Everybody’s tabbing for the weekend …
Babylon Bee: Recent events in American society indicated that the very same people who are okay with murder are also outraged by the cancellation of a TV show.
Current American societal trends showed that the exact same people who were willing to condone or even celebrate the brutal, public murder of a free speech advocate were also inconsolably infuriated by the cancellation of a late-night talk show.
“How dare the right extremists cancel Jimmy Kimmel?” howled one left-wing political commentator. “It is literally violence to force him into silence just because he lied about an assassination. What is this, the Third Reich?”
Ed: I’m not sure this is satire, to be honest.
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But it also doesn’t feel like the center is holding. I’m not sure whether it’s Bluesky or something else, but the progressive epistemic bubble is getting really bad. pic.twitter.com/srMp5iBdre
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 19, 2025
Ed: I’m not buying that Kimmel is just the victim of an ‘epistemic bubble.’ He has access to all of the same information we do, including the very clear information that law enforcement published about Tyler Robinson before Monday that utterly contradicted his claims. Kimmel’s not a victim; he’s a vicious propagandist attempting to enforce that epistemic bubble on others, and it finally blew up in his face.
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Mark Thiessen at the WaPo: For conservatives, the vile response to the killing of an activist who respectfully engaged those with whom he disagreed has been eye-opening: Many on the left don’t simply disagree; they support violence against those they disagree with.
That is not hyperbole. A YouGov poll conducted in the wake of Kirk’s killing asked Americans: “Do you generally consider it to be acceptable or unacceptable for a person to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose?” Ninety-one percent of conservatives said it was “always or usually” not acceptable, as did 90 percent of those who are “very conservative.” But only 56 percent of those who are “very liberal” and 73 percent of liberals said celebrating the death of someone with whom they disagreed was unacceptable.
It gets worse. YouGov asked: “Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to resort to violence in order to achieve political goals?” Eighty-three percent of conservatives and 88 percent of those who are very conservative said political violence is never justified. That is, in my opinion, lower than it should be. But on the left? Only 68 percent of liberals, and 55 percent of those who are “very liberal,” said political violence was never justified. Seventeen percent of the former and 25 percent of the latter said it was sometimes justified — shockingly high numbers.
Ed: If nothing else, the riots of 2020 and the anti-Semitic violence and intimidation campaigns since October 2023 should have made this obvious. The Left not only condones violence, it actively cheers it on.
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NEW: The man who attempted to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh identifies as a transgender woman and was deeply mentally ill and suicidal, according to documents first obtained by @realDailyWire.
He has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. pic.twitter.com/ZPw4Iv7O8C
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 19, 2025
Ed: This is the first time this has come up in the case, to my recollection. Until now, the story was that the would-be assassin wanted to punish Kavanaugh for the Dobbs decision. I wonder if this is a recent strategy to get assigned to a prison for women. If so, Nicholas Roske should have pled guilty earlier and pushed for sentencing before the election. There’s more at this link.
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Ace of Spades: I haven’t mentioned too many of the literally-hundreds of thousands of people celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder. It’s too repulsive. Shoe0nhead, a lefty but a reasonable one who is, get this, anti-murder — odd that that is now a brave position to take — runs video of just a handful of the thousands of TikTokers (mostly leftwing women!) celebrating a man being murdered in front of his wife and children. She is shaken. She had no idea that 90% of her leftwing allies were, as she says, “psychopaths filled with blood-lust.”
I’m surprised by that too. Yes, I knew there were many, many progressive terrorists — but I didn’t know it was a literal majority of progressives.
She says that she has tried to encourage the progressives she knows to say the murder of Charlie Kirk is a bad thing, but most disagree. Only “four or five” were willing to say that murdering a human being is wrong.
Ed: These are the people Kimmel targeted with his propaganda, and it worked.
