We used to be human but now
We are resin
We are powder
Scattered all over
Touch
Touch and get burnt
Get moved
Some people bring happiness by arriving; others by leaving — and a few only by dying
I still haven’t decided how glad I am that Charlie Kirk got shot.
As a wrestling fan, I do appreciate him wearing white knowing that he was going to get colour, but that is a completely separate thing.
This indecision is not related to the type person that Charlie Kirk was. Even after somebody is murdered, they can still be a complete fucking arsecandle. Look at Hitler – whom Simon Schama called “One of history’s most notable arsecandles” – he was shot in the head and we can all still agree that he was a bit of a rascal. Nor does the killing of arsecancles automatically trigger platitudes. Look at the person who killed Hitler: again, it was Hitler. Are we just going openly rejoice Adolf Hitler just because he managed to kill Hitler? As these very intelligent examples both show, it is a very nuanced issue/
Charlie Kirk was a horrendous person. Racist, homophobic, classist, transphobic and every other bigotry that’s convenient to take attention away from the Capitalist’s class’s appropriation of the working people’s funds at any one moment. He thought we should have “Nuremberg style trials” for doctors performing gender affirming care; he was a big believer as the dumb as dogs’ cocks Great Replacement theory and stated that “Prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people — that’s a fact”; he made the astonishing assertion that “Black people were better off in slavery and subjugation before the 1940s … It was bad & it was evil, but they committed less crimes“; said if his 10 year old daughter was raped and impregnated he would force her to carry the child; and of course, brilliantly, ““I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights”. It’s what he would have wanted.
I get that it’s not nice when people get killed – unless of course you have the right to defend yourself -and I get that the good/bad binary is a little difficult o make judgements on. But I can at least say with confidence that if you have or ever had positive feelings towards Charlie Kirk you are an absolute moral abomination of a etch-a-sketch attempt at a real human being. I don’t want you ever even within a ten mile radius of me, so it’s lucky that before you ever reach that point I can already smell the decaying feces of all the toddler levels of critical thinking that crawled in your mouth to die. When your Mum finally finds you hanging by a noose in the basement of that terraced house you still live in at 38 years old, she’s going to throw the biggest party of her life.
And don’t give me this “He was just a dude being a bro” bullshit. He was a gifted (positive word!) propogandist who chose to use that ‘talent’ to lie about minority groups in order to turn people towards an utterly hateful ideology. The empty shell of a human was gifted literal millions of dollars by rich donors in order to focus pro-capital right wing propaganda onto college (university) aged students. This was obviously needed, as the rich had noticed that people tend to lean more left wing as they enter higher education. This is because the more educated you are the more likely it is you will see through the cruel holes of capitalism. But all Kirk did was offer an alternative opinion, right? Well… yeah… In the Post-Truth sense, I guess. When students were in danger of learning far too many actual facts, Charlie would simply and politely offer the alternative opinion of massive, bald faced, malicious fucking lies. That’s it. He made up shit to swindle people into a hatred that would not naturally be there.
And this “Dude being a bro” was just a naked extension of the Trump presidency. He was a huge part of Trump getting elected (twice…*), he always had Trump’s ear, and would only ever argue for causes that were directly aligned with Trump. He was just a helpful propaganda arm that could spread Trump approved lies in places like schools where Trump is obviously banned from attending because of various lists he appears on (plus Trump would first legally be mandated to knock on every door in the district and inform them of his past ‘discretions’, which the dear President simply doesn’t have time for)..
(*fucking hell, ordinary Americans, I don’t like blaming people for voting for Trump when there are a billions of dollars of propaganda and marketing and evil cunts like Charlie Kirk focused on swindling you into doing so, but really?? Again?? With all due respect, you really are the dumbest fucking people on the planet)
OK, after talking this over, I am like 90% happy that he’s dead. However, I am also aware that there is some truth in the idea that by cheering on this occasion, I am offering tacit support to the notion that it’s OK to assassinate someone for the things they say. I am aware that, especially in the good old US of A, there are far more people who would be willing to shoot me for the views I share than the type of rancid, dead-hearted and hateful slop that Charlie Kirk made it his life’s ambition to parrot. A lot of these trigger happy loons will have been hugely influenced by Kirk, in fact. Luckily, my Communist Party membership means I won’t be allowed to go to the USA, so I’m safe. I understand how I’m suggesting that it’s OK for those fucktards to both shoot me for arguing for the improvement of those fucktards’ material conditions, and for those fucktards to then celebrate my death.
But… I’m not… not really. I’m arguing that somebody spreading as much hateful, murderous and dangerous rhetoric to as many people as Charlie… maybe deserved to die. The stuff I say is super cool and benefits humanity. It wouldn’t be good to kill me for that. And if the fucktards celebrated? So what? The fucktards already celebrate Palestinians being brutally murdered and asylum seekers drowning at sea, did I officially agree to this when I celebrated Margaret Thatcher’s death back in 2013? Oh, I wasn’t actually consulted, and some people just celebrate gross things because they’ve been encouraged to be gross people? Got it. Fucking celebrate my death all you want, this site could really do with the clicks. My 2007 Albums of the Year post has been viewed nine times! Ever! Bump up that traffic, please, I won’t care. I’ll be dead. I can’t fucking wait, actually.
Anyway, let’s finally remember that: it was only fucking Charlie Kirk. Fuck him.
Far be it from us to deny the significance of heroic individual blows, but it is our duty to sound a vigorous warning against becoming infatuated with terror, against taking it to be the chief and basic means of struggle, as so many people strongly incline to do at present. Terror can never be a regular military operation; at best it can only serve as one of the methods employed in a decisive assault.
Sorry Jenny, I felt like I had to talk about Charlie Kirk this year, and your predictably wonderful ninth album pulled the short straw. Hval remains an utterly captivating avant-garde artist who continues to craft music that spellbinds every working sense that you have, though will never quite reach the brain stems necessary for you to properly elucidate why that is. Again, I still wish they would return again to the dark witchcraft that made ‘Blood Bitch’ a career high, but that’s one minor complaint on another pristine collection of dreamlike high art.
OK, there’s also a song called I Want to Start at the Beginning which is track fucking three. That’s my major complaint. I want the end to sound like this is the final track though, so… partial credit…
2022 #43 (+14), 2019 #31, 2016 =6 (Jenny Hval)
2023 #18, 2021 #45 (Lost Girls)
The users only gave it 76, so not quite as intelligent as us cultured types.
OK, this guy gets it though.
Necessary Evil 