Charlie Kirk's murder affected the world in ways events rarely do. If elections have consequences, they pale in comparison to martyrdom.
We all know how Charlie's murder affected the right. It galvanized it, drew it closer together, and expanded it. Moreover, it activated a massive march toward God, with more people reconnecting with their faith or connecting with it for the first time. His memorial service only deepened that connection with Christ, especially with Erika Kirk forgiving Charlie's murderer in front of the world.
The thing about martyrdom is that no one goes untouched, including the ideological side by which the murder was conducted. Now, members of the radical left are having their own moment of pause and reflection, but not in the same way as the right.
As reported by the Daily Caller, members of the radical left going by the "antifascist" label are realizing that their tactics aren't helping anything. In fact, by their own admission, reports from these circles show that members have turned away from the radical cause. Still, they don't seem to have gotten it in their heads that their ideology is a big part of the issue:
“We do not call for individual acts of assassination, not because the powerful do not deserve to be challenged, but because such acts almost always strengthen the very machinery we are trying to dismantle … We must build the structures that make violence less likely not through pacifist sermons but through concrete mutual aid, through tenant unions, workplace committees, solidarity funds, free clinics, radical education,” reads a Sept. 13 article from the anarchist blog, “The Slow Burning Fuse.” A self-described “Anarchist Communist Group” reposted the piece on its own website.
“If we are serious about ending political violence, we must be serious about ending capitalism,” the article says. The Slow Burning Fuse and Anarchist Communist Group did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Another interesting result is that some radical leftists are waking up to the fact that their attempts to disrupt and prevent Christian worship events are only turning people against them:
Moreover, Corvallis Antifascists criticized black-clothed, Antifa-style protesters who have disrupted Christian worship events in liberal cities such as Seattle. The group called the protests “unequivocal optical and tactical failures” for the Antifa movement.
“Simply put, black-bloc counters of what appear to be normie worship events with children in attendance is a decidedly bad look and contributes to the American conservative persecution narrative, galvanizing otherwise politically inactive conservatives,” the group wrote. “This is particularly relevant as many apolitical businesses and institutions … have expressed public sympathy to Kirk and his cause.”
The most interesting part is that some parts of the radical left have suggested that dialogue, not violence, is the path to regaining cultural ground:
“Whether we like it or not, those people on the supposed other side are people,” a user wrote on the anti-capitalist “r/Anarchy101” forum a day after Kirk’s death. “They function based on the same psychology and sociology as everyone else. This is important because it tells us that, Actually Yes, we Can reason and talk with these people.”
As the Daily Caller highlights, much of the online chatter between radical leftists isn't uniform. Some disagree that the right should be treated as people at all, and one person called murdering people like Charlie "harm reduction." There was also an urging that the open celebration of Charlie's murder stop, if not because there are now children without a father, and his family shouldn't have to look at it, but that it does nothing to help the radical left in a time when Trump is now looking into Antifa as a terrorist organization.
I want to highlight two things here.
Firstly, while it's great news that there are people reportedly leaving the radical left, it's clear they aren't learning the lesson they need to. It's that their ideology is always going to resort to violence and radical action because it cannot work. Not only does it run completely contrary to the system Americans have, with its capitalism and Judeo-Christian foundation, but their chosen ideological base, communism, is antithetical to human nature.
Read: Communism Won't Ever Work, Because the Human Species Isn't Built For It
They aren't learning the right lesson, and as such, they should be considered to be restrategizing, not waking up.
The one thing they are doing correctly, and will affect them more than anything, is the suggestion that dialogue with the right should begin. They think that by doing this, they'll be able to begin swaying people back to their side. I'm sure there will be converts among the ignorant, but ultimately, this will be the thing that cuts chunks out of the left's ranks even more.
That was Charlie's whole strategy.
This is, ultimately, why I don't think the dialogue option will be available for long. Once it's clear they've sprung a leak, they'll plug the hole. This will, of course, bring them back around to violence, as once the talking stops, the violence starts.
Read: Rob Reiner's Preconditions for Debating Conservatives Is What Got Us Here in the First Place
Regardless, parts of the left seem to believe they've gone too far, and something of a rift has developed, at least for now. I do not doubt that this will cause issues down the line for the radicals, with some drifting more toward the moderate end as they realize how crazy things have gotten, but I wouldn't expect this realization to last long.
By the time the dust settles, I anticipate this will harden hearts even more, and I can expect things to get worse before they get better.
