"I will not celebrate this act; those on the left cheering and mocking need a personal reset," Wilson wrote. "I will not shrug it off. I will not wrap it in the tattered banner of “the other side had it coming.” Because if violence becomes the coin of our politics, America is finished. Every decent person should condemn this assassination without hesitation, without hedging, without a single 'but.'"
"And yet, because we must speak the whole truth, we cannot allow this terrible crime to be weaponized into a lie," he added.
The killer remains unidentified and at large, so his motives and beliefs are unknown, but Trump and many others have projected an assumption that Kirk was killed by a political opponent because of his conservative views, but Wilson reminded readers that cannot be verified at this point.
"Even as the body is carried away, the MAGA chorus and the Trump White House are already doing what they always do: turning grief into grievance, mourning into manipulation," Wilson wrote. "Their script is as familiar as it is cynical: all political violence comes from the left. Antifa. BLM. 'Woke mobs.' 'Trans assassins.' The 'radical Democrats.' That’s the catechism, repeated endlessly until it becomes muscle memory."
"But it is a grotesque lie," he added.
Wilson cataloged recent acts of violence by right-wing individuals, including a number of explicit Trump supporters, and notes that would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was a registered Republican raised in a MAGA household.
"When the right wants to memory-hole these events, they lean on another trick: they pretend these were lone wolves, 'mentally ill' nobodies," Wilson wrote. "For some, the voices of madness and internet celebrity lead them down the dark path that leads to a trigger pull and tragedy."
"But many of these wolves drank from the same poisoned well, fed by the same voices," Wilson added. "In the coming days, you’ll see the MAGA tactic of demanding silence, the conflation of rhetoric and action, demands the government punish opposition speech…but only for Trump’s opponents."
Trump himself fans the flames of violence over and over, urging his supporters to “knock the crap out of” protesters and promising to pay their legal fees, but his allies in conservative media and in Congress also justify and encourage violence against their political opponents and marginalized groups.
"This is not background noise," Wilson wrote. "This is not an accident. It is a political strategy. Rage is the product, and violence is the natural consequence. There is also a role in every one of these modern killings, left or right, driven by the tireless algorithms that feed The Hate Machine."
The entire MAGA movement is based on the idea that Trump's followers are under constant attack, and Wilson said their violent outbursts grow from that poisoned seed.
"Condemning violence isn’t about scoring points," he wrote. "It’s about choosing whether America remains a nation of laws or becomes a jungle where might makes right. If we cannot agree that assassination is wrong, full stop, we are already lost."
"But once we make that agreement, we must also look at it with clear eyes and consider who has been lighting the matches and pouring the gasoline," Wilson added. "The MAGA movement thrives on violent rhetoric, excuses it, monetizes it, and then gaslights the rest of us when the fire breaks out."
Kirk's assassination is clearly a tragedy, he wrote, but Wilson said the MAGA movement must recognize its own role in his death.
"So, MAGA, we join you in mourning the loss of a young father and an American," Wilson wrote. We condemn the violence from every corner of our society, right, left, or crazy. In the meantime, spare us your theatrics, hypocrisy, selective memory, and crude attempts to turn this to your political advantage."
