Live Not By Lies: From Labels to Bullets

Live Not By Lies

Rod Dreher’s Live Not By Lies has never felt more prophetic. His warning was simple but piercing: America is not being swallowed by a “hard totalitarianism” like Stalin’s Russia, but by a “soft totalitarianism” that conditions us to believe lies and punishes those who refuse. It doesn’t need prison camps—at least not yet. It works through labels, shame, cancellation, and cultural pressure. And when you live under it long enough, words become weapons.

That’s the terrifying reality we just witnessed with the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

From Labels to Violence

Here’s the filter that runs through it all: when you label someone—or a group of people—as “Nazis,” “fascists,” “racists,” or “evil,” you don’t just smear them. You dehumanize them. And when you convince enough people those labels are true, some will believe they have no choice but to act—sometimes violently—against the “enemy” they’ve been taught to hate.

This is exactly how “soft totalitarianism” turns hard. What begins as programming through repetition and ridicule ends in elimination.

The young shooter who killed Charlie Kirk was not just unhinged. He was programmed. Programmed by a culture that has for years normalized the idea that conservatives are Nazis, racists, fascists, and threats to democracy. When you hear that enough, you begin to believe violence is justified.

This Isn’t a 50/50 Problem

Let’s be honest: this is not some 50/50 issue where Republicans and Democrats share the blame equally. Yes, both sides sling mud. But the sheer weight of Nazi/Hitler/fascist rhetoric has overwhelmingly come from Democrats and left-leaning media.

Don’t take my word for it—look at the receipts:

• Kamala Harris: “Trump is a fascist.” (Oct 16, 2024)

• Hillary Clinton: Said Trump would “reenact a 1939 Nazi rally” at Madison Square Garden. (Oct 25, 2024)

• Tim Walz: Called Trump’s rally a “direct parallel” to the 1939 pro-Nazi rally. (Oct 27–28, 2024)

• DNC: Projected “Trump praised Hitler” onto MSG during a Trump rally. (Oct 27, 2024)

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker: Compared Trump/MAGA to Nazi Germany. (Feb 2025)

• Gavin Newsom: Said the GOP under Trump resembled Nazi Germany. (Jun 26, 2024)

• Joe Biden: Called MAGA ideology “semi-fascism.” (Aug 2022)

• Joy Reid (MSNBC): “Fascism isn’t just coming, it’s already here.” (Feb 24, 2025)

• Rep. Jasmine Crockett: Labeled Trump a “wannabe Hitler.” (Jul 20, 2025)

• Nancy Pelosi: Compared Trump’s tactics to Hitler and Mussolini. (Aug 17, 2024)

That’s just a slice of a much longer list. For years, major Democratic voices have told the American people that Trump, conservatives, and by extension millions of Christians are not merely wrong—they are Nazis, fascists, and threats to civilization itself.

So when someone pulls a trigger with “Hey fascist! Catch!” etched on a bullet—as Kirk’s assassin did—it is not happening in a vacuum. It is happening in a culture that primed him to see Kirk not as a man, but as a monster.

Christianity Relabeled as “Christian Nationalism”

One of the most subtle but sinister developments in our culture right now is how the left is relabeling ordinary Christian conviction as “Christian nationalism.” It’s no longer just extremists they’re talking about. Increasingly, when someone confesses that Jesus is Lord, affirms the authority of Scripture, or believes marriage is between a man and a woman, the response is not debate but a label: Christian nationalist.

Do you see the trick? They’ve taken the very core of historic Christianity—truths held by billions of believers for 2,000 years—and rebranded it as political extremism. In the media’s telling, if you believe the Bible, you’re not just a Christian; you’re a threat to democracy.

This is dangerous for two reasons:

1. It dehumanizes Christians. Once core beliefs are equated with extremism, Christians themselves are cast as extremists, even enemies of the state. That paves the way for censorship, exclusion, and worse.

2. It shuts down honest dialogue. Labels become a substitute for engagement. Instead of wrestling with what the Bible teaches, critics slap a tag on the believer and dismiss them as a “nationalist.”

This is exactly how soft totalitarianism works. Take a truth, twist it into a caricature, and then program the culture to treat anyone who still believes it as dangerous. Once that frame is accepted, hostility feels justified. And history has shown us that once hostility is justified, persecution is never far behind.

Live Not By Lies

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who gave Dreher his book title, said it plainly: do not live by lies. Do not nod along when propaganda is pushed. Do not repeat what you know is false. Do not accept the label just because it’s easier to keep your head down.

If we want to push back against this new totalitarianism, we have to reject the lie at its root. We have to call out this culture of dehumanizing labels before the next bullet is fired.

Charlie Kirk’s death is a wake-up call. Not just about the fragility of free speech, but about the danger of living in a world where calling someone “Hitler” or “Nazi” is now casual politics. Words matter. Labels matter. And when they are abused long enough, they don’t just cancel. They kill.

As Christians, our call is clear: we must live not by lies, but by truth. Even if it costs us. Especially if it costs us. Because the only thing more dangerous than a culture drowning in lies is a Church too afraid to stand against them.