So, I don’t think it’s entirely voluntary either way, it’s just a matter of where your perspective defaults to. I consider myself a fairly empathetic person and I happen to sit on the opposite side of this. As much as I try, I cannot feel empathy for him.

When I try, the empathy I feel is for everyone he advocated to subjugate and kill. I cannot fathom being in the shoes of someone so pointlessly, shamelessly hateful. When I put myself in his shoes, there is no connection that makes it in any way feel like a real person’s understandable perspective. If he had changed at some point? That would be understandable. Imagining that makes me feel empathy for the person he could have been, but that person doesn’t exist, never existed and may never have. I feel more empathy for that hypothetical person than I do the actual Charlie Kirk, someone who himself felt that feeling empathy was a sickness and wanted to eradicate me from society.

I struggle to find anything to empathize with there.

With that said, I watched the video. It made me feel sick to my stomach. But that didn’t change the immense relief I felt knowing there was one less person in the world that thought I should be stoned in the street. I don’t think you’re wrong for feeling unsettled by someone taking glee in it though. It’s hard to imagine the kind of pain someone has to go through to get to the point where someone’s death is something to celebrate as a relief.