The American Meme

“Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.”

-George Bernard Shaw

I don’t normally post political content these days, particularly since Meta always has a way of censoring and deleting any pages or groups I might devote to such matters, but with the events of the past week I have to get some things off my chest.

And, yes, it is still “horror” related content. Because there is nothing more horrific and disgusting than those who would celebrate, or try to validate, the assassination of a public speaker whose ideology you disagree with. The mindless brigade of meme focused "lolz".

Of course, I’m speaking about the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk, at 31 years old. Allow me to say, I wasn’t a fan of Charlie Kirk and had only viewed a couple hours worth of clips over the past few years. I am NOT politically affiliated, nor religiously motivated.

He came off as cocky, smug, and exactly what you might expect from a super conservative Christian fundamentalist millionaire. On many topics he was misguided, and it’s easy to see how he could be misconstrued, and even despised, by some.

That being said, he was always generally respectful when engaged in debate, with a good sense of humor, and welcoming demeanor. Whether you like it or not, he was intelligent, articulate, and entitled to his beliefs and opinions. He handled himself well and raised some valid points on occasion.

Some people claim Kirk spewed hatred, bigotry, and division, and like to share information or quotes without full context or fact checking. Horror master Stephen King is one of those people, who falsely stated Kirk encouraged the “stoning of gay people”, by simply repeating something he heard on Twitter.

After massive backlash, King repeatedly apologized for spreading disinformation, to somehow validate a public execution of a political figure, but it’s highly disappointing coming from the man who had his book RAGE discontinued due to themes of mass shootings and school violence.

I believe Charlie Kirk actually was a devout Christian and family man, and those are things that, in of themselves, a lot of people would ridicule and hate about him. There is no reality where the man deserved to be publicly assassinated for his rhetoric, nor to have mentally ill people dancing in the street and celebrating it, rallying for more violent extremism.

The people celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk, are the same ones who would wish death upon you and your entire family if you didn’t get vaccinated during Covid.

Of course, we unfortunately come to find that the shooter, 22 year old Tyler Robinson, was a gay man dating a trans partner, which only adds to the sick irony of this entire situation. One of the final questions Kirk was asked was about mass shootings committed by trans perpetrators, to which he replied there were “too many”.

But this piece isn’t about Stephen King, it isn’t even about Charlie Kirk, or the motivations of his killer.

It’s about US. All of us.

At what point did so many Americans decide to allow themselves to be consumed by hatred and division? Because, while the hatred and division is choreographed by media and social engineers, fed to us like slop to pigs, it’s still a decision we are making.

Every day. With every post. And every political event or statement we allow to emotionally manipulate us and set us in such drastic opposition.

Social media, and viral tiktoks, have opened a Pandora’s Box of mental illness and emotional immaturity, the damage of which is incalculable.

Of course social media, like a gun, is only a tool, the purpose of which is left up to the user. It has become all too common to regurgitate disinformation and incendiary comments without repercussion. It is too easy to dehumanize random strangers on the other end of a computer screen.

Without civil dialogue and discourse based in rationality and logic, we are all floating off in different directions, in a country where the center cannot hold. And some would be more than happy to see American society and civilization crumble, to lose sight of our commonalities, and descend into lawless decay.

This is not a left or right issue (both sides are displaying extreme fascist elements), this is an issue about what we allow to thrive and fester within our hearts. Righteous anger has a place, there is productivity and progress to be mined from a certain level of outrage. But there is no room for violently acting out against those whom we disagree with, nor attempting to encourage or validate it when it does happen.

By definition, in order to be “extreme”, extremism must continually perpetuate and reach new heights and boundaries. It is a fire capable of burning and consuming all who fan its flames. It is a climate which is unsustainable for a society to continue, and that spits in the face of truth, morality, and justice.

And let me clarify something here. I feel hatred for child molesters, human traffickers, rapists, and murderers. I feel hatred for the man who senselessly stabbed a Ukrainian woman named Iryna Zarutska to death on a train. I feel hatred towards the situation happening in Gaza, and atrocities around the world. I feel hatred towards all the hatred happening in America right now!

But will not allow that to hijack my intellect, humanity, ethics, morals, and personal values. I will not allow emotions to cloud my better judgment, nor feel like trying to take the “high ground” is something to be dismissed and ridiculed. I will not feed into the cesspool of lower vibratory energy that seeks to drown us in noise, static, and an endless news cycle of chaos which depicts us all as enemies.

So, this piece was meant to, above all, try and articulate some of my recent thoughts on current events to put things in perspective. In a world which increasingly stinks of bots and NPC’s with no minds of their own, I encourage, and beg of you, please think for yourself and come to your own conclusions instead of merely parroting talking points and agendas.

We are at a tipping point, and I guarantee that neither “side” are going to like the outcome once the balance and equilibrium has been completely lost. We all need to stop pointing fingers at each other, work on ourselves, displaying composure and self respect.

And at the end of the day, not to be distracted, we still need to demand full transparency of the Epstein Files, though it seems clear by now that issue will never be resolved, and the surrounding secrecy and cover-up is pretty much the only thing both Republicans and Democrats can agree on these days.

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Michael A. Dyer is the host of the HORROR TO CULTURE podcast, vidcast, and website.