his megaphone.

He turned up from the US today by video link to a crowd in London promising violence in the UK.

He also told us Brits we should get rid of our democratically elected government. He's a South African immigrant to the USA, so obviously he gets to override the democratic will of the British people.

"I never grieved about celebrities deaths and I will never."

You can be indifferent about celebrities and their views but still show empathy that someone was murdered and died a fairly gruesome death in front of his wife, 3 years old daughter and 1 year old son, surely?

I don’t think Charlie Kirk is satan, neither am I bothered by what he chose to say. You’re having the wrong argument with the wrong posters.

I actually think it’s highly likely he was driven to click bait for the money, and wasn’t particularly authentic anyway.

Yep and if they are making this up it raises questions as to motivation behind the post

Looks like “Joseline” has gone off to change their name to “Alrightmate”

I had seen a clip of him before but did not realise who he was. Well I know now as do many more millions of people. Vigils have been held for him all over the world, he has been martyred. People in the USA have lost their jobs or been disciplined by celebrating his death online and their employers do not want to have them associated with them. A link to NBC news.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/charlie-kirk-death-teachers-professors-nationwide-fired-disciplined-s-rcna230845

He may have been a right wing Conservative and this forum is very much more liberal and left leaning though a change even here but political assassinations always have an effect. It’s not so much about how either of you feel it’s not understanding the ramifications of a high profile assassination.

'Could' care less? You mean couldn't care less, surely.

Just here for the 🍿

It's a real shame there wasn't such noisy and widespread condemnation of political violence and of people celebrating political violence before this week.

The tweet below was the gleeful response of Donald Turmp junior, the son of the President of the United States, in 2022 when a man fractured 82-year-old Paul Pelosi's skull during an attack aimed at Nancy Pelosi. (Screenshot because he later deleted it.)

This year, only a few months ago, a man shot dead elected Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband, shot and seriously wounded John Hoffman and his wife, tried to attack two more homes of elected Democrat representatives, and had a list of nearly 70 people to attack, all for political reasons.

Shooter was a Trump voter.

Response from prominent right wingers, including Donald Trump junior and Elon Musk, was to spread misinformation as fast as they could trying to paint the shooter as leftwing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_legislators

President Donald Trump did make a brief statement that political violence was bad... then went golfing and joined in trying to smear Democrats for the shooting.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/melissa-hortman-funeral-trump-minnesota-killer-rcna216023

A lot of us have been worried for a long time about this ramping up of political violence, and about the violent rhetoric which raises the temperature and helps stokes people up to make assaults. Not just in the US.

It would have been nice if the right had been a bit more condemnatory and a bit less dismissive or downright gleeful at these assaults on people they saw as their political enemies. If they had worked to bring the temperature down, and had united against political violence, rather than waiting till it reached someone they cared about.

It could have saved Kirk's life.

At time of posting, we don't yet know what motivation will be claimed by the man arrested for killing Kirk.

But I remember what was said after the shooting attack on Gabby Giffords in 2011, which killed 6 people including a child. That people speaking to the public (broadcasters, political activists, whoever) needed to realise that their words would fall on the unhinged and hinged alike.

We all understand by now that if you endorse violence, if you normalise it, spout encouragement for it, some of your audience may just take it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabby_Giffords

I hadn’t heard of him before but I’m older. He shouldn’t have been murdered for his beliefs though. I’m trying to educate myself about him. I believe there was another high school shooting on the same day but he got all the media coverage.
Your friend was being ridiculous and you have a right to your own opinion and response.

Obviously not. I disagree with what he stood for. Hate breeds hate and as he was all for freedom of gun laws and the progression of politics to move further right. The fact that someone further along the right with a gun obsession kills him, perhaps is a sign that gun laws in America should be more restrictive. Imagine how many children lives could be saved.