Maybe in order to gain a better perspective on what might be going it would be helpful if people here share some of the experiences they personally had with lefty people since the Kirk assassination? If possible, it would be helpful to limit this explicitly only to those people you know personally. And preferably (but not necessarily exclusively) how they reacted/interacted outside of internet and/or social media bubbles when you interacted with them in real life. In that way we might gain a better perspective on what is going on outside possible bubbles on the internet that might or might not be representative. And maybe not only in the “western“ world but outside of it.
I go first. First, a summary with three points for context:
- The lefty guy I interacted with is a german living in Germany. He is retired and old (around 75) and is what you could most certainly call an old school hippie type of lefty who is also strongly anti-fascist. He was a doctor. I would think/say he is a honest, hard working and decent man. Despite that, he has a history of following almost all mainstream nonsense, sometimes to the extreme, while he sometimes seems to also think critically and not go along fully.
- For example, during Covid, he went as far as telling near by authorities in his city out of his own volition that he would like to and/or be willing and happy to inject people with the Covid shots in his spare time! Undoubtedly, he did that partly because he firmly believed he would be doing something good with it. I‘m pretty sure that he has pretty much zero connection to the internet, which in a lot of ways is foreign to him because he is old.
- As for the environment/atmosphere in Germany: I think it is safe to say that Germany in a lot of ways has been on the forefront of lefty BS for many years in the west, while strong opposition to that has arisen in the population in the last 10 years or so. At the same time I think it is safe to say that almost nobody in Germany ever even heard of Kirk before the assassination, including probably the majority of alternative people that can speak/understand english. I don’t know how much Kirk was discussed in the mainstream since the assassination, but I would guess it is quite a lot less compared to america.
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With the context above, here is what he personally said to me on Saturday when we were meeting:
- Out of his own drive he brought up the guy that was shot (Kirk). So, somehow what happened went through to him despite the context above. Now, I’m not certain what exactly he meant to say about Kirk because I can’t exactly remember it and because he brought up a couple of historic names as comparison I think. But, I know that the last name he was giving as a comparison was “billy the kid“. So I think he again basically is following the mainstream line and is thinking of Kirk in terms of a daring but historical criminal. And I‘m not sure, but it seems like he wasn’t all that concerned/sad about what happened either and maybe even happy about it.
Another point that complicates things:
The same guy was/is vocal about the injustice and cruelty Israel is committing against Gaza/Palestinians. And that started early on after October 7. And it seems like that many (even extreme) lefties were much more vocal and on point on what is happening in Israel/Gaza much earlier than many people on the right. Sometimes I wondered though how much of that is really an inert/felt/natural/organic reaction of those people guided by a moral compass because it almost seems like even there many only do it if it is somehow sanctioned/acceptable from an external authority/atmosphere to speak and think like that? And today that seems to be often based on what is accepted in the mainstream, and often strongly influenced in that regard by mainstream media. Yes, speaking up like that against what is happening in Gaza seems quite brave/good but there was and still is a clear and accepted stream/atmosphere in the mainstream that makes it ok to talk/think like that. The term “authoritarian followers“ comes to mind.
I go first. First, a summary with three points for context:
- The lefty guy I interacted with is a german living in Germany. He is retired and old (around 75) and is what you could most certainly call an old school hippie type of lefty who is also strongly anti-fascist. He was a doctor. I would think/say he is a honest, hard working and decent man. Despite that, he has a history of following almost all mainstream nonsense, sometimes to the extreme, while he sometimes seems to also think critically and not go along fully.
- For example, during Covid, he went as far as telling near by authorities in his city out of his own volition that he would like to and/or be willing and happy to inject people with the Covid shots in his spare time! Undoubtedly, he did that partly because he firmly believed he would be doing something good with it. I‘m pretty sure that he has pretty much zero connection to the internet, which in a lot of ways is foreign to him because he is old.
- As for the environment/atmosphere in Germany: I think it is safe to say that Germany in a lot of ways has been on the forefront of lefty BS for many years in the west, while strong opposition to that has arisen in the population in the last 10 years or so. At the same time I think it is safe to say that almost nobody in Germany ever even heard of Kirk before the assassination, including probably the majority of alternative people that can speak/understand english. I don’t know how much Kirk was discussed in the mainstream since the assassination, but I would guess it is quite a lot less compared to america.
————————
With the context above, here is what he personally said to me on Saturday when we were meeting:
- Out of his own drive he brought up the guy that was shot (Kirk). So, somehow what happened went through to him despite the context above. Now, I’m not certain what exactly he meant to say about Kirk because I can’t exactly remember it and because he brought up a couple of historic names as comparison I think. But, I know that the last name he was giving as a comparison was “billy the kid“. So I think he again basically is following the mainstream line and is thinking of Kirk in terms of a daring but historical criminal. And I‘m not sure, but it seems like he wasn’t all that concerned/sad about what happened either and maybe even happy about it.
Another point that complicates things:
The same guy was/is vocal about the injustice and cruelty Israel is committing against Gaza/Palestinians. And that started early on after October 7. And it seems like that many (even extreme) lefties were much more vocal and on point on what is happening in Israel/Gaza much earlier than many people on the right. Sometimes I wondered though how much of that is really an inert/felt/natural/organic reaction of those people guided by a moral compass because it almost seems like even there many only do it if it is somehow sanctioned/acceptable from an external authority/atmosphere to speak and think like that? And today that seems to be often based on what is accepted in the mainstream, and often strongly influenced in that regard by mainstream media. Yes, speaking up like that against what is happening in Gaza seems quite brave/good but there was and still is a clear and accepted stream/atmosphere in the mainstream that makes it ok to talk/think like that. The term “authoritarian followers“ comes to mind.
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