Sean Penn says we need people like Charlie Kirk in politics to inspire debate and compromise

I dont understand all the apologists for Kirk. Left celebrities among them. Kirk was a creep. And an ignoramus.

I think 3/4 of the apologists are just now scared to not 'fall in line.'

Nope. They’re right. You need people with different views and opinions.

So, Mr. Penn, what compromise do I need to make to not get stoned to death?

No, we don’t need assholes in politics.

Shut your filthy mouth you ragged old crow.

r3 You pretend that rationality is even an option anymore.

What idiots! He was a hate monger

He’s correct.

R4 Unless you’re living in the Middle East or a third world country in Africa, no one is stoning you.

Charlie Kirk was a dick but whenever I watched him videos, he always made my views and beliefs stronger cause I disagreed so much with his. And that’s necessary.

Thankfully, I don’t turn to Madonna’s dirtbag ex-husbands for political insight. They’ve already showcased their lack of taste.

No, you do not need Facist Creeesjun grifters to express to women "submit to your husband", expressing that homosexuality is an "abomination", warned whites of "prowling blacks" in urban areas, claimed that the USA could only survive if immigrants were 90% Christians, etc etc.

There's a difference between having actual ideas that are drawn from reason and debate - and actual lies based on hate and misunderstanding.

Also, there is a big difference between ideas and platforms where those ideas are not challenged, but promoted.

Free speech should be protected - but that doesn't mean dishonest and misinformed speech is equal to speech that is science-supported and based in reason.

Once you've been found out to promote stupid ideas or hate without any basis for your view - then sorry - you need to be given a time-out. Because you're not engaged in honest debate that will help society and people - you want to punish certain people based on your prejudices.

He is incorrect. Smart people can have differing views without hatred being involved.

He wrapped up racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and white supremacy in a package that vaguely suggested debate. But he was just a cunt.

There used to be conservatives that could debate without hatred and dismissiveness. They’ve gone extinct.

Sean Penn is an idiot

Charlie who? Sean who?

You can not expect sane comments from someone who thinks El Chapo Guzmán Is a hero.

When, if ever, are we going to stop letting celebrities, who are nothing more than actors who memorize lines and entertain us in movies and tv, become national spokespeople for important ideas that should be voiced by the actual intelligent population?

r18 When we stop electing reality-tv/failed businessmen to the presidency

Republicans were dying-out, so they had to start recruiting on college campuses. Most of the 'conservatives' (whatever the hell that means) are Angry Old White Men. They steal elections, spread dangerous propaganda, take over the airwaves, use minorities to stoke fear...

Now what do we need?

Republicans weren’t dying out.

I'm certain that Sean Penn doesn't even know how to spell compromise, let alone has even done it in his life.

most of the celebs saying shit like this are just trying to avoid maga scrutiny or haven't paid any attention to what he actually does and says

Penn suffers from Ambien dependency and abuse. Among reports of publicly appearing unkempt and disheveled he kept slurring his words as lit up a cigarette on Colbert..

Maybe I don't know Kirk well enough. My impression always was that he sought debates but not dialogs. He wanted to win debates not learn and come to a common understanding. Have I misunderstood his approach? Debates are only helpful if you actually get results, not that you leave the debate the way you arrived.

So, Sean, we need more neo-nazi rabble -rousers in the world?

Kirk was a steaming pile of shit, Penn is a fucking idiot.

BULLFUCKINGSH(T!!!!!!!!!!!

He’s right that we need actual debate and discussion, but Kirk did nothing of the sort.

We never, ever need people like kirk - all he did was spew hate. There was no "debate" with him. It would be like debating trump.

I got derailed by Ambien a few years ago. I saw people who did not exist.

Doesn't Sean Penn have a tent camp in Haiti that needs cleaning or something? Dumbass.

Well, I do want my enemies to clearly state what they think and make themselves visible, so I know who to stay far away from.

I think he's tremendous.

Agree. Debate is healthy and necessary.

Debate what? Charlie Kirk and his followers are free to live how they want. They don’t have to get abortions. They don’t have to get gay married. They don’t have to associate with non white people. They don’t have to do anything that upsets their religious freedom. And you know what? The fact that abortions, gay marriage, etc., exist doesn’t change any of that. Not one bit. So where do we need to meet in the middle, exactly? What exactly is at risk for them? Kirk didn’t debate. He recruited.

