On the 10th of September, on the grounds of Utah Valley University, the prominent conservative figure, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed. Instantly, due to the capabilities of the digitalised world we live in, an act of heinous violence was known by the world, read about, pictured, streamed. News of the event was spread like wildfire, and an eruption of vehement debate followed in the days and weeks after the event.
This aftermath is precisely the soil in which the roots of maliciously driven, weaponised polarisation grows, for it’s times like these that are fertile with opportunities for political leverage, and the facilitation of the pushing of a hateful agenda through blame and finger pointing to an underrepresented minority. What's more, this occurrence is far from new. On the 27th of February, 1933, tragedy struck Berlin, as the Reichstag building, home of the German Parliament, was engulfed in a fierce inferno.
Much like the most recent shooting of Mr Kirk, the news was instantly widespread, it shocked and saddened millions across the nation and eyes were cast to the political leaders for an answer. This frantic, tragedy driven search for answers put better reason in a back seat and allowed for Adolf Hitler to whip up support behind his claim that it was a radically left, communist attack on Germany, which necessitated tangible political and legal retribution. This is today largely understood to have facilitated the establishment of the authoritarian Third Reich that we know demolished German democracy and set Germany to war with the democratic west.
In the now chronically digital age we live in, after a similar event with similar fallout, the spread of such a vicious and divisive polarisation can, and does, take root with much wider participation and at unprecedented speeds. Because of this we are looking at a more dangerous situation where a moment of shock and tragedy can be capitalised on and utilised tenfold by political leadership to whip up a dangerous frenzy of weaponised polarisation. The fact is that this climate of weaponised polarisation is, as we have just explored, certainly capable of giving far right authoritarianism a strong upper hand.
Education in the United States being the way that it is today, these historical parallels and patterns will simply not be drawn by the general public, the blame shifting and finger pointing they are fed will inform their misled judgement. The sheer size of the nation combined with constitutionally granted state sovereignty, makes sweeping, base standard education reforms near on impossible to come by, as seen by Bush Jnr’s failed ‘no child left behind’ attempt in the early 2000’s. Systematically failed by their government, the US people are now more than ever susceptible to such manipulation by a maliciously opportunist leader, like Trump, all in all creating the ferocious storm that allows divisive, weaponised politics of polarisation to thrive in the United States today.
Now with Republican senators and House members publicly voicing their condemnation of the shooting of Charlie Kirk come clear undertones, and at times, complete blame on a kind of imminently dangerous political agenda on the left, which they emphasise must be dealt with. Similar to Nazi propaganda after the fire in the Reichstag, the politically loaded blame being laid on the left again. This sets the tone for history to repeat itself in the form of popularly backed authoritarian reforms pushed by the Republicans to deal with this “imminent threat” that they've created.
The truth is that history will repeat itself; through watching closely the next months of Trump’s term in this settling aftermath, further right authoritarianism in the US will rise as a form of ‘republican retribution’ born out of the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk. We can see this play out already, with the most recent announcement by Trump of the Charlie Kirk remembrance day on the 14th of October, keeping the event fresh in the minds of Americans and stamping it on the annual calendar, so to fully leverage this lamentable vicissitude in the interest of his far right administration in years to follow. And keep a keen eye on American affairs in the months and years to come, because leverage it he will.