THE CHOSEN

One of the many things that Jew haters from the Resentful Right get wrong about Jews, is the meaning of the phrase “chosen people.” The first instinct, since it so fits their narrative, is to believe that it must be referring to Jewish supremacy, or some kind of elitist worldview.

I can’t speak for everyone in the faith, but for me and many other Jewish-Americans, our experiences in synagogue or Sunday school rarely even featured those two words. The handful of times that I did hear “chosen people” during my childhood, it had absolutely nothing to do with patting ourselves on the back. Quite the contrary.

Most of the time they were uttered, those words immediately followed stories of hardship, of struggle. The story of fleeing from Pharaoh. The story of the Romans destroying the Second Temple. The story of Haman coming after us. The stories of Arab and then Ottoman conquests. The stories from Europe in the Middle Ages. The stories of Russian pogroms, Nazi extermination, Soviet oppression. Stories of segregation and terrorist violence, even in the freest of societies. And now, stories of loneliness in the era of nihilism and anti-Zionism.

After these stories would inevitably come the eternal question: Why does God allow bad things to happen in this world?

That’s a memory that’s come back to haunt me in the past 36 hours, after seeing what was done to one of the least controversial, least provocative, least threatening human beings on the American right. With every new batch of information on the matter, it becomes more sickening. Did you know that Charlie’s wife and toddler children were in the audience as the murder took place? The same wife and children who will now spend several decades with the emotional burden of that day?

Charlie Kirk wasn’t shot because he doxed people. He didn’t sic a horde of minions upon private property or a small business, or even block a city street in order to hurt or even inconvenience innocent people. He didn’t revise history books in order to cash a check from a foreign country or to sabotage the earned success of an individual. He didn’t waste his life speculating on whether the wife of the French president has a penis. He also didn’t sit in any legislative body after winning a popularity contest, deciding how much you and I should pay in taxes, or which countries we would help more than our own.

He sat at a table, gave average individuals a mic for up to fifteen minutes, and he listened. And if you showed him respect and argued in good faith, even if you were his political opposite, he would tell the mob to quiet down and allow you to rebut before wishing you a blessed day.

That was the heinous crime for which his sentence was death.

I’ve written on this site before about how none of this is anything new. Weak people do indescribable things when they don’t get what they want.

As I write, there are now images of the murderer circulating from the FBI. Still, his exact background and motives are not yet known. He could be one of the many usual suspects from the left: AntiFa, a trans mass shooter, a member of some hippie cult who doesn’t like pro-Lifers. He could be a Nick Fuentes devotee who couldn’t stand to see Charlie’s influence eclipsing that of the Groypers. He could be an incel who desperately wanted to impress Jodie Foster. No matter his affiliation, a few things are for certain.

This is someone whose life is not a model of success. Even if he happens to be married with children (though, likely not), it could be a dysfunctional family. If he has a job (likely not), it is no doubt menial labor with close to zero purpose. If he has any friends, they are the sort of people who aim down and just keep him around as a tool they can use. His life has such little meaning, that pulling a trigger once is the only legacy he will ever leave behind. Doesn’t matter if he has an advanced college degree, or rants about human rights on Bluesky all day. He is a useless, simple organism who couldn’t win by arguing, and therefore resorted to his primitive nature.

While the gunman certainly created chaos, and undoubtedly got a kick out of watching the death and screaming attendees running toward safe refuge, at the end of the day that was not his end goal. Even with what is surely a mind full of delusions of grandeur, I would guess that deep down he understood that he cannot end conservatism—especially not through the murder of a single person. I don’t think this assassination was about “showing those fascists.” In fact, he likely didn’t even truly believe that Charlie was anything close to a fascist. Yes, this was probably a buzz word the shooter had learned to repeat from wherever he’d heard it, but I don’t think this was a reaction to fear for him. The depressing thing about all of this, is that his cause was likely as petty as a sense of clout, power and control.

