Charlie Kirk may have been for debates he could win. And it’s the same as any radio show: vet the opposition first. You don’t even invite them until you know them inside and out. Turn their mic down and talk over them so they raise their voice, and turn it back up so they sound aggressive, then passively aggressively talk them down to gain the moral high ground. And if they start making sense, cut to commercial.

If all that fails, put them on a list and demonise that list.

The process through which I was placed on TPUSA’s list was anathema to public debate. Instead of writing an op-ed in response to my New York Times op-ed, or inviting me to a public debate on these issues, TPUSA instead added me to an online list that is — as I explained in another New York Times op-ed back in 2016 — essentially a new species of McCarthyism.

Maybe we didn’t realize the extent back then, buy by now I think we all know the playbook for a speaker to accuse their opposition of the speaker’s offenses.

In this case, it is easy to check that, yes, Kirk SAYS he’s for debate, but we can check records to see there are no Kirk/Yancy debates, yet there is a TPUSA list (rather than give them hits, here’s an old archive page).

Trump and his sycophants are implementing political repression, censorship, and politically targeting free speech, which means that those of us who believe in democratic speech, in dissent, in open and critical debate, are being targeted, are being silenced, are being marked for further violence. This is not new for Trump.

Again, we just saw the FCC threaten ABC over Kimmel, and Trump himself has opined that criticizing him should be illegal and networks should be punished for allowing it. They just sent troops to Portland to stop demonstrators?!? That’s not a free democracy! That’s Fmmhmph[CENSORED]