Journalist Michael Shellenberger appeared on Fox News’ Jesse Watters show to address the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk. During the segment, Shellenberger called for Democratic leaders to take responsibility for rhetoric he says has contributed to a hostile political climate.
Shellenberger stated, “Look, I think there are a lot of things that need to happen right now. I mean, first and foremost is that we, as a society need to call on those Democrat leaders who you highlighted earlier that have been — who have been dehumanizing, degrading conservatives, Republicans, the MAGA movement, Donald Trump in particular, dehumanization is what precedes atrocities and we have known that historically for a very long time and that’s what we saw happen.”
He continued by urging Democrats to reconsider their language: “They need to renounce what they were saying about fascism, about Nazism. They need to take accountability that there are consequences for what they are doing, and it was to program an entire generation into an utterly absurd fantasy that the United States was being taken over by fascism. I mean, you saw it on the bullet casings of the alleged assassin himself.”
Shellenberger also proposed efforts aimed at reducing radicalization within educational institutions. He said: “I mean, the second thing is that, we need a deradicalization program of colleges, of universities, of the schools and what we know from past deradicalization efforts around the world is that it is essential for people who have been radicalized to have a new identity, that comes from a new purpose in life and part of a new community, and they also need as part of that purpose, they need to come back to a story that is true about America, about why it is special, why it is different from so many so many other oppressive societies in the past, the freest society that has ever existed.”
He concluded with: “We need to aggressively push back against that.”
The discussion took place days after Kirk’s killing led to renewed debate over political discourse in the United States.
