Charlie Kirk & the Tragedy of Dehumanization
Over the past 24 hours, I’ve been struck by something I can’t quite shake: the sheer hatred being thrown at Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination. It’s like we’ve entered some kind of bizarro world. Charlie was a husband, a father, and a dedicated Christian. He was also someone who thrived on debate and believed in talking with people who didn’t agree with him. Whether you agreed with Charlie on every issue or not, one thing that stood out about him was that he always welcomed open conversation.
As a libertarian, my beliefs often lined up with his, but not always. Still, I always respected what he was trying to do. Charlie believed in dialogue at a time when our culture, tech giants, legacy media, and government increasingly tries to silence it. You have to be not just principled, but truly brave to do what he was doing day in, day out. His determination and courage is worth honoring, even if you didn’t walk lockstep with him politically.
And yet, what I’ve seen in the aftermath is a torrent of vile comments that just don’t add up. People calling him evil, racist, fascist, Nazi, antisemite… pretty much every slur in the book. Some have been far darker, going so far as to praise his death and openly ask who should be assassinated next, casually naming people like Donald Trump, Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, among others. How does this kind of inhumanity happen? How do ordinary people come to the place where they can cheer on or excuse the killing of a man they never knew, based only on a caricature painted by people who hated him?
To those reading this who genuinely believe Charlie Kirk was a vile person, I’m genuinely curious: who told you that? Where did you get your information? Did you take the time to research it yourself, or did you simply accept the labels handed to you? It’s bizarre to see not only social media mobs, but even news figures and pop culture icons like Stephen King blatantly lying about him. At least one so-called journalist who joined in was fired by MSNBC for his grotesque comments. What does this say about the climate we are living in?
I can’t shake the thought that this could be the result of cultural conditioning, the constant drumbeat in public schools and university propaganda institutions and legacy media that anyone who doesn’t agree with a particular worldview is not just wrong, but dangerous, and even evil. When disagreement is taught to equal hate, when every opponent is labeled a Nazi, a racist, a transphobe, how far is the leap to thinking they deserve violence?
It’s a tragic time for humanity when people can no longer see the person behind the politics. Charlie Kirk was a human being who wanted more peace, more love, more faith, more honest dialogue in the world. The world deserved to have him. It’s clear to me we need many more Charlies in this world, not less. We need more people who are willing to engage with those they disagree with.
The true test of a society isn’t how it treats the people we like, but how it treats the people we don’t. If we can justify silencing someone permanently just because we disagree with them, then we’ve lost something far more important than any political argument; we’ve lost our humanity.