Teachers, firefighters and military personnel among those who lost jobs after posting their opinion on social media
Reactions on social media to the murder of far-right activist Charlie Kirk have cost multiple people their jobs as authorities in numerous states clamp down on critical commentary.
Among those to have been fired, suspended or censured in recent days for their opinions include teachers, firefighters, journalists, politicians, a secret service employee and a worker for a prominent NFL team.
The dismissals come as the administration of Donald Trump promises to take action against foreign nationals it deems to be “praising, rationalizing or making light of” Kirk’s killing, himself a fervent free speech advocate.
People, please. Let me be your voice, I work for myself, and in a way where my good will means fuck all. I can’t be touched and I’m a massive fucking asshole
I like the way Snrub thinks!
Fuck your feelings, snowflakes - am I doing it right?
Not enough slurs if you’re going for authenticity.
The trouble is that – at least for now – the worst things we can call them aren’t considered slurs.
We’re at the Thought Police stage it appears.
Also, Charlie Kirk was a rage-spewing hate-muppet who was killed by an even worse wannabe nazi piece of societal deadweight. He got what he deserved. Come at me, THINKPOL.
We’re at the Thought Police stage it appears.
Corporate America has always fired people for expressing political opinions. Ya’ll either haven’t worked in a real job or are very young, this isn’t anything new. Whether or not this decades-old unspoken policy is correct or not is an entirely different conversation, but let’s not pretend that corporate America has ever stood up for freedom of speech or let people express their hot takes at work, that’s fucking absurd.
You could have expressed your opinion without including the insulting (and completely wrong) assumptions about me. But you chose not to. Cheers!
I made zero assumptions about you, my comment was objectively very generalized, but if you took it personally, that’s on you and how you choose to take even mildly, distantly opposing views and maybe you should work on that.
Ya’ll either haven’t worked in a real job or are very young
Implying people who haven’t worked in corporate america haven’t worked a “real job”
Yeah, but now you have people intentionally weaponizing that - even for speech well outside of work, and only because they want to punish those not like them and who don’t embrace a Nazi - which our government is fucking honoring right now, by the way.
Where is the punishment for those that express support for Kirk? That’s not political? Why aren’t those motherfuckers being singled out, doxxed and FIRED? They are supporting a Nazi. I would think that is much more grounds for firing…
Since when are military, teachers, and firefighters part of corporate America? And coming from the absolutist free speech party? These are government positions being terminated for expressing an opinion. You know, protected speech.
Also, have any been fired for publicly supporting Kirk? Why isn’t that a thing?
Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention to right wing online culture (it’s too exhausting) but why are they acting like this guy was the second coming of Saint Ronald Reagan? Like was he that important to them? Would they have the same reaction if it was Shapiro or Crowder? Are they just outraged that one of their own caught a bullet?
Yeah, that’s what pisses me off so much. I get that the Nazis are butthurt that people are mocking this, but how is it that people are not being fired for publicly praising a fucking Nazi?
Instead, orgs and corps are firing those making fun of the dead Nazi?
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Because his death gives them an excuse to promote more fascism. That’s it, that’s the whole thing.
I never even knew this loser existed till he died lol
It really is to the point now where public employees don’t get to have a personal life.
Many years ago I got in trouble at work for posting a meme making fun of the bible. A client of ours didn’t like it and complained to my boss. This was on my personal facebook page at the time.
I learned from that lesson
I dare anyone to figure out who my current employer is, unless your a cop and know my real name and have the ability to pull my records from the IRS you aren’t going find out.
Wasn’t Charlie supposed to be some kind of advocate for free speech? Because this sure doesn’t seem very free speechy.
Free speech - offer not valid for some political persuasions, mouthy women, POC, foreigners, those not sufficiently
Marklar, excuse me, “maga”, non-xtians…etc.They didn’t want Free speech they wanted hate speech
No he was an advocate for right wing speech
I hate that people keep bringing up free speech like that means you can say whatever you want without consequences.
Free speech means the government cannot act on what your saying alone. Anyone else and corporations are fully allowed to react anyway they want to your 1st amendment rights. Including firing you, or using their 2nd amendment rights.
There needs to be protests to force them to be reinstated. We have to have solidarity to fight this.
They need to be made to understand that capitulating to the fascists – let alone being one – is worse for them than standing up to them.
Just as an FYI out there, the majority of liberal, middle-class America’s attitude about this entire thing is as follows:
“Oh dear, that was so scary, I hope they catch the person who did it, it’s so frightening knowing that can happen!”
Seriously, I have toured companies, I talk to coworkers and associates and managers every day, I am surrounded by America’s white-collar workforce and nobody has ANY political principles. They may once in a while laugh at a conservative meme or joke, but will just as readily laugh at a left-wing meme.
Our country can be broadly divided into two camps, people who know even marginally enough to take a stance and have political affiliation, and people who have ZERO knowledge or interest in what’s going on in our country. The last three federal election cycles saw the highest turnout of voters in American history. But exit polling showed that most people had no real idea who to vote for and just went with whatever their social media was showing them.
