Clay | ReadSowell.com
Last night, six strangers prayed for a man who laughed at Charlie Kirk's murder.
He came into my comments swinging. He was nasty, he was mean... he was celebrating the murder of a young father. He wasn't a bot, he was a real guy... real friends, a real life... doesn't seem like that bad of a guy, really... minus the whole celebrating-a-murder thing.
But there he was... looking for a fight.
And some of my readers gave it to him. They matched his energy and became nasty and mean themselves.
I get it... I felt it too. I feel it all the time. I read dozens of comments like Daniel's every day... I can't post about Charlie without a series of people just like Daniel coming into the comments to pick a fight with my readers.
I'm not even saying that you shouldn't fight him. What I'm saying is this: don't fight on his terms. Fight on your own.
In the old days, when a man was challenged to a duel, he got to choose the weapons. It was a code of conduct. They called it the Code Duello.
Part of the idea was to discourage bullying. A skilled swordsman couldn't pick fights with weaker men and win easily, because they'd choose pistols.
Daniel is the skilled swordsman. His skill is making you angry, and he's very good at it. He knows exactly what to say to get you fired up... and you won't be able to do the same to him, no matter how hard you try to match his register. He's ready for it. He was expecting you.
So I chose a weapon he wasn't expecting. Well... two weapons, really.
Curiosity and Grace. Dual pistols.
Daniel got to fire the first shots... calling us clowns... laughing at us for mourning Charlie... posting a cartoon that makes a mockery of his murder.
I returned fire by giving him a warm welcome and asking him a genuine question.
And just like that... I took control of the entire conversation. I stayed on offense the whole time, while he spent the rest of the fight explaining himself... writing longer and longer answers with every shot of curiosity I fired. He still had his sword... he was trying to make me angry... insulting me, insulting Charlie, insulting my readers.
None of it landed. You can't wound a man who refuses to get angry.
By his third answer, he started wounding himself. I could tell he was starting to get angry. He wasn't laughing anymore.
So, I decided it was time to go for the kill. To settle this thing once and for all, so nobody, not even my haters, can deny who came out on top here.
I fired my second pistol. Grace.
I told him why I feel blessed. That I thank God every morning for my family, my friends... and even my enemies, who I cherish. That I see a lot of myself in him. That I'd pray for him.
I genuinely wish him well. You know why? I was an angry young man once. Mad at the world. Signalling my virtue by sneering at people I've never met, about issues I didn't really understand. I was spiteful. Resentful.
That's Daniel. I'm not Daniel anymore.
Maybe one day he won't be either.
And if he gets there, it won't be because someone out-argued him. It'll be because a bunch of strangers answered his hate with grace... we didn't feed into his resentment. We forgive him. We don't wish death upon him... we pray for his salvation. We don't let him bully us... we disarm him.
This is what I want to teach you. This is the core of my Stop Being Prey doctrine: curiosity and Grace. I know you can see it. I know you have it in you. But sometimes, you follow your temptations. I still do too. It's an eternal struggle.
But that's the real fight... within you. Not against Daniel.
And here's the part Daniel never saw coming, when he came into my comments section, posting that cartoon of Charlie being murdered... that it would end with strangers praying for him. I dominated him with curiosity, and we devastated him with Grace, together.
This is how you win a fight like this. By choosing weapons that your enemy is not prepared for.
Charlie knew this... that's why they wanted him stopped. It works. It's persuasive. It can even cause your haters to look inside themselves and start asking tough questions.
I built Daniel a wall on my site. Anyone can leave him a message there, with a few dollars behind it.
Every dollar on that wall is taking Daniel's attack and turning it into fuel for the work he came to sneer at. Imagine what that does to Daniel when he sees that. He goes to the wall... sees a bunch of people praying for him, wishing him well... while funding the work of the guy he just publicly called trash.
What does that do to a man's conscience?
Let's find out. stopbeingprey.com/walls/bless-
stay close,
~ Clay
P.S. Six strangers have left Daniel a message so far. Want to be the seventh? The wall closes Wednesday, when my libertarian piece goes out:
stopbeingprey.com/walls/
