The best way I can, I think I can put this is that these people, the administration, the people eagerly trying to use Kirk’s death to impose, basically, state-directed speech restrictions, who are threatening to go after freedom of assembly —— This is when you’re threatening, saying, we’re going to use the state to go after NGOs, we’re going to use the state to go after organizations that do activist work — you’re threatening freedom of association. This, to me, is just like, these people hate your freedom. Like, I don’t know what else to say. They hate the fact that you can talk back to them. They hate the fact that you can organize against them. They hate the fact that they cannot control what you say and think and do. I watched Vice President Vance guest-host Charlie Kirk’s show. And I have to say, as a bit of an aside, it’s really strange to have government of podcasters. I know we’re all in front of mics right now. But the president loves to go on podcasts. The vice president, if you watched the video feed, it didn’t identify him as the vice president and identified him as a close friend of Charlie Kirk. Also, I guess podcaster. The F.B.I. director is a podcaster. Like, everyone’s a podcaster. And it’s very weird. Charlie Kirk, podcaster. And it’s like, this is government by, for and of podcasters. Anyway, that’s an aside. I watched this JD Vance tirade, this screed. And it’s him fabricating and making up and, I would say, lying direct to camera about the reality of the situation, about the realities of political violence and everything. And threatening Americans’ kind of basic, fundamental rights to speak freely, basic, fundamental rights to associate with whom they please, to engage in political activity as they please. And I just find it remarkable.