Penn looks better than he has in that photo.

Is he fucking serious?

Kirk was a demagogue, so no, he didn’t debate honestly, and he certainly didn’t “compromise.” His goal was to move impressionable young men toward hatred and rightwing extremism by misleading them.

Because he was murdered, we’re apparently supposed to forget all that and declare him a saint. He wasn’t one.

If only European Jews had been willing to debate the Nazis. Dialogue could have turned the situation around. 🤡😱 The Nazis had their beliefs, the Jews and Gypsies other beliefs. Both sides.

But Shaun Pencil didn't take Erika the Babylon witch into consideration!

It's easy for a white, straight rich man to make such a statement, because he has no real skin in the game. It's different for minorities who Kirk demonized and tried to take rights away from. You would think that Penn would know better after portraying Harvey Milk, but I guess not.

The recent and shocking spat of Hollywood celebrities tripping on themselves to slather praise on Horst Wessel is at least useful. They reveal the alignment of the echo chambers they surround themselves with. When you're an A-lister, the elite 1% want to be your friends too, and vice versa.

The myth of liberal Hollywood should be dead and buried by now.

Our grandparents knew how to deal with nazis.

No, there's no 'debating' nazis and bigots.

I think Kirk's last exchange really sums up what type of punit he was.

Q: How many people were killed in mass shootings last year?

Kirk: Counting or not counting gang violence?

He was a lazy thinker and cynical. There are a million cunts on reddit with his level of intellect and sophistication. Why is he being portrayed as this incredible public intellectual who contributed to the public discourse?

no punit no punit. you the punit.

Charlie Kirk was one of the few on that side that thought there was no difference between Black people and white people except for skin color.

Nick Fuentes is who all of our ire should be directed at. He is a true white supremacist.

Kirk didn’t think homosexuality was the best lifestyle… OK. I think we all got plenty of that before we left home for college. It’s not harmless, but it’s not the worst thing ever. Nick Fuentes and his bunch are the worst thing ever.

The ironic thing is Nick Fuentes lives in a majority Hispanic neighborhood that has a concentration of gays.

R45 reminded me of this saying: “If there’s a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.”

Penn will be one of those that goes so far left, he becomes right.

Go to fucking hell, you human tobacco leaf, Miss Penn.

Great argument, r49. Charlie Kirk was just an old fashioned, homespun homophobe like many of our parents and grandparents. Who can fault a 31 year old for being openly homophobic when there are neo-Nazis in this country? It's fun having zero self respect!

We need good faith debates and compromise. Charlie Kirk was neither.

Germans have a saying: if there’s a Nazi at the table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 Nazis.

Sean Penn is a "fucking idiotic moron"-Charlie is DEAD, getting raped by SATAN& millions of his minions-Thank the LORD!!!

[quote] Doesn't Sean Penn have a tent camp in Haiti that needs cleaning or something?

Or, for that matter, another wife he wants to beat?

This is clickbait. The full interview has more context. I don't necessarily like him, but he obviously disagreed with whats his face.

Honestly, you cannot argue with people who use religion as their guiding light. They are using a mythos that cannot be proven.

Disagree.

We need smart, articulate advocates who use facts, data, and make compelling arguments, not people who weaponize bigotry and insecurities to create armies of people who scream "who moved my cheese" when they don't get what they think they're entitled to have, like sex with hot chicks.

I'm surprised by Sean.

Yes, we need more debate, but not from Christo-fascists and Christian Nationalists like Kirk.

White People Say the Darndest Things

I always go to Sean Penn for my political opinions because he is an actual high school graduate!

Penn has been into politics for a long time, why doesn't he go for it in some manner?

No tou fucking dirty old fart! What is the matter with these fucking people who keep making these fucking moronic shit comments?! We dont need people like that!. While varying opinions are fine, we dont need people who preach hate and bigotry

Sean Penn is a fucking idiot. K?. Bye

He is Sam!

R54, we share a nation with half of these people. I think it’s unreasonable not to try and meet them halfway without giving up what’s most important.

On the east or the West Coast maybe this is easy but here it’s not.

