The assassination of Charlie Kirk echoes beyond US borders, intensifying fears of rising extremism and fractured politics.
The phrase “the shot heard around the world” refers to the one in Lexington, Massachusetts, in the US in 1775, which sparked the Revolutionary War against Britain and led to American independence a year later.
It’s also commonly used – as in the case of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which set off WWI in 1914 – to reference events which have widespread ramifications.
We wonder if the bullet which ended Charlie Kirk’s life in Utah on Wednesday might similarly light the fuse to an even bigger conflagration.
Kirk, 31, was a conservative American influencer and staunch supporter of Donald Trump.
The US president wasted no time in scoring political points by ascribing the assassination to hateful left-wing politics.
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The killing has shocked the country with even some of Kirk’s staunchest opponents expressing their disgust and calling the shooting an attack on America’s cherished freedom of speech.
His death is echoing around the world, with conservatives seeing it as an attack on their broader fightback against permissive, woke policies.
Even conservatives in this country – like Ernst Roets, also a young right-leaning activist – have added their voices to the chorus of anguish.
Kirk’s murder is an indication of the increasingly fractured nature of US politics and the intransigence of extremists on both sides.
But it is also a reminder that it is a younger generation who are driving the intellectual debate on the conservative side of global politics.
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Kirk was himself a robust debater, sparking tough but polite arguments with his opponents in various leftish forums as he urged them to “prove me wrong”.
Some of his views could be said to be racist or Islamophobic, but none which could have earned him a death sentence.
We hope America tries to step away from this current path of violence.
It’s not what they fought for in 1775.
