Chris Hayes's guests tonight included extremism expert Jeff Sharlet warning people NOT to celebrate or mock Kirk's death

[highplainsdem]

I saw his posts on Bluesky late this evening, and I found video of what he said on All In on Twitter and will post that in reply 1. I hope you'll read what he wrote first.

His background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sharlet_(writer)

The Substack piece he linked to: https://slowcivilwar.substack.com/p/the-struggle-is-long

If I have any credibility with you from twenty years of reporting on rightwing and fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Kirk getting shot. Don’t celebrate it, don’t mock it. I’m not asking you to send thoughts and prayers. I’m begging you to not pour gasoline on a fire.

-snip-

We don’t know enough yet about what happened in Utah to say much that’s definitive, though perhaps by the time you read this we will. But already I can tell you this, from my years of reporting: Fascism’s guns are at the ready. Think before you spout off. Winning the struggle against fascism is what matters, not indulging conspiracism or owning the fascists or showing off your quick wit.

-snip-

There will be more to say, about what has happened and what will happen next. But a few things to be aware of right now: If you know Charlie Kirk’s name, you may mistakenly believe he’s one of fascism’s chief trolls, a Steve Bannon, a rhetorician. He’s both less and a lot more powerful than that, the kind of speaker who’s easy to goof on and the kind of organizer that the left and liberalism have too easily overlooked. He’s one of fascism’s chief organizers. He delivers: votes and dollars. He delivers youth votes the Right didn’t think possible. He built a massive organization. The scale of his influence will shape the fury of fascism’s response.

And that response won’t be directed at white men with guns, like the murderous fool who shot Kirk: Already Right’s rhetoricians are making proposals. Martial law. Mass arrests.

-snip-

Sharlet also posted about this on Bluesky, his account at https://bsky.app/profile/jeffsharlet.bsky.social . See the 3-message thread starting here

If I have any credibility with you from 20 years of reporting on rightwing & fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Kirk getting shot. Leave aside morality: this isn’t a match in dry grass, it’s a torch. We do not want what this could ignite & we would not win.

— Jeff Sharlet (@jeffsharlet.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T19:00:00.184Z

and the three separate posts below:

Rufo calling for mass arrests, Blake Masters & Cernovich calling for RICO against Dem & left funders, and a whole lot of everyday people begging for martial law, or, even worse, "gloves off." 99.9% of whom are just spouting off, but today if anything teaches us the damage that one .1% fool can do.

— Jeff Sharlet (@jeffsharlet.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T20:26:11.014Z

This a federally-monitored website. The regime is on highest alert. Anyone posting advocacy for violence right now is a fedposter or a fool. This has nothing to do with what is right or wrong or what you have a right to say. It's simply a fact.

— Jeff Sharlet (@jeffsharlet.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T20:48:50.593Z

Lot of people yelling at me for saying celebrating assassination is no way to struggle against fascism. I’m not asking you to mourn Kirk, a fascist. I’m asking you to respect yourself. There is no righteous form of murder. Takes more courage to fight for democracy than to embrace fascism’s methods.

— Jeff Sharlet (@jeffsharlet.bsky.social) 2025-09-11T01:53:11.442Z

Sharlet immediately got an idiot responding to that last post by advocating violence.

I'm going to post this OP now, then put the video from Chris Hayes's show in reply 1.