For most of my life, being an American has been a privileged position in the world. We have always had our own challenges — being one of the most violent societies on earth is nothing new — but there has always been a secure shell around even the worst circumstances, a sense that we are isolated from some of the worst that the world can inflict.

This security is eroding rapidly, the assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday in Utah being the latest, scariest example. I’m shaken by this incident on a number of levels.

The most superficial one is my feelings about it as a former debater and debate coach. For most of my life, debate was one of those niche activities that few experienced and even fewer understood. It was confined to a weak form of the art in political candidate debates or TV yelling matches.

But in the last few years, there’s been a quiet explosion of debate across the cultural landscape, so prevalent that in a recent poll of young women about the least attractive male hobbies, debating was listed as number three. This shocked me at the time I first saw it. I had no idea that these social media provocateurs I’d quickly scroll past had taken up a significant place in our cultural landscape.

So to see one of these debaters murdered is chilling to me, even though I know very little about Kirk and found the few things he said (as well as his debate methods) unappealing. The fact that someone could actually be shot for holding open argumentation is genuinely scary to me.

There is another aspect to yesterday’s news that is even more frightening to me personally. News broke this morning that the rifle shells of the assassin included what has been described as “trans and anti fascist ideology.” I honestly have no idea what trans ideology is, although I’m sure we’re going to get an earful of it soon. (UPDATE: Senior officials at ATF are now cautioning that the reporting is citing unconfirmed information that contradicts some of the on site reports they’ve compiled.)

This is terrifying to me because there was already a new anti-trans chill in the air after the Minnesota mass shooting recently, including a suggestion by President Trump of a completely unconstitutional ban on trans people acquiring firearms. (Trump’s position is the ultimate intellectual quandary for me. I oppose all bigotry that strips rights from a group … but I also support a full repeal of the Second Amendment.)

And this new anti-trans mania comes after a 2024 campaign that featured endless, vicious anti-trans TV advertising by the Trump campaign and its supporters that could very well have tipped the election, even though both sides have tried vigorously to deny it.

My fears about the growing anti-trans bigotry are personal. One of my children came out as trans about six months ago. I was terrified for my child then, I’m even more terrified now. The fact that my child sometimes voices pro-Luigi rhetoric adds to my concerns.

Young people are entering the adult world today in terrifying circumstances. Some are trying to hang on to normality as best possible, others are reacting to a polarized world that is racing quickly towards radicalization.

President Trump, of course, leaned into the radicalization in wake of the assassination, blaming the “radical left” for the killing and promising some form of retaliation/revenge on everyone from the people directly responsible for the killing (somewhat justified, but potentially scary) to people who fund Democratic politics (completely insane.)

This country is entering a death spiral. I know it reads like hyperbole, but there’s no other way to describe what is happening. The economic, cultural, technological and political shifts underway are not fully understood and gaining speed rapidly. Young adults entering college today could very well walk into a non-existent job market. Radicalization is already feeling, for some, to be a form of self defense. We already couldn’t talk to each other across divides, now we can’t even stage one-sided debates without inviting gunplay.

The violence is only going to increase, the anger will continue to escalate. My most sincere advice to everyone right now is get out if you can.