The Rise of the Human Primitive: Part One
Understanding and Addressing the Increase in Political Violence (Vol. 5; Issue 37)
The violent rhetoric dominating the media since the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, arguably worse than the shooting itself, reveals the depth of political polarization. Many blame addiction to social media; many blame easy access to guns. In truth, extraordinarily complex and dynamic factors contribute to the rise in these episodes. We global citizens tremble at the ever-increasing violence as it spreads like plague throughout the world.
Charlie Kirk spouted racist, sexist viewpoints himself, but why would words ever justify a murder? Ironically, Kirk’s ideas illustrate the polarizing regression in thought.
For example, in January 2024 on an episode of his Charlie Kirk Show, he said:
If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.
Just recently, when discussing the news of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement on the August 25, 2025 episode, Kirk said:
Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.
These are regressive, right-wing, 19th century views. But again, murdering people over their words constitutes nothing less than barbarism.
Civilized people express opinions.
They debate.
Instead of any progression into maturity, immature thinking dominates rhetoric since Kirk’s death. Hinting at literal violence, Donald Trump advisor Laura Loomer posted:
More people will be murdered if the Left isn’t crushed with the power of the state.
Her comment suggests “people” might be killed if liberals are not “crushed” by the state. At a press conference shortly after Kirk’s death, Trump revealed his own paranoia and primitivity when proclaiming:
My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law-enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country … radical-left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.
Responding to reporter’s questions, Trump added:
We have radical left lunatics out there, and we just have to beat the hell out of them.
Here, yet again, we witness immature, dialogue-ending phrases and words—from one of the people most capable of calling for unity—a United States president. “We just have to beat the hell out of them.” How shameful, even frightening that an American president calls for violence instead of peace.
Less aggressive but equally primitive statements and posts followed.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told reporters:
Democrats own what happened today.
An assistant dean at Middle Tennessee State University posted on FB:
Looks like ol' Charlie spoke his fate into existence. Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy.
These are intelligent, well-educated individuals. How could they react so callously to the killing of a person with opinions?
Never heralded for her intellect, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, wrote this post last Monday:
Millions on the left celebrated and made clear they want all of us dead.
Greene’s primitive post portrays an inflammatory untruth. Just where are these millions? And where is the evidence they want to murder “all of us”?
Melanie Klein (1948, 1957), an object relations theorist, explains such regressive thinking. She believes that infants mitigate the overwhelm of their early experiences through two primitive psychological mechanisms: splitting and projection. Splitting refers to how they simplify their worlds into categories of good and bad. These “qualitative splits” reduce the infinite to the digital, 0s and 1s. Viewing the world in two simple classes enhances survival. The quotes just noted reveal the concrete thinking characteristic of splitting.
Projection, called the “geographic split,” consists of ejecting “badness” into others. Blaming Democrats for the actions of a son of Utah Republicans perfectly illustrates the concept. The same goes for blaming Republicans, gun laws, or even Donald Trump (despite the immaturity evident in his reliance almost entirely upon splitting and projection in his thinking).
A crucially important concept relevant to our disturbing times, projection foments paranoia. If you project your anger into others, you end up feeling paranoid. You unconsciously perceive your anger as directed back at you. If the other party picks up the projection and adds their own anger to it, a positive feedback loop creating ever-increasing paranoia develops. Elon Musk’s message, posted on X even before Kirk’s death was confirmed, epitomizes the concept:
Either we fight back or they will kill us.
Maturity develops as infants transition into toddlers and beyond. They learn to “use their words.” They come to understand that the world does not revolve around them. They develop a capacity for empathy that is impossible in the first six to 12 months of life. Klein, unfortunately, uses the phrase, depressive position, to describe maturity. She used the word, depressive, to refer to the complexity, the anything-but-black-and-white world of adulthood. It does not mean “depression” as most people understand it.
Even the most evolved persons regress into using splitting and projection during certain life experiences. Falling in love involves both: we are perfect together (a splitting idealization) and all negativity exists in others (projection). Looking forward to vacations also involves both these more primitive defense mechanisms. These processes explain why many people feel that life looks better when they imagine the future (projection) or the past (reminiscence as a form of splitting).
So where do we go from here? Find out tomorrow in part two of this post.
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References
Aurelius, M. (175ACE/2006). Meditations. Trans. M. Hammond. New York: Penguin.
Chomsky, N. (2013). On anarchism. New York: The New Press.
Klein, M. (1948). A contribution to the theory of anxiety and guilt. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 29, 114-123.
Klein, M. (1957). Envy and gratitude. Psyche, 11:241-255.
Orwell, G. (19491961). 1984. New York: Signet Classic.