Will Rogers once observed that “Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.” No one ever personified Rogers’ rule as much as University of California, Irvine instructor Matt Goldman, who cracked everyone up this week by joking about celebrating the anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk by alluding to the possible assassination of independent journalist Nick Shirley.
Today is the anniversary of the murder of Kirk. In anticipation, Goldman posted a picture of Shirley with the line “Someone can do the funniest thing just before the Kirkiversary.” It was a response to an Instagram post by the Harvard Republican Club promoting a speech by Shirley.
Goldman reportedly has long found the deaths of disfavored people to be a real knee-slapper, allegedly mocking the deaths of Henry Kissinger and others. Indeed, Goldman takes Gallows humor to a particularly dark place in American politics.
After the murder of a UnitedHealthcare CEO in 2024, Goldman allegedly posted a photo of the “Super Mario” character Luigi putting a gun to someone’s head with the statement “Let’s not pretend as if America isn’t the greatest country on earth.”
In another Instagram post, Goldman allegedly wrote, “Lmao abolish ICE. only good ICE agent is a dead one.”
Goldman also teaches at Chapman University and specializes in “social justice rhetoric and community-centered composition.”
It has become common in higher education and on campuses to laugh and even celebrate the murder of Kirk. Recently, socialist Hasan Piker led a sing-a-long with hundreds mocking his death.
Hate-spewing influencers like Jennifer Welch have even justified his assassination. Protesters regularly reenact his murder, and this week at Georgetown and the University of South Carolina students are celebrating “Kirkiversary” with “Kirk Look-a-Like” competitions.
Chapman University has expressed concern over Goldman’s hateful postings, but he is hardly unique. Faculty departments have largely purged their ranks of any conservative, libertarian, or Republican faculty members. According to various surveys, many departments have no Republicans. Forty percent of faculty say they would vote against any Trump supporter, regardless of academic accomplishments or publications. Recently, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) abandoned its long-standing political neutrality and endorsed radical Michigan senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
At the same time, radical faculty members on the left are common across the country and many espouse the same hate-filled and violent rhetoric.
Professors have regularly advocated “detonating white people,” denouncing police, calling for Republicans to suffer, strangling police officers, celebrating the death of conservatives, calling for the killing of Trump supporters, supporting the murder of conservative protesters, and making other outrageous statements. A San Diego University professor celebrated the death of an Israeli soldier who was eaten by a shark.
At the University of Rhode Island, Professor Erik Loomis responded to the murder of a conservative protester by saying that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence. (Loomis was given a promotion by the University of Rhode Island after his remarks).
Social media postings present difficult challenges for universities. These are statements often made on private sites and are not part of academic duties. Yet, universities have regularly taken action against faculty members who espouse what they view as prejudicial views based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. These faculty members rationalize or support violence targeting conservatives.
The problem is not that faculty can voice extreme political values in private postings. Those views should be protected. Likewise, the problem is not that faculty pursue far-left views in their academic work. Those views are protected by academic freedom.
The real problem is the virtual absence of any countervailing views today, after faculty have turned our universities into ideological echo chambers. There is a crushing orthodoxy on our campuses that fosters this type of extremist, violent rhetoric. For conservative students, it is common to be taught entirely by faculty who denounce their views and values.
While faculty members continually virtue signal about maintaining inclusive environments, they rarely seem concerned about the hostile environment for anyone who holds right-of-center views on campuses. A faculty member who mocks “land acknowledgments” is intolerable for many faculty, but those mocking the murder of conservatives are merely engaging in “spirited” debate.
The espousal of violent ideations or hateful views against conservatives can cross the line. Even if students are not concerned about their physical safety, they are likely concerned about their academic standing in classes taught by such hateful faculty. If a faculty member finds killing conservatives funny or justified, it is unlikely that they would welcome conservative viewpoints being expressed in classes.
The lack of consistency in dealing with what I have called “rage rhetoric” is an indictment of higher education. Imagine if a faculty member mocked the killing of minority students or Democratic activists. The response would be immediate and final.
However, the humor in killing conservatives is precisely because it is “happening to somebody else.” The most unnerving aspect of this latest controversy is not that Goldman is making jokes about assassinating conservatives, but that many in academia find it uproariously funny.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Ideation of political violence as the way to solve problems is an indication of declining mental health. Regardless of the legal status (protected from govt. prosecution), that doesn’t imply that it must be tolerated socially. Ignoring it as unserious and unworthy of attention is devastating to the performative zealot espousing it. Refusing it airspace is how a healthy polity deals it a blow.
It’s depressing to see Prof. Turley and conservative media renting out brainspace to these marginal voices on the leftist fringe. To the radical left, today’s topic is positive reinforcement. It encourages still more outrageous verbal pyrotechnics. Conservative media don’t even realize how they are being trolled and gamed.
says the troll who thinks he is gaming this blog. We laugh at you troll
Culture of death. Incite others to kill journalists that uncover uncomfortable truths. Kill three kids and have women cheering you on and encouraging you – you go girl! Express regret that Crooks only got Trump in the ear and didn’t kill him. Show up at a golf course to assassinate the president. Storm the correspondents dinner with intent to kill the president. Show up at a Supreme Court Justice’s house to kill him so that he can’t send the abortion issue back to the states to decide for themselves. Kill Charlie Kirk because he expressed ideas with which people disagreed, then cheer (and mockingly reenact) the murder of that devoted husband and loving father of two young children. Kill an unarmed health care executive by cowardly shooting him in the back, then cheer that killing and make the killer a folk hero. Pass laws in Massachusetts that legalize infanticide and/or the killing of babies at nine months of pregnancy just moments before they’re born. Become a governor of Virginia and spread the idea that killing newborn children is a-okay. Make billions of dollars killing unborn children and get taxpayer money in the hundreds of millions from Congress.
