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Can You Disagree With Someone And Still Like Them?

Can You Disagree With Someone And Still Like Them?

Last updated on: October 7, 2025 at 8:22 am by Mark Wilson

Can You Disagree With Someone And Still Like Them? 2025-10-07T08:22:26-05:00 Mark Wilson

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Charlie Kirk continues to stay in the mindset of social media users after his abrupt demise at the hands of an unhinged killer. My observations about this aftermath were highlighted in The Polarizing Death Of Charlie Kirk. Fr. Casey Cole further highlights what I said in my post in this video.

Love or Loathe a Person

Can you really disagree with someone and still like them?

I’m still new to the Charlie Kirk phenonium, but I’ve noticed a highlighted idea in the world after the Kirk shooting that you can only have one of two opinions about a well-known person of any stature on the internet. If you love that person you will always sing their praises no matter what. You aren’t allowed to simply like a particular person while publicly critiquing them for any reason. If you find any objection in their speech on any level you are then allowed to only loathe them and must voice your loathing at any mention of anything good, they might have done. A few bad statements wipe out anything good in their library of words they have uttered publicly.

Overall,
I think you can still like Charlie Kirk and still disagree with him.

Charlie’s Negative Views

Just what are some of the more negative aspects of his public platform that people are objecting to?

Mike Lewis@mfjlewis: (Sep 13, 2025) Reprehensible views I have pointed to are his views on immigrants, guns, race, war, and the death penalty. As a Catholic, I affirm the Church’s social doctrine on these matters and Kirk had opposing views. He was often very flippant in the way he expressed his views.

A fellow Catholic Patheos writer has more to say on the matter.

He was a racist, which our Church says is a sin. He was bigoted in all kinds of ways. He said hateful, reprehensible things about Black people, Muslims, Jews, and LGBTQ people. He said disgusting things about Haitian immigrants (many of whom are Catholic like us, for the record, though they ought to be treated with dignity no matter what). And yes, although the quote that’s circulating right now was garbled, he did believe in public executions.
On The Murder Of Charlie Kirk, And An Anti-Trans Moral Panic (September 17, 2025) Mary Pezzulo

Gloria Purvis (an excellent Catholic writer) also has this to say.

Mr. Kirk’s characterization of Black people as “prowling Blacks” who target whites “for fun” echoes centuries-old “criminal predator” stereotypes. His claim that certain prominent Black women lack “brain processing power” and “stole a white person’s slot” mirrors post-Civil War claims that Black elevation necessarily means white degradation.

Mr. Kirk’s rhetoric represents the latest threadbare cover for racism. His argument that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a “mistake” that created “anti-white weapons” inverts remedies for racial harm into threats against white people.

What are Black Catholics hearing when church leaders praise Charlie Kirk? (October 6, 2025) Gloria Purvis – America Magazine

Those are certainly statements of Charlie’s that one should keep in mind when evaluating him.

But now consider the positive opinion of Charlie Kirk by a gay black man.

Focusing on the Positive

I could easily sketch a blog post with the negative aspects Kirk in mind. You don’t have to produce some terrible quotes of his to prove how awful and off-color he could be at times. But I have chosen, probably much to the aggravation of some whose only acceptable commentary on Kirk is to let everyone know how awful he really is, to focus instead on the more positive aspects of his personality as some of the people I respect and admire have done just that.

I could easily home in and go all negative on Him. Because he is a person I’m just starting to get familiar with I could completely ignore him which was suggested to me by someone. Being completely neutral apparently means saying nothing on the topic whatsoever. Or I can give him the benefit of the doubt and look for the good that he has produced, yet not ignoring the problematic aspects of what he has said. I do this all the time in some of my posts where I will post great quotes about the faith from the National Catholic Regester and the National Catholic Reporter, and from Where Peter is and OnetPeterFive.

A 100 Charlie Kirk Videos

I posted this particular post about Charlie Kirk in which theologian and author Dr. Thaddeus Williams ran an experiment to test the claim that Kirk was an outspoken proponent of hate, violence, white supremacy, and other dangerous phobias by watching a 100 of his videos.

