On Charlie Kirk, Part 2: Now What?
It is at this time that I’d like to share that, of course, I don’t agree with political assassinations and look down upon political violence. Charlie Kirk should still be alive, and I do feel for his family and the people who loved him, and I wish anyone who is grieving him comfort in these dark times.
There have been calls from many to resist the temptation of backlash and to turn down the temperature of our political discourse and interactions. I agree that we should strive for peaceful, compassionate interactions with each other. We should seek understanding and show each other care and mutual support.
If we are going to lower the temperature, I think that means having a really hard look at Charlie Kirk’s words, actions, and legacy. After all, it was he who said the following of abortion:
“In fact, [abortion is] worse! It’s worse [than the holocaust]! It’s 45 million babies. It’s nearly eight times worse than the holocaust!”
Claiming that abortion is worse than the holocaust is quite heated and controversial language. If calling Charlie Kirk a fascist and anti-Semite is abrasive and promotes violence, is calling abortion worse than the holocaust any better? If abortions are mass murder—the liquidation of a whole set of people—should we not do everything to stop it, including violence?
If “they” are trying to eliminate white people, if Muslims are trying to take over America, if the left is Josef Stalin, should we not do everything in our power to stop them? All of these groups appear to be an existential threat to the country, no?
Charlie Kirk said and did many divisive, agitative, and outrageous things in his life that contributed to a faltering political culture in America. As a result, we cannot build statues to and honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy and simultaneously call for peaceful relations and turning down the political rhetoric. We need, instead, a very sober reckoning with his contributions to our country’s politics.
In the spirit of sharing ideas freely, I’d like to offer a dialectic: that very sober reckoning can come from us as individuals and in community with each other. As individuals, we need to consider the media we consume, the language we use, and the actions we take. There are politicians and pundits who profit off of our division and hatred of each other. We need to starve them of our attention. If we find ourselves thinking, saying, promoting, and consuming ideas that other humans are animals, that other humans should be disappeared or liquidated, that the people we disagree with are inherently stupid or crazy, that violence and hate are the answers, maybe we need to reconsider where we’re getting our information and how we’re using and processing it. We can hold ourselves to this commitment, but we can also hold each other responsible in community. If we hear our friends, family, and neighbors speaking reprehensibly of others, we can call them out with compassion.
How we move forward is not to aggrandize Charlie Kirk. We should not seek to destroy and own and obliterate each other like he did. Instead, we need to help ourselves and each other be better humans to one another. It is our shared humanity, that is both different and similar, that ultimately binds us together. Never forget that.









