Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit

With mainstream MAGA figures calling for revenge for their side, some outright calling for civil war, and morally grandstanding over the violence enacted against Charlie Kirk whilst all major left-wing media universally condemn the violence, I think the least the left should do is not whitewash Charlie Kirk’s toxic legacy out of indiscriminate reverence for the dead. Let’s be honest about who Charlie Kirk was.

Charlie Kirk preached hatred and division. He peddled racist conspiracy theories, dangerous misinformation about Covid among other things, and religious intolerance. He was unashamedly anti-gay, anti-trans, racist, and sexist. He used the freedoms apportioned to him by liberal democracy to erode liberal democracy. He did not model open healthy debate. He picked on weaker debate opponents and even then employed bad-faith tactics when he was losing the argument. Charlie Kirk not only fanned the flames of political division, he profited off of it. He, along with other MAGA grifters, ultimately fomented the political environment that got him killed.

However many people show up to his candlelight vigils, however many prayers and moments of silence take place for him, however many American flags fly at half-mast, none of that will change the fact that Charlie Kirk was a hateful piece of shit who deserves none of that. While I do not condone his assassination, the US and the world almost certainly would’ve been made a better place if he’d died by a fatal stroke that day instead, or had simply never been born in the first place.

To those who would respond, “Have some humanity. He was a father and a husband. Just because he didn’t say the right words about politics doesn’t make him a bad guy.” actually, it does. Any good he did in his personal life is overshadowed by all the damage he caused in his public life. This idea that you can say whatever you want about politics, and at the end of the day we should still be able to shake hands and have mutual respect for each other is delusional. Politics has real effects on real people’s lives. Believing and spreading hateful political ideology isn’t magically separate from your goodness person.