In 44 of those 100 videos there was no name-calling from either side. That means in 56 videos insults were hurled. Here’s where it gets interesting. In those 56 videos Charlie is called names a total of 59 times by those who disagreed with him. He was called stupid, insane, honor-less, classless, weird, freak, loser, pathetic, spineless, cowardly, sick, piece of trash, Nazi, Hitler, and dozens of other unsavory terms I won’t bother to repeat here. In no instance did Charlie Kirk respond by calling the person who insulted him a derogatory name. Not once did he return evil for evil. Quite the contrary, in fact. Often, he hushed the crowd so his opponent could continue to make their case. And often, he thanked his opponents for their courage in publicly engaging with him on hard topics.
Breakpoint
September 25 at 7:30 AM

Gage Skidmore | Flickr

A few of my FB friends objected to this, because I didn’t condemn Charlie because they found other things he said that went against Dr. Williams’s findings. He found his findings intellectually dishonest and a great example of skewing information to fit a narrative. One said it was a silly original post, and the lemmings will eat it up. It was apparently intellectually dishonest to not include some of the negative things he has said but not intellectually dishonest to leave out anything positive he might have said and to ignore the overall scope of his platform. If I were to jump on the dump on Charlie Kirk bandwagon because a few friends pointed out a few negative quotes, I would get flak from the other side for the same reason I get dumped on for highlighting some positive Charlie Kirk content.

Focusing on the Evil of His Death

Overall, with regard to Charlie Kirk I’m not looking to canonize him but to say I have found some of his statements positive and worth sharing even if I have found some statements and views problematic. Moreover, I have found his unjust murder horrific and terrible.

Mike Lewis@mfjlewis (Sep 12, 2025) I’ve seen some awful posts celebrating his death, trashing him as a person. I’m saying, as someone who disagrees strongly with many of his views, that we should unite to decry violence and hate.

Jimmy Kimmel’s attitude about Charlie Kirk was the same as Mike Lewis’s.

“It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t, I don’t think there’s anything funny about it. I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed sending love to his family and asking for compassion and I meant it and I still do. Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what … was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make.”

He further said something we should all take away with people we find objectionable.

“There was a moment over the weekend, a very beautiful moment. I don’t know if you saw this on Sunday. Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband. She forgave him. That is an example we should follow. If you believe in the teachings of Jesus as I do, there it was. That’s, that’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply, and I hope it touches many, and if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that and not this.”

How To Respond to the Kirk Negativity

Here is a very enlighten video about the negativity of Charlie Kirk and how those who claim the name of Christ should respond to it. The youtuber presenter asks that you watch to the end so you can get the whole jest of what he is trying to say.

I often found this same attitude of looking for and finding the negative in a person most notably with regards to Pope Francis. People seemed to avoid anything Pope Francis might have said they might have agreed with and zeroed in on all he said that they would disagree with. This is also true with regards to many other public figures on the left and right including Bishop Robert Barron and Fr. James Martin.

I found this same attitude with regards to an article the National Catholic Regester posted about Bruce Springstein. Instead of the left progressive folks losing their minds about Kirk, right conservative minds lost their heads over the fact that someone might find something good and Catholic in Bruce Springstein’s music.

The National Catholic Register Has Gone Woke? |
Catholics React To National Catholic Register’s Bruce Springsteen Article.

One Last Thing

I’m not saying you should not critique others or ignore their faults. I am saying you should not ignore the good aspects of a person, and you don’t have to trash them at every and any opportunity.

Sometimes you can praise them.

Today, I salute the millions of Christian believers in the United States and around the world observing the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel.

According to sacred Scripture, when the Devil rebelled against God in Heaven, Saint Michael and his legion of angels cast Satan down to Earth—triumphantly reasserting God’s sovereignty over all creation. For 2,000 years, Christians have looked to Saint Michael the Archangel for protection, strength, and courage in times of conflict, distress, and doubt.
Presidential Message on the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel – The White House

Sometimes you can ignore them.

Bella@stockbella (Sep 25, 2025) Dan Scavino, a senior advisor to President Donald Trump and the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, proposed to his girlfriend, Erin M. Elmore @ErinElmore), on the White House grounds on September 24, 2025 after his divorce from Jennifer Scavino in 2018.

Sometimes you loathe them.

Gordon Marino@GordonMarino (Sep 3, 2025) Finally a sentence of truth from Trump. At the Kirk memorial he said Charlie didn’t hate his opponents. Trump said, ” Sorry I disagreed… I hate my opponents and don’t want the best for them.” And Christians flock to this man?

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