Chad K

@ezraklein.bsky.social In your Kirk opinion piece, you gush with jealousy about the power of the platform of persuasion that Kirk built while associating the voices who "wrap his death around his views" with the dangers of rising political violence. You demand pacifism to sustain violent platforms?

I think what really disturbs you is that you see yourself in Kirk, and it makes you afraid of the repercussions of your own power. Far-reaching persuasion IS power, and you cannot have a peaceful democracy when people are played for pawns in a game of polarizing violence.

@ezraklein.bsky.social In your Kirk opinion piece, you gush with jealousy about the power of the platform of persuasion that Kirk built while associating the voices who "wrap his death around his views" with the dangers of rising political violence. You demand pacifism to sustain violent platforms?

Klein has mistaken our closely cherished belief that people should be free to express their views and beliefs without fear of violence for the idea that people at the top of media empires should be free to manipulate the masses into violence without carrying any of the culpability.

When you truly understand who Kirk was as a societal force, Klein’s piece exposes the disgustingly cynical position of the attention-economy influencer class — that politics is a business for attention farming, everything is unserious, and people with platforms carry no responsibility.

There is obviously some play going on with Section 740. This is not like a way-extreme authoritarian response to an event. Literally nothing happened. This is a chess move. It seems clear he’s going around amassing as much para-military power as he can grab.