He wants the online praise, yes, and even coming from libtards and washed up has-been D-listers, he’ll take what he can get. More than that, he wanted the FBI using their resources to go after him. He wanted his grainy surveillance footage all over the news for a few days as the country kept their eyes open. He wanted to see half of the country crying and being affected by what he did. Charlie’s family and loved ones were his collateral damage.

Mostly, he wanted to make sure that every young man or woman would start thinking twice before opening their mouths. Maybe, he thought, some people would consider changing their college major, or stop buying jeans at American Eagle. Because of him, maybe fewer people would purchase tickets to that comedy show or speaking engagement they had on their calendars.

And that brings us to the meaning of “chosen people.”

God chooses people not as His favorites, but as those who will have a heavy cross to bear. Every one of us has a calling, a reason for our suffering, and it is never until well after our patience runs out that we understand what that reason is. Charlie Kirk had a unique and, as we see now, highly consequential task to fulfill. He had to spend years enduring Western college campuses, including the Oxford Union, trying to engage with some of the lowest scum on earth. They spit at Charlie, assaulted both him and his staffers, wished him dead, responded to every honest question with “You’re a racist.” And, when that didn’t work, they leaned into the mic one more time to blurt out, “Your face is small,” and run away.

Charlie did all of this, knowing full well that he was not guaranteed his safety. He already knew what AntiFa does, what happened to Aaron Danielson, how Berkeley, NYU and Columbia treat dissenters. But it was the life God had chosen for him. He must have received numerous death threats and swatting calls, and there must have been times when Kirk considered leaving the media sphere altogether, but something inside told him that Free Speech must be defended. If not by Charlie, then by whom? Only a true man of faith and conviction could bear such a weight. Only the same kind of woman, his wife Erika, could allow him to follow such a path.

There is no honor in telling people they must die for any cause, no matter how noble. It does seem, however, that this attempt at intimidation can only be answered with the “fuck you” that is perseverance. You’re still here, after all.

Perhaps this will be an article for another time, but I’ve been having a real issue with seeing the otherwise net-good of society hamper themselves with negativity and cynicism. And no, not just from the Mitch McConnells of the right, but even from the very people who proclaim themselves the descendants of ancient warriors. They’ll pose with a “FAFO” hat and a “fuck your pronouns” t-shirt, but the minute Zohran Mamdani wins a nomination (not an election), the immediate response is one of defeat. Why?

What a complete disservice it would be to Charlie’s memory, if this resignation continued. Even in the aftermath of Wednesday’s carnage, there is already a revival of his life’s work amongst supporters. There’s no more “We need to find common ground with our enemies.” There’s no more “I appreciate what Barack Obama said about civility on Twitter.” The bloodshed needs to stop, but there’s also no reason why conservatives should ever again let their guard down. Stay away from these toxic people on the left (and the toxic people eating the right from within), and publicize their dirty deeds at every opportunity.

“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles” 

–Frank Herbert

There is no reason, even as a conservative in New York City, or Chicago, or Los Angeles, or Seattle, or Portland for all I care, why anyone should be afraid to express himself or herself with the voice God gave them. Your job grades your yearly performance on how well you promoted DEI this past year? Get a new job. Not being treated with respect by your social circle? Get new friends. You’re being “cancelled”? Create your own shit, and make it better than theirs. Robby Starbuck and James O’Keefe figured out how to reverse the situation and make large organizations shit their pants over how they treat you. You can also find a way out of your injustice.

And when some Rusty Shackleford-looking motherfucker runs scared from his approaching consequences, after doing the unthinkable to a 31-year-old patriot? You gather up your like-minded people and you buy tickets to hear any words and ideas you please. And you wear hats and t-shirts with all sorts of messages written on them when you go, and you forget that you’re even wearing them, because it’s normal to do so. They can’t kill all of us, and they didn’t kill Charlie. They killed the vessel he traveled through. Now, Charlie is in the millions who have been inspired by his words and the example he set. All of those people have the chance to aim up and use that gift to continue making themselves and the world a better, more worthwhile place.

That is why God has chosen you.