Larry Bushard was arrested and held for 37 days after posting a meme about Charlie Kirk, facing a $2 million bail before charges were dropped and the county paid him $835,000. TJ Walker argues the case exposes MAGA's hypocrisy: the movement claims to defend free speech but criminalized criticism of a dead conservative influencer, while Kirk himself made controversial statements about Black pilots and gay people.
Chapters
Ultimize. Rick Rojas of the New York Times reports that Larry Bushard, a Tennessee man, was jailed for 37 days over, believe it or not, a Facebook post after Charlie Kirk's killing. His bail was set at $2 million. The felony charge has been dropped now. Now the sheriff and county have agreed to pay this guy $835,000. Well, that's good news, but this was not law and order. This was not patriotism putting this guy in jail. This wasn't protecting children. This was government hysteria with a badge, a jail cell, and a press release. Conservatives spent years warning us about woke mobs destroying people for saying the wrong thing, and then Charlie Kirk was killed, and suddenly MAGA built the most hysterical woke mob in America. Criticize Charlie Kirk and you were treated like an enemy of the state. Now let's be clear about two things at the same time. Charlie Kirk didn't deserve to be assassinated. Political murder is evil, it's corrosive, it's an attack on civilization itself. And Charlie Kirk didn't become a saint because he died. That is apparently too much complexity for the modern American brain, keeping both of those ideas as at the same time. We can either canonize someone or demonize them. We can either turn them into Martin Luther King Jr. or pretend murder is somehow understandable. No, adults can hold two thoughts at once. I promise you, I assure you, murdering Charlie Kirk was wrong. Okay, criticizing Charlie Kirk was also perfectly legitimate. And what happened after his death was one of the most grotesque examples of political correctness run amok that I've ever seen. For years, conservatives told us the great danger in America was woke culture. Say the wrong thing about a protected class and you lose your job. Use the wrong tone and you're treated as if you committed treason. Question the sacred narrative and the mob comes for your livelihood. Well, guess what happened after Charlie Kirk's assassination? Charlie Kirk became the most protected class in America. Not Black people, not gay people, not women, not immigrants, not school shooting victims, but Charlie Kirk, a man whose whole career was built on mocking the very idea that people should be protected from harsh speech, suddenly became a porcelain statue in the town square. Touch it with one critical sentence and the MAGA thought police screamed, "Destroy this person!" Larry Bushard did not threaten the school, He shared silly memes. One referenced Donald Trump's own "we have to get over it" language after the 2024 Perry, Iowa school shooting, and authorities treated it as if Bushard were threatening a local high school. According to the Associated Press, Bushard spent 37 days in jail, lost a job, missed major family moments, and faced a $2 million bail before the felony charge was dropped. Let that sink in. $2 million in bail over a meme. That's not public safety. That's a small-town sheriff cosplaying as the Ministry of Truth. And what was the alleged crime? Not praise for a murder. That's not what happened. Not a threat. Not I hope this sort of thing happens again. The crime was failing to participate in mandatory mourning at the officially approved emotional temperature. That's what woke politics is in its purest form. Conservatives are right that political correctness could be dangerous. They're right that mobs can punish people for imperfect speech. They're right that institutions can become cowardly and overreact to social pressure. The problem is they are the worst offenders. They don't hate political correctness, they hate not controlling it. They don't hate DEI, they hate not being the beneficiaries of it. Because the moment one of their own became the victim of political violence, they created a new DEI category: dead conservative influencer. Protected status, no criticism allowed. Mandatory reverence, mandatory hashtags, mandatory tears. Say one accurate but one unflattering thing about the MAGA influencer and your career, your reputation, and apparently your freedom can be put at risk. This is the exact opposite thing they claim to oppose. And let's talk honestly about Charlie Kirk's record. We should be able to do that, right? Because this is where the intimidation campaign worked. People became afraid to say obvious things out loud. Charlie Kirk advocated horrible ideas repeatedly. Snopes confirmed that Kirk said in a 2024 podcast, if I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified, implying he was extremely nervous. Now imagine the reverse. Imagine a liberal commentator saying, if I see a white male pilot, boy, I hope he's qualified. Every conservative network in America would run that clip for 9 straight days. They would call it bigotry. They would call it anti-white hatred. They would call for firings, congressional hearings, boycotts, prayer vigils for airline