My mum spoke to me shortly after it was announced that he’d died and I kinda was like “okay, feel bad for this children who had to witness it, can’t say I can sympathise with him though he was hardly a saint himself” and my mum was like “he spoke out against the woke people” over and over
I told her he literally said little kids dying in school shootings is worth it so people can have guns. he said empathy doesn’t exist and he doesn’t have empathy for kids being killed. He ridiculed disabled people in his circles. That he advocated for the genocide in Gaza by supporting Israel’s actions.
Then she was like “no no no you got it all wrong he was giving a speech when someone asked him if more people die from gang shootings or school shootings, then he was shot” even though the thing I was talking about was from 2023. He’s a man in a position of power and authority and influence over others, it’s a bit different from “just having a different opinion”.
She ended up getting pissed off at me and blanking me after that but I don’t care. I guess me caring more about kids dying than guns makes me officially “woke” now but so be it. I’ll stand by the fact I can’t find anything redeemable about this man or any reason to sympathise with him
Such a good point. My family has been having the conversation about why this is suddenly becoming a thing , more than other murders, and clearly we haven’t been paying attention to the toxic culture of hatred, divisiveness, outrage. I suppose he had the right to his opinion but we’d all be better off if we didn’t listen to it. Anyway, the Wikipedia entry paints him as a vile human being who helped stoke the flames of our society causing harm to many. I’ll have empathy for his family’s loss but the world seems better off