I believe a new word has been coined: Kimmeled.
Little did I expect to be among the many to be Kimmeled over Charlie Kirk’s murder.
In addition to this Substack, I write for a local Colorado magazine, the Yellow Scene (YS). I offered a relatively mild piece suggesting that Kirk’s dismal record of bigotry made his lionization by the right wing quite astonishing. Flags at half staff, Medals of Freedom and all. You can find the piece here.
Apparently some local conservatives began calling the magazine’s advertisers, threatening to boycott their products and services because of my/our insufficient reverence. As is the case in communities around the nation, my hometown, Erie, CO, is quite divided along partisan lines. The current mayor, whom I’ve characterized as MAGA-lite, has moved the town away from its gay-friendly recent history and its tenuous commitment to affordable housing. He and his slate-mates hold a 4-3 majority on town council. It is not clear that he or his mates are actively encouraging the boycott effort.
The boycott group remains anonymous, except for first names, which may be fiction. I am routinely dismayed and humored that such folks are unwilling to be identified with their repressive efforts. My opinion pieces, which seem a major catalyst for their campaign, are always clearly attributed to me.
The group has started a petition at Change.org, seeking to gain more support for their efforts to silence the YS voice. The publication operates on a shoestring budget and the loss of advertising revenue is a serious threat. I decline a modest fee for my columns, as the income would be relatively inconsequential and the survival of independent journalism is more important.
The petition uses my pieces as evidence of the magazine’s “radical” and “hateful” content. One assertion is that I/we hate white men, which is only partially accurate. I do dislike many of my brethren, including the very white men leading my community and my country.
Among the choices made by the local, straight white men was to remove the Pride Flag during Pride month, citing some convoluted bullshit about proclamations, precedent and local statutes. They, like conservatives everywhere, are relegating diversity efforts to the sidelines and promoting patriotism and the town’s annual Biscuit Day.
This partisan dynamic is not new, but was doused with rocket fuel by the murder of Charlie Kirk. It seems that Kirk is a hero and martyr, dying for the manifold causes of bigotry, sexism, homophobia, Christian Nationalism and racism. Quite a hill to die on, Charlie.
Having barely finished disappearing the Pride flag, the leaders of the Emirates of Erie lowered the Stars and Stripes to half staff, conforming to the commands of the despot-in-chief. Remarkably, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a gay man, joined right in the honoring of a man who dishonored him. Polis has triangulated more than a geometry teacher or geocacher so it wasn’t shocking.
Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die, of course. Nor did a Minnesota lawmaker and spouse, whose savage slaying merited nary a peep from local or national “leaders.”
Jimmy Kimmel didn’t deserve what he got either, although he will not suffer.
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I asked town council why they lowered the flag for this man:
Mr.Kirk was a fierce proponent of Stop the Steal, preaching to his young acolytes that the 2020 election was stolen.
He spread misinformation about Covid-19, arguably leading to unnecessary illness and death.
On his opinion of Black people:
"If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified.’”
“We know, you (Black women) do not have brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
On Martin Luther King, Jr:
“MLK was awful... He's not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn't believe.”
On transgender people:
“I refuse to lie. I will not call a man a woman or a woman a man, like, I refuse to do that. And in fact, I reject the entire premise of transgenderism. I don't think it really exists. I think it’s a mental disease, and we’ve allowed it to all of a sudden become an identity... Transgenderism is a brain problem, not a body problem, and that’s how we should go about it.”
On feminism:
"...it is the leading feminist organizations in the country that are either silent or complicit in pushing this [transgender rights], because feminism was never about advancing female rights. Feminism was about hating men. What better way to hate men than to take young boys and chop off their parts?"
On Jewish people:
“Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them... It is true that some of the largest financiers of left-wing anti-white causes have been Jewish Americans..”
On immigration:
"America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that."
On what women should really want:
“The biggest thing is this: more younger women need to get married at a younger age and start having kids. The single woman issue is one of the biggest issues facing a civilization.
We have more single women in their early 30s that are the most depressed, suicidal, anxious, and lonely in America’s history because there’s a biological clock that’s going off and they realize that they’re not going to be able to have kids, that they’re not as desirable in the dating market or in the dating pool, and so they start to lash out on the rest of society by voting Democrat."
On the importance of keeping Americans armed:
“Yes, people die from gun violence. It’s tragic. But that's the price of freedom. Unfortunately, it's worth it to keep the Second Amendment intact.
I think it’s worth it. 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. That’s a prudent deal. It is rational."
The Mayor responded politely, saying the President ordered it. I responded: “Following this president is a moral failing.” So much for courage.
Btw, I was not Kimmeled, despite the local cancel campaign. YS publisher, Shavonne Blades, said, “You just keep on doing you.”
If only wealthy, powerful media people had such ethical clarity.
You go Steve ✨✨🩷✨✨
Glad you avoided the Kimmel treatment. That Trump lashes out at those he doesn't like in the media is nothing new. That his FCC chair is threatening to bring companies "in line" is alarming. That JD Vance went on the Kirk podcast and threatened to use the force of the government to attack "leftist" groups - also alarming. Trump has subsequently called on NBC to fire Fallon and Meyers. Next up: expect the FCC to threaten NBC by withholding something their owners want - ABC/Disney can fire whomever they want - the problem is when the weight of the government directs firings based on the exercise of speech. Keep doing you, Steve! :)