Michael Ramirez: Tattered 9-16-25

From America's Premier Editorial Cartoonist

Tattered. -Michael

Editor’s Note: I need to be frank right now. I am not optimistic about the future.

I didn’t follow or know Charlie Kirk personally, but I know people who did. I like to think that I have enough empathy (an often misunderstood and often weaponized word) to see the human through the politics. And while I did not agree personally with everything that Charlie Kirk said, much of it I absolutely endorsed. Much of what I thought I disagreed with was taken out of context, and I realized this when I actually watched his videos and immersed myself in the heart of his discourse. I have grown to genuinely admire his willingness to reach across the aisle on various fraught issues, ultimately wishing peace and acceptance on many lost and confused individuals who approached him for debate. An ideologically diverse array of people considered him a friend who treated them with respect in a vulnerable space.

Over the last days, I’ve come to some disheartening conclusions. I was raised to believe that psychopathy was rare. That doesn’t seem to be the case at all, because so many people I have known for years have chosen this time to celebrate, mask-off, the assassination of a man who spoke his mind publicly. They don’t seem to have the theory of mind to realize that tomorrow, the target could be them. They rail against Charlie Kirk for (rightly) decrying the abuse of the term “empathy” in recent discourse, while failing to exhibit any actual empathy themselves. I’ve literally argued with liberals and leftists about the legitimacy of his widow’s anger and grief within the last twenty-four hours, because no conservative could be authentically devastated without some grift at the center of their motivation, right?

The dehumanization is out of control, and it’s not even subtle. I’m astonished that on the left, the be-kinds and the “compassionates” cannot even fathom that the mother of a young family feels genuine grief at the passing of her husband. That her tears are real. That her anger is justified.

I’m worried about a civil war. But “turning down the heat” sounds a little too much like “shut up and stop talking” to me. The truth wants to be known. Protect yourself, but talk until you’re blue in the face. Talk until you’re out of breath. Talk until the truth is free, because “free” is the First Amendment, and the First Amendment is the spirit of this country.

-Bree