The ancient false god Molech is alive and well in America. God help us all.
The ancient false god Molech is alive and well in America. God help us all.
These types of comments are shameful. If you studied the Bible, you would have a very different disposition.
I have long said that the problems that face America today are not due to the usual litany that people like you list.
No, the problem is that people like you, which is to say the majority of Americans Baby Boomers, betrayed their religiosity as lin would uncharitably say.
Where are the Christians who reaped the benefits of God’s graces over the centuries and millennia? Where is the fervor, the faith, hope and love that shaped our Western civilization?
Learn from the Book of Lamentations, the Psalms, the prophets of the Old Testament and their many warnings and prognostications for a people (Jews) who abandoned their God. Christians especially, who are or were more numerous, have a tremendous obligation to walk their talk by action. Yet, we are fed the stuff of which you posted, a long litany of complaints about “the other” yet failing to account for your own failings in showing others by your example a better path, forming their conscience, using reason and heart to educate the ignorant of mind and spirit.
We are facing difficult times. Our nation is at a precipice and it does not look good as we peer across the land. But giving in to our appetites of acedia, gluttony and wrath are not a path of enlightenment nor leading by example. Get on it.
WEEK 23 – FRIDAY
Office of Readings
FIRST READING
From the book of Lamentations 3:1-33
The thought of my homeless poverty
is wormwood and gall;
Remembering it over and over
leaves my soul downcast within me.
But I will call this to mind,
as my reason to have hope:
The favors of the Lord are not exhausted,
his mercies are not spent;
They are renewed each morning,
so great is his faithfulness.
My portion is the Lord, says my soul;
therefore will I hope in him.
Good is the Lord to one who waits for him,
to the soul that seeks him;
It is good to hope in silence
for the saving help of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear
the yoke from his youth.
Let him sit alone and in silence,
when it is laid upon him.
Let him put his mouth to the dust;
there may yet be hope.
Let him offer his cheek to be struck,
let him be filled with disgrace.
For the Lord’s rejection
does not last forever;
Though he punishes, he takes pity,
in the abundance of his mercies;
He has no joy in afflicting
or grieving the sons of men.
http://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/loh/week23fridayor.htm
Will Rogers was correct. For example,+ I’d find it absolutely hilarious to see Matt Goldman get the same treatment as the Irishman in the film Casino:
#. Coupling humor with murder is a perversion. These people are very seriously ill. It’s advisable to get the best psychiatric advice in the nation now and ongoing.
^^^ Students in these classes may seek to drop the classes or perhaps drop the college. It’s time to escalate the concern for safety.
For the Rams/49ers game, they sang “Jose Can You See….”
La Cancion Nacional De MexAfricAsiArabia.
Ain’t that nice of the conquistadors?
AI—Artificial Intelligence
Congress has absolutely NO power to regulate the technology and software industry per Article 1, Section 8.
The technology and software industry in 1789 would have been equivalent to the precision-manufacturing and scientific-instrument industry.
Article I, Section 8, makes no mention of regulating that sector or any similar sector.
Any attempt to regulate AI would be irrefutably unconstitutional, understanding that the Constitution limits and restricts government while providing maximal freedom to individuals.
America wins AI
or
China wins AI.
If AI wins over humans, then the winning country as you’re defining it loses.
Everywhere the dichotomization trap. Steering the middle course is ruled out from the git.
Calling it an effort to “restore sanity,” on Thursday Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered every adult American $10,000 to vote against Republicans in the midterms.
“If you oust the Republicans, you’ll receive a check for $10,000,” he said at a press conference. “And to be clear, we’re talking American dollars, not Canadian.”
The prime minister’s announcement seemed unlikely to make Donald Trump increase his own offer, since $5000 would be the most he has ever paid to a non-pornstar.
Carney concluded his press conference by unveiling a new map of North America with the United States renamed “South Canada.”
So funny I forgot to laugh.
(Liberals really can’t do comedy)
Canada has been renamed Snow Mexico.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A9wcN3Aju8w
OMG!
Trump’s $5,000 reward check would easily add another trillion to the debt.
Around $1.8 trillion by my calculations. .. I don’t think Trump or Elon have that kind of money.
*show me the money.
Congress could legally tax for those checks to all citizens as “general Welfare,” that is, “ALL WELL PROCEED,” per Article 1, Section 8, as bizarre as it sounds.
Where as public assistance for individuals, Social Security, Medicare et al. serve not general, all, or the whole, but small fractional groups of individual, specific, and particular beneficiaries.
Like Biden’s ILLEGAL student loan payments???
Biden made no student loan payments. The payments had already been made. What he did was recognize that many of those loans would never be repaid even though they remained a constant burden on the people who had them. All other loans can be discharged in bankruptcy; I think the same should apply to student loans.
Like the first three or four promised checks, this one will also evaporate after imbecile MAGA take the bait.
It ought to be a crime to be that unfunny
*****
Five stars out of five.