Wim Laven

A recent false story from Arizona has been making rounds on social media. The story evokes outrage over a group of math teachers who wore t-shirts to school for Halloween. The shirts said, “Problem Solved” and were covered with fake blood. 

AZ Representative Rachel (Jones) Keshel is amongst the figures pushing the story. It alleges that the teachers are wearing the shirts to mock the death of Charlie Kirk. Evidence that they wore the same shirts for Halloween last year has gotten to her, but she says, "I want to see the evidence that the Cienega High School math department wore the same shirts last year @vailschools. Post the picture. I’ll wait."

And people have shared, with a photo of the teachers from 2024 wearing the shirts. One who posted the 2024 photo wrote, "Nice try, but here are the same teachers last year wearing the same shirt. They are math teachers making a math joke for Halloween. They're not attacking anyone."

There has been considerable fervor by the far right about the left “celebrating” or “mocking” the heinous murder of Charlie Kirk, but for all the outrage (from Trump on down) I’d like someone to post the picture; I’d wait. They made a website (CharliesMurderers.com) but have rebrand ed since. They dox those they deem guilty of this "celebrating." This includes journalists asking legitimate questions about the declarations about political motives before a suspect was known.

I learned that my “Prove Me Wrong” commentary about some of these aspects had been shared in an extremist forum around the same time I received fan mail wishing for my demise. It is not that I am tough (I’m not), but writing about the Second Amendment, voter suppression, critical race theory, and Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal have all generated graphic derogatory and violent responses. It is harassment, and people, now including me, have been targeted with threatened arson, assault, and kidnapping. The law enforcement agencies I have reported the threats to assure me that there is nothing they can do and nothing I should worry about…

The truth gets completely lost in the shuffle. We are not violent. Our protests of Trump’s drift into authoritarianism are committed to nonviolence, as was obvious in the recent No Kings demonstrations, featuring some seven million Americans in the streets of more than 2,600 protests with zero arrests, zero violence. 

Polls, however, reveal worried Americans from across the political spectrum are scared of political violence or even civil war. Approximately 1 in 5 adults believe that violence may be necessary to get the U.S. on track.

Indeed, Charlie Kirk contributed to this idea with his advocacy for more guns, saying, “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

Trump is part of this trend, encouraging polarization and violence many times. For instance, Trump said Kirk didn’t hate, but… “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.”

Over and over, it is outrage looking for a target. The First Amendment rights that Charlie Kirk (for example) used to rage-bait people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, and women would be denied to those who call bigotry out. He talked about “prowling blacks” and promoted “the great replacement theory.” When spokespeople on the right lie, that is protected free speech, but no such protections seem to exist for those who expose the lies. 

When they participate in these fantasies of violence they do harm. Kirk said: “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.” But instead of proving his claim he said to prove him wrong.

At least Keshel (so far) alleges that she will accept photographic evidence about the teachers’ prior use of the shirts. But how many of them will have been doxed and threatened in the meantime?

When people got together and insisted “no taxation without representation” and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor it was because of a real grievance over taxation. But the 2025 MAGA movement and its Republican accomplices are nothing like the 1773 Sons of Liberty.

MAGA invents nonexistent grievances and manufactures chaos. The lies are overwhelming, but we can find and demand truth. The early colonists decided the intolerable acts of the British were too much; today’s citizens can also declare enough is enough. Truth is on life-support after these unrelenting assaults, but like the Sons of Liberty dumped tea, we can dump Trump; truth will survive if enough of us decide the lie will not be the last word.


Wim Laven, Ph.D., syndicated by PeaceVoice, teaches courses in political science and conflict resolution.