Alas, one of our most frequent and reliable contributors to the Stupid will be with us no more. Charlie Kirk is gone. Most of us hate to see this kind of tragedy no matter who the victim. But we mustn’t forget that Charlie himself had no such qualms. He was fine with gun violence as long as it happened to someone else; he considered it an acceptable price to pay in exchange for the “God given” right to pack heat, as supposedly enshrined in the Second Amendment. And now that he’s become the target of his own vile ideology, he’s being hailed as some kind of hero and martyr. Sports teams observed a moment of silence in honor of the fallen bigot. (What exactly do they think he ever did for them — or anyone?) So did Congress. Your illustrious president ordered flags flown at half mast — which he of course did not do for an assassinated Minnesota state representative and her husband. He even suggested that he’ll award Charlie the Presidential Medal Of Freedom. Hell, why not. He already gave one to Rush Limbaugh. Throw in Alex Jones and the Minnesota assassin too, Don. And while you’re at it, give yourself one, since you’re never getting that Nobel Prize you keep masturbating over. In the words of our Dear Leader, “He is loved and admired by ALL.” And since it’s in ALL CAPS then dammit it must be TRUE.

Right-wingers, of course, were all over the stupid, proposing a statue of Kirk at the Capitol, and totally rewriting his biography with a 6-inch coat of whitewash. And they were quite dishonest and malicious in trying to pin the blame for the shooting on The Left, and falsely claiming that liberals were celebrating Charlie’s death. Not only was this untrue, but many on the left went waaaay overboard, all the way into Stupid territory, in an effort to make nice. In particular Saul Isaac and Ezra Klein, two columnists who normally are astute, reasonable and sane, gushed all over themselves trying to portray the deceased as a decent, respectable, congenial bloke who was nice to everyone, and provided a fair and balanced forum for all perspectives. Barf bag, please.

“If you’re going to insist on making them all think we’re fascists, then give us fascism dammit.” — Jon Miller

“The Civil War kind of left us, in many ways, less free than we were”– Andrew Klavan of The Daily Wire

Shane Vaughn, a regular habitue of Stupidville, says of the Dear Leader’s denials that he was involved in the Epstein escapades: “If a man says he’s innocent, you are duty bound as an American citizen to believe him, otherwise you’re not a real American.” Cause the guy’d never lie to us, would he?

While the U. S. rapidly sinks deeper into authoritarianism and lawlessness, Brazil is showing the world how democracy and justice are done. Its supreme court just convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro for trying to stage a coup, very much in the manner of someone else we’ve heard about. Meanwhile, America’s own criminal ex-president is again sitting in the Oval Office and using the power of his position to fatten his wallet and commit more crimes. And the Michigan courts just decided not to prosecute the state’s fraudulent “electors”, on the grounds that they believed their own lies; and since they are convinced of their innocence then by golly they must be innocent. Quick, fling open all the prison gates; all the folks inside are also saying they’re innocent. And if a man says he’s innocent…