OPINION:
When considering the causes of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, mainstream media (The Washington Times being a rare exception) should look in the mirror. For it is their demonization of right-wing viewpoints that have helped create a polarized, hostile environment that set the stage for violence against conservatives who speak out against politically correct causes.
Fashionable views on everything from COVID-19 and climate change to immigration and election integrity — and, of course, President Trump — are rammed down our throats daily by left-wing media, while these outlets condemn those of us who have a different perspective. This leads to our viewpoints not just being disagreed with but also portrayed as dangerous or evil, leading some individuals to believe that any action against us is justified.
For example, the late Canadian climatologist Tim Ball received numerous death threats for simply speaking out against the climate scare. The late leading oceanographer Tad Murty, also a climate realist, received racist death threats against his family that led him to completely withdraw from the public eye on climate change. Many others in the climate field have also been threatened, some chased out of the field entirely and one even with a bullet hole put into their office building during a climate protest nearby.
Two days before the Kirk shooting, political theorist and policy expert William Barclay summed up the situation well in these pages when he wrote that “anyone who is an open conservative, never mind an unabashed populist, is under constant threat of violent attack in the U.S.” (“Trump, South Korea and the international purge of right-wing politics,” Web, Sept. 8).
Rather than hide away, conservatives must speak out fearlessly in support of our views. Charlie Kirk would expect no less of us.
TOM HARRIS
Executive director
International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)
Ottawa, Ontario
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