Free Speech and Political Violence - September 19, 2025 Windham Independent
Free Speech and Political Violence
During the last year, we witnessed failed assasination attempts on Donald Trump, Josh Shapiro and John Hoffman, and the assassinations of Brian Thompson, of Melissa and Mark Hortman, and recently of Charles Kirk.
Having been born and raised in a communist country, I understand how important freedom of speech is, and will never cease fighting to protect it from ANY infringement from ANY source.
Generally, freedom of speech is under attack from governments who want to suppress points of view they disagree with, but freedom of speech has also been under attack using politically motivated violence to eliminate certain speakers and chill the speech of many others through the implied threat that they may be next.
Using violence against people whose speech we dislike is evil, regardless of whether you support or oppose the opinions of those victims. We need to rise above our partisan inclinations and equally condemn ALL violence targeted at people based on their speech.
That does not mean that we should refrain from criticizing the speech itself, or from speech designed to promote the ideas we believe in.
Charlie Kirk was a polarizing figure by choice. His words evoked strong feelings (good and bad) in many people, which is why he was murdered. Opinions about him or his statements are perfectly normal political discourse, protected by the First Amendment. And regardless of how terrible I believe it is to gleefully celebrate someone’s murder, even that type of speech is protected from government retaliation, but not from consequences from their friends, neighbors, family, colleagues, employers, educators, etc.
A recent poll from YouGov (published on Sep. 12) highlights significant issues. Here are answers to the “Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to resort to violence in order to achieve political goals?” question by ideology:
And by age:
Only time will tell whether young people will reconsider such thoughts as they age, or whether we are facing a dangerous long term shift in our attitude towards political violence.
Allowing such opinions to become normalized because we are uncomfortable challenging them is not OK. Please, engage (politely and kindly) with people who express such opinions and push back against those dangerous beliefs. With words, mind you - the fact that bad people resort to violence is not a reason for good people to do the same.
Charlie Kirk stated on X: "Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free."
Whether you agree or disagree with many of Charlie Kirk’s political stances, the above is one you should support - because when we agree to allow the government to censor hate speech, we are meekly surrendering our own right to speak our mind. No, the government won’t stick to censoring the people you dislike - they will censor EVERYONE. We must defend our own free speech by protecting the free speech of the people we disagree with the most - when they are silenced, we are next in line.
And if political violence becomes acceptable, nobody is safe. We can all play a small part in turning this trend of normalizing violence around and moving back towards fundamental values of this nation, like the protection of everyone’s free speech, and the rejection of violence as an acceptable means of achieving political goals.
Please reach out to me at 603 267 4142 (call or text), or by email at dpmwindham@gmail.com (a quick call or text after emailing me would ensure I never miss an email from you) with any questions or concerns.
Daniel Popovici-Muller
Windham State Representative,
Vice Chairman, Finance II Committee
Education Funding Committee