No, what we need are real debates not "gotcha" tiktok

We do not need dead people. We need an educated populace.

r70 I agree with you. Charlie Kirk talked over his debate opponents, would not back down from his misinformation when fact-checked, and depended on speedy retorts to make it seem like he was intelligently dispatching his opponents. However, had he lived, I wouldn't have objected to his having a real-time debates with skilled and informed debaters and moderators who would prevent him from interrupting the other people and who would not let him repeat points which had already been debunked. Of course, he would never have consented to such a thing. That's not the way that he was building his coalition.

Kirk’s debates did employ a lot of “gotcha” antics, but to be fair he mostly debated impressionable college kids who were largely unprepared and not up to the task. The vast majority of people at that age are still forming philosophical opinions, if they even have any at all. It’s easier to make people in this position look stupid.

Still, having open dialogue is necessary for western civilization to survive. I am at the point where I frankly just want whatever it takes for people to live civilly together, and that has to come from both opposing sides.

Look, of course he should not have been murdered but let’s not pretend he inspired compromise.

For fuck’s sake.

He was less in politics than in the media wasn’t he?

I believe we need opposing views to spark debate and compromise, but radicalized religious horseshit? no. No one needs that. Let them keep it in their churches, incubators for hate and intolerance that they are, and be happy they aren't in another country that wouldn't let them exist (like China and Russia that they all seem to admire so).

A reminder to avoid getting your political opinions from entertainers.

At 71, I find vigorous debate has lost its spark.

R78 - I, too, yearn for the return a true, meaningful debate:

The problem of course is the right cannot debate and nothing they do resembles "thought." I don't believe any news reports which show them as "victims" now. They have made too much hay by faking it. The day after the election, I came into the office and one muttered under his breath "If people would only calm down" as if putting a madman in charge of nuclear weapons was no big deal. When this was pointed out to another he said "If he does anything too crazy, the deep state will assassinate him." So people whose names and titles he didn't know would step into save the country in the six minutes it takes to send the nuclear weapons flying. And this about a man who wanted to nuke a hurricane during his first term, strongly suggested nuking Iran which the generals resisted, and after Jan 6 Gen Milley feared he was planning a nuclear assault on China. But these shadowy individuals were nonetheless sure to exist and sure have the power and ability to save us from a crazy, corrupt, incompetent, cognitively deficient, morally depreaved, and psychologically disturbed madman. You can't really "debate" such people about their psychological death wish. They want to defeat us more than they want to live and they will say or do anything to preserve their corruption and meaningless social status.

Stay outta my territory, Penn!! I am the grizzled old vapid opinion-spewing celeb. THANK YOU.

But for now, R80’ they’re happy seeing the brown people dealt with.

R52, Sean Penn was never far left. He is a performative Hollywood liberal outwardly for the career advancement but he's obviously well to the right of center in reality. I doubt he supports progressive taxation, he's probably has an army of accountants to avoid paying taxes.

People throw around "far left" without having a clue what it actually means. It's always an obvious attempt to lump progressives in with actual Nazis.

R52, that’s actually Tim Robbins.

There have always been "people like Charile Kirk" to "inspire" debate. When haven't there been rabble rousers and people who take what is viewed by many as extreme positions? Nothing has changed, nor will it change. So I don't understand why Penn feels to the need to say this specifically about Charlie Kirk.

Hate mongers

R84- tim robbins has never been right in the head. we’ve known that since his marriage to that old cunt, susan sarandont

Celebrities are talking about Kirk because he's in the news and zeitgeist. If Charo was hot in the zeitgeist they would be talking about Charo.

After all the desperate attempts to canonize and whitewash KKrk are over and he fades from the headlines, all that will be remembered is that he was a spoiled smartass who got his ass handed to him.

America gave him exactly what he asked for - and that’s so rare theses days.

We need less people like Charlie Kirk. Well, we have one less now.

The Kirk types makes the message so distasteful I don’t want listen.

R91 the word you need is "fewer". Fewer people.

This is the guy who single handedly tried to save Haiti?

Sen Penn wasn't good enough for Madonna, so he's not good enough for me.

Kirk is another flag waving, faux patriotic American and faux Christian.

There are a lot of these assholes running around these days, despite never been in service to the US (either militarily or as a civilian, i.e. Peace Corps) and despite never been part of any organized Church. For the prime example of this, see Trump, Donald J

.