This is edition 2025/166 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Today's Ten@10 is mostly a tribute to Charlie Kirk.
Enjoy!
1. No Friend of the Left
Chris Trotter
- 🧑🎓 A seemingly wholesome, middle-class college youth is depicted chanting a violent slogan — “We shot Charlie in the neck!” — celebrating the assassination of a political opponent.
- 😨 The chant’s language (using “we” and first name) is condemned as collectivising and dehumanising the victim, stripping him of dignity.
- ⚖️ The author argues this celebration reveals a moral collapse: when political ideas can’t compete, some resort to removing opponents rather than debating them.
- 🧠 Underlying belief: if “ordinary people” are deemed too ignorant/evil to govern, elites justify keeping them out — and neutralising leaders who persuade them.
- 🧨 Labeling opponents as existential threats (not merely corrupt) dangerously raises the stakes and legitimises extreme remedies.
- 🔁 The piece lists non-violent alternatives (legal action, scandals, media framing) but warns they still escalate polarization when opponents are portrayed as evil.
- 🎯 Charlie Kirk is presented as a pivotal organiser who shifted many young voters rightward in 2024, making him a target for Leftist rage.
- 📝 Conclusion/context: the essay condemns the zeal for political violence and was first published on The Good Oil, 15 September 2025.
