Australia must reject America’s model of political violence, but there’s a bitter pill

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Violence

Opinion

Josh Szeps Broadcaster Updated September 15, 2025 — 4.34pm first published at 3.30pm

The refrain was predictable as soon as the bullet tore through Charlie Kirk’s flesh: “There is no justification for political violence.”

Well, OK. Obviously. There’s just one problem: there is, in fact, a clear justification for political violence if you accept the moral premises of how we’ve been discussing speech, harm and safety for the past decade or so (which I don’t). We’ve claimed, for some time, that our political adversaries pose an existential threat; that it’s noble to defend your tribe; that ideas make us unsafe, and that words can be violence. From that position – as opposed to a position of traditional liberalism – it’s tricky to oppos