Charlie Kirk, Violence, and the Trap of the Victim Game

 Today, Charlie Kirk—the man who once said gun deaths were the price of preserving the Second Amendment—became a victim of the very violence he defended. His words, “gun deaths are part of America’s reality,” now echo with tragic irony.

But what’s most dangerous is not only his death—it’s how the Trump administration and far-right leaders will exploit it. They will play the ultimate victim card to push their extreme agenda and grab more power. Violence is their trap. They provoke it, they manipulate it, and when it comes, they weaponize it to justify more violence and repression.

John Lennon saw this clearly:

“When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you—pull your beard, flick your face—to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”

The far right thrives on lies and illusions. As Alice Miller wrote:

“Children who are told the truth and are not brought up to tolerate lies and cruelty can develop as freely as a plant whose roots have not been attacked by pests (in our case, lies).”

But most children are forced to tolerate lies and cruelty, and this repressed pain fuels violence and war. Kirk, like many others, escaped into propaganda instead of truth, perpetuating hatred that ultimately consumed him.

I’ve seen this same pattern in my own life. At my job of nine and a half years, the sociopaths waged a smear campaign against me after I published my book A Dance to Freedom, hoping I would react violently so they could play the victims. I refused. I knew their game.

As I once wrote in Narcissists Are Secretly Suicidal and Homicidal:

“Malignant narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths are secretly suicidal and homicidal. Still, they lack the courage to do it themselves, so they resort to mind games, trying to manipulate others into doing their dirty work so that they can play the ultimate victim role. They don’t care if innocent victims are hurt or killed in the process; it’s all collateral damage in their eyes. They only care that they themselves are seen in the public eye as the victim, and their real victim is seen as the abuser.”

Marie-France Hirigoyen, in Stalking the Soul, explains how abusers thrive on driving their victims to destruction—so they can point and say, “See, she’s the crazy one.”

This is the tragic cycle of violence we see playing out everywhere: in families, workplaces, schools, politics, and now, again, in America’s endless gun tragedies. Today also brought another school shooting in Colorado and news that NATO shot down Russian drones in Poland. Humanity is drowning in the same trap—provoked violence that spirals into more violence.

The only way out is to refuse the game. To stand in truth, not lies. To feel, not repress. To resist violence not with counter-violence, but with clarity, courage, and non-compliance with the illusion.