Conduct that breeds hatred between people through the twisting of historical facts is what destroys the boundary between right and wrong.
The assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in the United States during a debate at the University of Utah will have far-reaching implications in that country and in many other countries around the world, South Africa included.
Those who embraced his right-wing politics like the US president himself, Donald Trump, have elevated his assassination to a level even higher than some of that country’s high-profile assassinations, including those of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
Why does Kirk’s brutal killing on stage, midsentence, matter for South Africans?
Because even SA’s so-called white genocide was part of the issues Kirk pronounced on.
It needs to be noted that though Kirk and the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement have used the US’ free-speech “anything goes” liberty to seek to rewrite and redefine history, SA has thus far collectively resisted the race-baiting politics that some of the politicians here have sought to use to rewrite SA’s history.
It might be that SA’s transition from its shameful past of racial segregation and exclusion is still very fresh in people’s memories for them to allow the likes of Kirk’s politics to take centre stage here, as they have in what is supposed to be the world’s greatest democracy.
It has been said that “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist” as attributed to French poet Charles Baudelaire.
The modern version of that assertion would be that “the greatest trick the Maga movement ever pulled is convincing their electorate that there can never be harm in free speech”.
The movement that created an atmosphere that allowed a sitting US president to dim the light in the White House and show the world supposed “mass graves” that are a result of a white genocide in South Africa has made an art of redefining the truth to suit their narrative through what they call freedom of speech.
ALSO READ: Charlie Kirk’s murder deepens America’s cracks
Kirk’s pronouncements and those of other high-profile Maga supporters like Alex Jones (of the Info Wars website) used what they called free speech to go as far as wanting to erase a real-life massacre, a school shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in which six adults and 20 children were killed.
Although Jones and his media companies were successfully sued for the misinformation and the hurt they caused to the families of the deceased, the misinformation and lies spread through their networks cannot be erased.
It was the boldness of people like Kirk that made it possible for right-wing politicians in South Africa to realise they can concoct a narrative that will find traction in the dominant politics in the US.
And through their redefinition of South Africa’s political landscape, make a pariah state out of this country in the eyes of the Trump administration, the economic consequences of which will be felt by ordinary people in this country for years to come.
Free speech that breeds hatred between people through the twisting of historical facts is what destroys the boundary between right and wrong.
When historical injustices are twisted and retold as false narratives, they create the toxic atmosphere that the far-right movement is condemning following the death of Kirk.
Death has always been a time of grief in most societies in the world.
That is why the unnatural act of people celebrating the passing of someone whose views they did not embrace, as many people did when Kirk was assassinated, must be used by society to interrogate whether free speech is indeed virtuous.
