October 1st, 2025 | Grant Johnson

Playing Nice Leads To Defeat

We either want to win, or we don't.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk has unleashed a tidal wave of energy and activity from sympathizers and supporters. The revolting spectacle of leftists cheering on his demise has pushed many normies to the right and sparked interest in Kirk’s message. The followers and fans he already cultivated have a newfound sense of courage and solidarity. This has resulted in the right going on the offensive and dishing out cancel culture to the left in ways that are leaving many progressives shocked and dismayed. This has also revealed the cucks in the crowd hollering, “Let’s not be hypocrites!” to right-wingers who’ve had enough of losing from principle over the past decade. To paraphrase Andrew Breitbart, “It’s war!”

In other words, it’s time to fight back, because if the right keeps cucking, we’re going to be destroyed. Charlie Kirk is the canary in the coal mine. Many conservatives in the U.S. are finally… finally getting it. Many normies are too. Tides are turning. As Auron McIntyre puts it in his podcast: we're living in a new rules system now.

The double-barreled hit of Iryna Zarutska and then Charlie Kirk have shown us that the escalation of leftist policy and ideology is serious and real and can no longer be dismissed or ignored. 

That’s great.

But our response must be what President Trump recently stated:

We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country. We have to respond with force and strength. We have to be vicious, just like they are. It's the only thing they understand.

The lesson from history is that the right-wing cannot play nicely and expect anything other than contempt and defeat. 

Everyone likes to believe in martyrdom. They want to imagine their own great importance, transcending their finite lives by establishing some great movement based on their own influence. Unless you’re Jesus Christ, martyrdom isn’t likely in the cards. I suspect the future of Turning Point USA will slowly diminish without the leadership of Charlie Kirk. His wife will do a valiant job of attempting to maintain the organization, but it will likely succumb to internal politics and decline. Five years from now it will be an obsolete brand, and people will likely only have vague memories of Charlie Kirk at all, much like the above-mentioned Andrew Breitbart. 

The real lesson to be learned is that the old classically liberal games that we’ve been told to play, with rules established by people hoping we lose, need to be jettisoned, or we are going to lose. As Kurt Schlichter puts it:

The new rules boil down to one thing – if you’ve got power, exercise it to promote your interests over the interests of your enemy. That’s it. That’s the basic rule in 2024. Suppressing the speech of your opponents is just one facet of it. Use the power you have ruthlessly to get what you want.

Calls for conservatives to “not be hypocrites” and just take the high road by losing gracefully can now be 100% ignored. The left is trying to guilt-trip anyone holding them to account by citing our principles against us, but that is a devil’s trap that we need to avoid. We can’t win by continually losing. 

Losing Charlie Kirk is a net loss for our side. Hopefully, his sacrifice leads to great things in the future, but that is a consequential hope, not a game plan. 

Over the past twenty years, I’ve gone from being a libertarian to a right-wing extremist. Not necessarily because I’ve changed a lot, but because Western Civilization keeps lurching left. When I lived in Saskatchewan twenty years ago, I wanted lower taxes and deregulation. The heavy hand of prairie socialism was my enemy. I associated the lack of wealth and opportunities with Saskatchewan’s NDP and the 20th-century socialist ideology that went with it. I wasn’t wrong, but the times were changing fast. Back then, the progressive left had yet to evolve into the full-blown GAY RACE WOKE COMMUNISM OMNI-CAUSE INSANITY that we are facing today. 

I’ve experienced much more firsthand living, which has shaped who I am and what I believe… something that only experience-based wisdom can provide. Evolution rewards those who adapt to change and, over the past 20 years, I’ve adapted massively. 

I’ve also faced up to reality. 

The United States is leading the way for the fight for freedom and civilization. Despite America’s flaws I believe current conditions under Trump are pushing for a bright civilizational future which won’t be easy to attain, but will secure the 21st century if ambitions are even half met. There will be more (hopefully non-violent) conflict, but America is still in play. The game plan for this play is going to have to be rougher and tougher than ever before. Trump’s America can do it. 

What about Canada?

I think Canada is going to decline wildly in the next few decades. Our “can’t do” culture and corrupt and retarded ruling class has no majesty or weight to anything they’re doing. The people of Canada just want the couch to be as comfortable as possible, and the math of our social welfare state will require higher taxes, mass immigration and money printing.

Canada doesn’t have a Charlie Kirk. Our ecosystem of conservatism. The type that helped bring about the rise of Trump and all the larger-than-life characters that came with him doesn’t exist here. We’ve got people on our side, but the numbers are too small and the influence too little for it to mean much. In Canada, Woke progressive hegemony is so total and complete that those of us on the other side will have to simply manage within the decline. 

In the U.S people are willing to fight and fight to win. Now that the stakes have been raised, even more people have woken up to the realities of the culture wars. Americans aren’t going to sit idly by while Woke destroys all. Charlie Kirk marked the end of the great outreach. The new rules demand that conservatives play to win. Only then can sanity be restored and gentlemanly conduct within an honest and open framework be entertained. Continuing to kowtow to the left only emboldens them and legitimizes them and ultimately leads to chaos and collapse. 

History has shown that if Weimar conditions get too strong, then Weimar solutions begin to get embraced. Conservatives can avoid worst-case scenarios by getting way more strident and bold early on and crushing the insane left before they’re able to do large-scale and permanent damage. It’s getting pretty late in the hour though. Canada is already a lost cautionary tale. The United States of America is the world’s last best hope. 

Prove me wrong.