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Here’s my concern @JohnRWoodJr and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I represent a growing body of conservative students at BYU and across Utah who are increasingly frustrated that Utah conservatives seem more interested in advocating for “niceness,” “civility,” and “bipartisanship” instead of advocating for our values.
Your work, whether you like it or not, makes me and my friends feel hamstrung because whenever we start to stand for what we believe in (especially things that have become controversial in the era of political correctness) we get lectured into silence by fellow conservatives who are more concerned with sounding nice than standing on principle.
To them, controversy = contention.
Which means we can’t say what we really believe, or else we are the problem.
This is why so many of us are impatient with the Disagree Better and Braver Angels programs.
In the wake of Charlie’s death, this impatience boiled over.
I was there on the front lines. I had friends at the shooting and I helped organize some community vigils for Charlie in Provo. I even wrote an Op-Ed for the Deseret News.
And I remember the feeling of deep depression that came over me when I realized UVU leadership and many other Utah leaders remained unwilling to stand up for Charlie the way he deserved.
It felt as if everything the unity and bipartisanship organizations and UVU did in response was meant to further their own agendas, rather than pay tribute the actual conservative movement Charlie stood for. (For instance, the “Unity Vigil” which had almost no reference to Charlie or his life and values.)
We saw this as supremely disrespectful to both us and the legacy of Charlie Kirk.
And now this treatment of us—ignoring us, shaming us, lecturing us—has culminated in Sharon McMahon, a liberal who takes advantage of the idealistic rhetoric that bipartisan movements use to further a progressive agenda with low-information voters and a woman who openly slandered Charlie Kirk, being asked to be the commencement speaker in the very school year Charlie was murdered.
And because of that, we’re furious. And we won’t be easily quieted by this thread.
Your work to organize in the wake of Charlie’s death may have been well-intentioned, but we felt silenced, disrespected, and like our recently martyred hero was being weaponized against us.
I hope your conviction for bipartisanship and reducing polarization will lead you to understand where we’re coming from, and why we still feel hurt, ignored, and hated.
John Wood Jr.@JohnRWoodJr
Data Republican! I am the organizer of the post-Kirk assasination event you're basing this conspiracy on; Tis I, who have assembled these forces in seditious collusion. I, John Wood Jr., am the figure in the shadows pulling the strings. With your permision here's what I say:
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