The assassination of Charlie Kirk should have been a moment of unified horror. A line no one crosses. A point where even the most jaded among us stop the memes, take a breath, and agree that political violence is off-limits.
Instead?
MAGA took a torch to that line.
They didn’t mourn. They mobilized.
Overnight, Kirk’s death became a rallying cry—not just for justice, but for vengeance. Not just against the shooter, but against everyone not wearing a red hat. The same people who once screamed “false flag” at every mass shooting suddenly found deep clarity: This was the left’s fault. This was Biden’s America. This was war.
You could feel it pulsing through Telegram threads and X posts like a glitch in the Matrix: This wasn’t grief. This was glee. A strategic opportunity. The narrative hardened within hours—before the body was even cold: “The left did this. The media did this. The FBI did this. Now it’s time to respond.”
And that’s when I started to feel really uneasy.
Because underneath the performative rage and red-faced shouting, you can detect something quieter—and far more dangerous: calculation.
There are elements on the far right who want unrest.
Not just because it makes for good fundraising, or because it fires up the base.
But because chaos can be useful.
If society feels like it’s spinning out, you can justify extraordinary responses. Crackdowns. Curfews. Maybe even martial law.
Sound far-fetched? It’s not. Trump already floated the idea of postponing the 2020 election. His allies pushed martial law as a real option after he lost. There’s precedent—not legal precedent, but emotional precedent—for crossing these lines when the moment feels just unstable enough.
And now?
We’re teetering.
The institutions meant to hold the line are wobbling. Public trust is cratering. FBI resources for investigating domestic terrorism were gutted not long ago—dismissed as political overreach by the very people who now act shocked that political violence is escalating.
They didn’t want the threat exposed. Because some of them saw political gain in pretending it didn’t exist.
But here we are.
Kirk is dead. Other politicians have been assassinated. People online are openly calling for civil war like it’s just a slightly spicier sequel to January 6.
And the temperature keeps rising.
The truth is, when elections feel rigged, when facts feel fluid, and when citizens feel voiceless, violence starts to look like a microphone.
That’s not a left-wing or right-wing problem. That’s a human problem. And it’s one we’ve seen before—in history books, in failed democracies, in collapsing regimes where conspiracy becomes currency and strongmen promise “order” in exchange for obedience.
You think that couldn’t happen here?
It’s already trying to.
And when MAGA influencers start spinning assassinations into political momentum—not in spite of the violence, but because of it—it’s not just disgusting. It’s terrifying.
This is the moment where we need to get our damn heads on straight.
Because if we keep feeding this beast, it won’t stop at speeches or Senate hearings. It will demand more blood. More enemies. More obedience.
And once the fire gets hot enough, it doesn’t care who it burns.
Mike McCready 