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September 21, 2025
by Dr. David Fialkoff, Editor / Publisher
I got caught in the middle of an argument. Last Saturday (Sept. 13) I was at TOSMA (the organic/farmers' market) I was speaking with G, a friend who is an old school Berkeley radical, about the death of Charlie Kirk. Rather centrist myself, G and I don't discuss politics very much. That morning, I tentatively brought up the way so many on the left are publicly celebrating Charlie Kirk's assassination.
We are all siloed in our news bubbles. We are fed by the algorithm items that confirm our already existing bias, because that keeps us on the website longer. So, I was unsurprised that G was unaware of those many figures, public and private, who are on record, often very cruelly and graphically so, as being glad that Kirk is dead.
My point to G was simple: whatever you think of Kirk's politics, we are all in a lot of trouble if violence becomes a valid reaction to people with whom we disagree. And, according to the information I receive from the algorithm, it is precisely this attitude that is taking hold in the US, especially among young people.
"There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain
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What happened last Saturday at the market was that while I was calmly discussing this shameful attitude towards Kirk's assassination with G, another friend of mine H, who is strongly right-wing, approached, listened for a while and then interjected his two cents. Now, G and H don't know each other, and I don't remember what it was H said, but G got very offended, said something back, again I can't recall what, and walked away. H called after G, accusing him not only of being small minded, but of being "a small, ugly man." It was all over in seven seconds. What can I say; if I didn't forgive my friends, I wouldn't have any friends... and they have to forgive me, too.
I have since followed up with G and H, chatting on WhatsApp. Talking is part of the cure. The most worrying thing about US politics today, in my opinion, is the lack of dialogue. That was Charlie Kirk's modus operandi. He would set up a booth on a college campus and debate leftists. Whatever you think of his politics, you can't get more democratic than public debate.
G, my leftist buddy, unconvinced that Kirk's politics deserved a forum, sent me a video (from his news silo) where the podcaster said that Kirk "openly talked about black people being genetically, intellectually, culturally inferior to white people in every way."
I responded:
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If he said that, then he would never have made it into the mainstream spotlight; and he would have been publicly called out for that statement before his death, which he wasn't; and it would be easy to find the video now.
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G, wrote back the next day, admitting that he could not find the video.
Meanwhile, I asked ChatGPT about the controversy, and after hearing G's admission, forwarded him the AI's response:
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Here's the cleanest answer I can verify:
Yes, Charlie Kirk did say the "brain processing power" line—but he aimed it at specific Black women he named, not "Black women" in general. On July 13, 2023 on The Charlie Kirk Show, he listed Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, then said: "You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot." - snopes.com
Independent fact-checks confirm this clip and wording, emphasizing the targeted context (named individuals) and noting that viral posts later generalized it to all Black women. - FactCheck.org
Major outlets have issued corrections when they initially framed it as a blanket statement about all Black women. - Financial Times
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I added following comment:
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However you feel about the issue, saying that Joy Reid would not have gotten into Yale if she were white and that Ketanji Jackson would not have been considered for the Supreme Court were she not a black woman is not saying that black people are "genetically, intellectually, culturally inferior to white people in every way."
And it is in fact this type of hysterical rhetoric that seems to have inspired Charlie Kirk's assassin.
The US would be a healthier country if we could come together around Kirk's assassination and declare, This is not who we are, We don't murder people with whom we politically disagree. Back in the thirties and forties you could not gun down pro-Nazi American members of the German Bundt.
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G still held that Kirk's statement against those individuals' intellectual prowess was despicable. (And I see his point; was it "a white person's slot" or was that a figure of speech?) But he acknowledged that his statement was not overtly racist.
Encouraged, I added:
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There is a phenomenon of "audience capture," in which the podcaster is forced to play to their audience, to tell them what they already believe. If you have 100,000 subscribers who all believe that the Martians are blackmailing Trump to go to war in the Middle East, and each of them subscribes to your podcast for $10/year, then you have a powerful incentive to promote misinformation against the Martians.
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So much of this is about election politics, 2028, and who knows what else. Qatar and China are spreading big money to sow discord and weaken national unity in the US.
Charlie Kirk
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H, my right-wing friend, told me that he has been attacked, lost friends and suffered socially for expressing his MAGA opinions, and because of this he is sick of leftist playing loose with the facts.
Maybe you feel that we are in a crisis, and the gloves need to come off; that now, as Gavin Newson expressed a few days before Charlie Kirk's death, we need to start "punching Republicans in the nose."
Me, I'm old-school, from the time when Congress people used to reach across the aisle, and uncles of every political persuasion were welcome at the Thanksgiving table... at least until dessert.
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Dr. David Fialkoff presents Lokkal, public internet, building community, strengthening the local economy. If you can, please do contribute content, or your hard-earned cash, to support Lokkal, SMA's Voice. Use the orange, Paypal donate button below. Thank you.
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