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Stratford HS TEENS forming a TPUSA Club America were DOXXED by ADULTS sharing students’ internal GroupMe content in a “BE THE CHANGE” private FB group, urging 730 members, operating in secrecy, to also intimidate teacher sponsors. REPREHENSIBLE. These are KIDS! @KenPaxtonTX pic.twitter.com/8hlRzwrBku
— Moms for Liberty-Harris County Texas (@M4LHarris) September 18, 2025
Ed: They really want more people killed. I suspect that Paxton will be looking up the state’s RICO statutes in taking a long look at this group. He’ll want to impress people ahead of the GOP primary next year, and this would be one way to do it.
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Andrew McCarthy, NRO: Still, it’s impossible to take the indignation of Democrats and progressive commentators seriously. I wrote repeatedly about the Obama administration’s effort to formally enact restrictions on speech, and then to openly call for extortionate suppression when Clinton and other officials couldn’t get the codification they were hoping for. (See, e.g., here, here, here, and here.) We complained long and loud over the Biden administration’s bludgeoning of Twitter and Facebook to suppress political dissent and public-interest journalism. Progressive Democrats would not join us in protest. Government by extortion is fine by them when they are the ones running the government, and they would no more buck Obama or Biden than Trump’s lackeys will buck him.
So, congratulations, Democrats. You’re now living in the world you created. I’d love to be proved wrong, but I also know that the next time you’re at the helm, you’ll be doing exactly the things you are now ballistic over — and citing the bane of your existence as your model.
Ed: I had a great conversation with Andy yesterday while guest-hosting on Relevant Radio about this column and topic. This isn’t about setting a precedent — it’s about making Democrats live with the precedents they have set and enforced for years. Should it stop? Yes, but as Andy said to me on air yesterday, he’s not about to advise unilateral disarmament.
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The left needed to launder its cackling glee over the death of Charlie Kirk so it converted it into a “free speech” issue to give it a civilized outer coating.
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) September 19, 2025
Ed: No one has yet put it this accurately and this succinctly.
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Outkick: Unfortunately, some reactions to Kirk’s death have been nothing short of appalling. People have celebrated publicly, tried to shift blame and have treated Kirk like he deserved it. Of course, that’s all complete nonsense and should be fully rejected.
Turns out those same reactions are happening behind closed doors outside public view, according to former “Office” star Rainn Wilson.
Wilson said the following when talking about reactions behind closed doors, which won’t come as a surprise to many:
“This is tearing the country apart in so many ways, and the country is being torn apart in so many different ways. While I didn’t agree with his ideas, shooting someone that we disagree with, even if they’re vociferous and loud and out there, is so colossally wrong-headed. I spoke to a couple of, let’s say, some liberal friends last night at an event, and they were like, ‘You won’t find me shedding any tears.’ And someone else was like, ‘Oh well.’ It was a little bit of a kind of a ‘good riddance’ thing, and it’s like, ‘Guys, no! No! We can not think or talk that way.’ That is not OK.”
Ed: It’s not too difficult to figure out how Kimmel fits into this picture, is it? However, Wilson reminds us that not everyone in Hollywood is that despicable. Perhaps his willingness to speak out will inspire others to do the same and shame the entertainment industry into reforming itself. Disney and ABC are being forced into that position now; let’s see whether that resets the incentives, too.
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The @THR leans left and their reporting seems quite credible. Insubordination, affiliate and advertiser outrage caused Kimmel’s suspension. Of course facts won’t matter to the left who have their “free speech” martyr/narrative to deploy. https://t.co/8mRbmEUybE
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) September 19, 2025
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When recounting all of Hollywood and the left’s litany of past hypocrisies on cancel culture, don’t forget @FallonTonight also cancelled @normmacdonald for his comments on Louis CK, Roseanne, and the metoo movement. The producers, network heads, and hosts of these shows deserve…
— Adam Yenser (@CleanComedian69) September 19, 2025
The producers, network heads, and hosts of these shows deserve no sympathy.
Ed: And they shall have none, especially given their lack of sympathy for the victim of a gutless assassin.
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It’s kinda weird how the Left just runs the domestic abuser playbook. “You’re crazy, I’d never do anything like that to you.” “Why did you make me do that!?” “I can’t believe you hit me back! I thought you loved me!”
— Inconspicuous Rex (@CrankyTRex) September 19, 2025
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