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

[Jirel]

9. He's an idiot.

Does this fool believe any of this wasn’t coming? That it was just a matter of time before we saw full fascist political repression in its ugliest form? That not speaking will prevent it?

The coup is in the past tense. The longer people want to hold on to some sense of normalcy with weasel words like these, the more ground we will lose. Capitulation and appeasement will get us nowhere.

The fact is, the gloves must be off for the people, just as they for the fascist autocracy. I know that’s a scary thought. But WTF do you think was happening when Mango Mussolini pardoned the January 6th violent insurrectionists? WTF do you think was happening when ICE was given carte blanche to run around masked, kidnapping people off the streets? WTF do you think was happening when the government stopped paying attention to judges and SCOTUS began cementing dictatorship in ruling after ruling? The sooner we stop pretending and whispering and “going high,” the sooner we get down to the nitty gritty work ahead.

You are literally living in late 1930s Germany. You’d better start coming to terms with the fact that the gasoline has been poured, and it wasn’t poured by people playing the world’s smallest violin for Charle Kirk burning in hell with Rush Limbaugh tonight. We’re watching the last people to get a clue in America running scared - generally the non-psychopathic white, heteronormative, christian people who are comfortable in their lives - as they realize what it feels like to have been black, brown, poor, disabled, non-citizen, female, genderqueer, and/or members of a minority religion in this country, all along. All this sturm and drang is happening among the neoliberal set because suddenly THEY are learning how much they relied on privilege, and are intensely uncomfortable about losing it. So do, please, clutch that last pearl, apologize to all the groups that have been taken for granted as allies while losing ground under even OUR administrations for years, put on your leathers, and get ready to rumble.