This malignant apathy, cynicism or ignorance also fills the segment with political ideology. Most conservatives in America do not have strong principles or thought-out positions. Years back I had a blow-hard conservative-sounding coworker complaining about special accomodations for handicapped workers, IE: special desks “going to waste” right up until they actually made friends with a coworker who had a prosthetic leg and suddenly never another complaint. You’ve probably all read plenty of stories about pro-life activists getting abortions, and so on.
On the left it’s exactly the same. You see plenty of leftists right here on Lemmy who would support fascists and authoritarians if those people wore the right colors and promised to “hurt the right people” without thinking about long-term consequence or larger political pictures.
What’s my point? We need to talk to each other more. We need to work harder to share our realities again, because the majority of people are far more receptive to intelligent, thoughtful examples of having strong, thoughtful values like “We shouldn’t support countries committing genocide” or “We should have social safety nets and healthcare for the amount of taxes we pay” and so on. We CAN infect the population with positive mind-viruses but it takes socializing, it takes effort, it takes caring enough to make yourself uncomfortable.
NPR just posted an article about this, and it’s no longer “several” but rapidly escalating. I’ll repost what I wrote in that article on !politics@lemmy.world
This is not merely the escalation of political violence against the right’s out groups, it is the proliferation of a culture of right wing terrorism. They said it was civil war, and while that rhetoric has tempered due to the unsurprising discovery that the assassin was yet another right wing radical, they fully intend to escalate their civil war goals by robbing opponents of their means to survive in our capitalist hellscape of a country.
This is my advice, if you find someone who has had their livelihoods stolen from them for expressing relief at a slightly kinder world, share their employer. Share the website, the Yelp, flood them with emails and 1-star reviews letting them know that terrorism will not be tolerated.
The republicans said we are war. It may not be a war of bullets and bombs, at least not yet, but do not doubt them.
What is the legality of the terminations?
In the US, most states have no worker protections whatsoever and you can be fired for anything or nothing. The worst part is, employers can and do lie about their reasons for harming their workers in order to prevent them from collecting even the pittance that is unemployment, and the workers have very little recourse. Worse, potential employers asking applicants why they left their past jobs or if they have ever been fired has become standard practice in the US, despite such questions being very inappropriate.
the purge has been underway
This is exactly the time to spread Charlie Kirk’s videos and messages far and wide. There is no better way to celebrate the man than to let the world hear his message. It is his legacy. It was his life’s work.
And the Democrats in Congress should write up the “Charlie Kirk Sensible Gun Reform Bill” with background checks and red flag laws. That’s it. Surely this is the time, in the face of senseless death, to honour Charlie by bringing this bill forward.
Do you think a background check and red flag law would have changed the outcome in this case? What evidence is there that it would?
It is almost tedious to have to say this every single time a political discussion comes up: Don’t make a perfect plan the enemy of a good plan. Inevitably the first response to an otherwise reasonable suggestion that statistically would address the significant drivers of a general problem (even if perhaps not this exact problem in this specific context) is to assert that it won’t work all the time or perfectly fix the problem in one shot and so it is not worth considering. Whether intentional or not, it is intellectually dishonest.
And yes I think there could very well be flags that could have delayed access to firearms in this case. But the point isn’t to solve the whole problem in every circumstance, the point is to change the gun culture in the US. Americans may think this kid was raised in a normal household in a normal culture, but this is not true. There are deep cultural problems. And starting with the most milquetoast responsible gun control that aims to reduce the number of Americans that use ownership to drive their identity is a reasonable place to start.
But if I’m being frank, I don’t really care about either Charlie Kirk or the kid who ostensibly shot him. I’m not American and thank fuck for that.
A yes , murica land of fuck you
They got a website where MAGA can just submit anyone on their social media feeds for being anti-Kirk, and they’ll happily doxx you it seems, and it does have that chilling effect, I deleted anything about it and am slowly pruning the conservatives out of my friend list if this is what it’s coming to.
Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, meanwhile, has ordered staff “to find and identify military members, and any individual associated with the Pentagon, who have mocked or appeared to condone Charlie Kirk’s murder”, NBC News reportedFriday.
Wessel’s funeral was given wide attention in Berlin, with many of the Nazi elite in attendance. After his death, he became a propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany. A march for which he had written the lyrics was renamed the “Horst-Wessel-Lied”(“Horst Wessel Song”), and became the official anthem of the Nazi Party. After Adolf Hitler came to national power in 1933, the song became the co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first verse of the previous “Deutschlandlied”, also known as “Deutschland über alles”.
It’s word-for-word (better in the original German) the same playbook. This ToiletPaperUSA guy is, I guess you could say, a kind of . . . nuclear Wessel.
Heh.
Yeah, yeah, I’m going
Criminalizing your political opponents is very much on brand