cockpits, but when Charlie Kirk says it about a Black pilot, we're told, oh, we must understand the context. Fine, let's understand the context. The context is that he was attacking DEI, but that does not erase the racism, it reveals the racism. His assumption was that the Black pilot is the one whose qualifications suddenly become suspicious. He didn't say, "I hope every pilot is qualified." He said, "Black pilot." That's the point. Now, on gay people, I'm going to be precise here because precision matters. Kirk's defenders are correct that some people overstated the claim by saying that Kirk directly called for gay people to be stoned to death. Stephen King apologized for making that claim too boldly, but Here's what Kirk did do while criticizing Ms. Rachel for quoting "love your neighbor." He invoked Leviticus language about men lying with men and being put to death, and then said the prior chapter affirmed— the chapter of the Bible affirmed, quote, "God's perfect law when it comes to sexual matters." According to reporting and fact-checking about the controversy, That's exactly what happened. So no, I'm not going to say Charlie Kirk literally launched a stone gay people 2024 campaign, but I'm also not going to pretend it's normal, decent, or harmless for a major political figure to casually bring up biblical death penalties for gay people while arguing about modern politics. This isn't traditional values. That's theological menace dressed up as a podcast segment. People have every right to criticize it. They have every right to say Charlie Kirk spread racist ideas. They have every right to say he spread anti-gay ideas. They have every right to say he made America worse. They have every right to say his career was built on demonizing vulnerable people for clicks, donations, and applause. No, that does not justify his assassination, but his assassination does not erase the record. Conservatives understand this perfectly when the dead person is someone they dislike. When Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, conservatives attacked him viciously. They called him a communist. They smeared him as dangerous. They treated him as a threat to American civilization. Some of that was grotesque. Some of it was rooted in their hostility to civil rights. Some of it was wrapped around King's actual critique of capitalism and militarism. But they weren't jailed for this. They weren't fired. They weren't treated as traitors simply because they failed to mourn King in a specific manner. So spare me the lecture that Charlie Kirk must now be immune from criticism. You don't get to spend a career punching down and then, after the tragedy, demanding that everyone describe you as a civil rights martyr. This is the central hypocrisy of MAGA. They claim to worship free speech, but only for themselves. They claim to oppose cancel culture, but they built an entire machine to get people fired after Kirk's death. They claim to hate victimhood politics, But nobody performs victimhood like MAGA when one of its celebrities is criticized. They claim to hate government overreach until, until the government is overreaching against someone who posted the wrong meme, in their view. And they claim to love the Constitution right up until the First Amendment protects speech they don't like. Larry Buschard's settlement is not some minor local story. It's a warning flare, because if a retired law enforcement official can be jailed for 37 days over a meme because local officials decided criticism of Charlie Kirk created hysteria, then none of us are safe when the next political panic arrives. Today it's a Charlie Kirk meme, tomorrow it's a post criticizing Trump, next week it's a joke about a sheriff. Next month, it's a teacher saying the wrong thing in a private group chat. That's how authoritarianism works. It rarely begins with tanks in the street. It begins with a frightened official saying, "People are upset, so we had to do something." No, you don't have to do something. You had to obey the Constitution. You had to distinguish between a threat and an opinion. You had to understand that bad taste is not a felony. You had to remember that free speech is not just for Charlie Kirk when he insults minorities. It's also for the people who criticize Charlie Kirk after he's gone. And thank goodness Buschert is being compensated, but the money's not enough. The real question is whether anyone in power learned anything, because my fear is obvious. The next time this happens, Some judge, sheriff, governor, or Trump-appointed political hack will decide that the Constitution is just a decorative throw pillow. It's nice to display, not something you actually use. That's why this case matters. Not because Larry Buschert is perfect, not because every meme is wise, not because anyone should celebrate political violence. This case matters because America can't survive a system where the First Amendment works only when the mob likes your politics. Charlie Kirk had the right to say terrible things. Larry Bushard had the right to criticize him. And if MAGA can't accept both of those statements, then it never believed in free speech in the first place. It believed in power. I'm TJ Walker. This is Filtered. Ultimize.
