In the movie Heathers, J.D. says, “We scare people into not being assholes.” But fear doesn’t really change people—I believe it pushes them even further in the direction of assholery. In that same movie, Veronica writes in her journal that suicide gave Heather depth, Kurt a soul, and Ram a brain. Death, in other words, created a false nobility.
And that’s exactly what happens when someone resorts to violence in the real world. Take Charlie Kirk. I barely knew who he was. I’d scrolled past his posts, disagreed, and moved on. But when someone decided to murder him, suddenly, he was elevated. Overnight, he was given a status he never would have had if people had just let his words stand on their own.
It reminded me of a quote from The X-Files: “Killing him, you risk turning one man’s religion into a crusade.” That’s the truth. Killing doesn’t win arguments—it silences discussion. And if you want to change minds, you don’t do it with a bullet. You do it with better ideas, sharper debate, and the courage to challenge someone in the open.
Right now, we’re living in a world where “canceling” has become a weapon for both the left and the right. First, people were punished for saying the “wrong” thing. Now, people are punished for saying anything against someone considered untouchable. It’s out of control. The result? We are losing the very freedom of speech that makes debate possible.
Here’s the hard truth: lowering flags and placing someone on a pedestal doesn’t erase the terrible things they’ve said. You can oppose murder and still call out harmful ideas. You can respect life while refusing to romanticize a person’s rhetoric. That’s not hate—it’s honesty.
The answer isn’t violence. The answer isn’t silencing. The answer is courage: the courage to debate, to disagree openly, to break down bad ideas with logic and integrity. You won’t convince everyone, but you will plant seeds of thought. And you can do it without tearing the country further apart.
We’ve lost the art of disagreeing without destroying. Of being rivals in thought, but still neighbors in life. That’s where we need to return. If we want a healthier society, we need to argue like adults and live together like citizens.
Take the recent uproar with Jimmy Kimmel. Not long ago, the left wanted to cancel anyone who crossed a certain line. Now, the right is doing the same thing, going after Kimmel for speaking his mind. Both sides are guilty of the same reflex: punish instead of debate, silence instead of challenge. And while people cheer when it’s their “opponent” being canceled, no one seems to realize we’re all losing the same freedom.
And that’s exactly what inspired my latest comic. It comes from this frustration—that we can’t seem to say anything anymore without someone trying to silence or punish it. My comic is my way of reminding people that free speech only matters if it protects the voices we don’t agree with. It’s a call to calm down, to listen, to understand, and maybe even laugh at the absurdity of how far we’ve taken things.
So here’s my takeaway: you don’t have to agree with everyone. You don’t even have to like them. But don’t kill them, and don’t cheer when they’re gone. If your vision is better, then speak it boldly. Debate hard. Stand firm. And if your ideas are truly stronger, people will follow.
That’s how you change the world—not by silencing, not by killing, but by proving your voice is worth hearing.
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Take it easy,
James