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Charlie Kirk’s brand of fomentation was enabled by heavily subsidized social media.  

Kirk was known and admired by his fans for his in-person appearances before the young audiences he cultivated. But the reality is that without the great resonance of his social media accounts — and deliberate amplification of them by others with their own agendas, including, we know, wealthy interests — he almost certainly would not have achieved the fame (and fortune) that made his killing not just a national story but a potentially seismic political event.

Almost everyone you know by name today — like Kirk — is famous because of algorithmic promotion, not merit. Thoughtful, reasonable voices rarely break through.

Because it is most often those stoking animosity who are given the biggest platform. 

The lack of real moderation of content (screening posts for content deemed dangerous according to a set of established criteria) on social media is no accident. Donald Trump has weaponized this chaos, his allies have run with it, and the supposedly “neutral” platforms turn a blind eye, allowing hate, lies, and threats to spread unchecked in their pursuit of profit and influence. 

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Kirk’s admirers truly consider him moderate, applauding his purported open-mindedness, although his entire image rested on a staged debate machine that shut out capable opponents. But take a look at the following quotes and judge for yourself:

Death penalties should be public, should be quick, it should be televised. I think at a certain age, it’s an initiation. … What age should you start to see public executions? [His co-host suggested 12 years old, and Kirk apparently agreed. Afterward, Kirk asserted that exposing children to the sight of executions would bring down crime.]

If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, “Boy, I hope he’s qualified.” 

If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because [of] affirmative action?

Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson. … They’re saying “I’m only here because of affirmative action.” Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot. [Referring to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), a Yale graduate with a J.D. from the University of Virginia, after she said she got into schools thanks to affirmative action — but did not graduate because of it] … We know! It’s very obvious to us that you were not smart enough to be able to get in on your own.

The American Democrat Party hates this country. They wanna see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white.

The great replacement strategy, which is well underway every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different. … They hate those of you that live in rural and small America. They hate those of you that own land and have guns and believe in a better country, and they have a plan to try and get rid of you. … You believe in God, country, family, faith, and freedom, and they won’t stop until you and your children and your children’s children are eliminated. 

I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.

More and more people will be exposed to Kirk’s “wisdom.” Since his death, his social media accounts have gained millions of followers. 

Kirk’s wife Erika has proved equally adept at utilizing social media, posting graphic images of her over her husband’s open casket and making ominous threats: “You have no idea what you have just unleashed across this entire country.” 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., never to be underestimated, apparently thought Kirk was in a category of greatness comparable, say, to RFK’s namesake and father:  

Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era. My dear friend Charlie Kirk was our country’s relentless and courageous crusader for free speech. We pray for Erika and the children. Charlie is already in paradise with the angels. We ask his prayers for our country.

Shooters are also created by social media. The Colorado high school shooter is yet another example of a violent actor “radicalized” by what he saw and read online. (At the time I’m writing this, we don’t yet know what motivated Kirk’s assassin, Tyler Robinson, but we do know he comes from a Republican Mormon family of MAGA supporters who were steeped in assault weapon culture. 

He’s also been described as being extremely online — a term for those who are so deeply immersed in the online world that it displaces their real-world orientation — and possibly a “groyper.” The swirling uncertainty did little to impede the drive, led by Trump himself, to exploit the killing for maximum political advantage.

And in an incident that deserves much more attention than it got, a SWAT team in Seattle burst into a suburban home and arrested a 13-year-old who had a huge cache of weapons and ammunition. The youth had gone onto social media to praise past school shooters and say he couldn’t wait till it was his turn. 

Some lives matter more than others. Kirk’s life apparently mattered more to his supporters — and to the media, based on the coverage — than the lives of a Democratic Minnesota legislator and her husband, and the wounding of another Democratic lawmaker and his wife or the children who were shot the same day in Colorado. 

Somehow, those Democrats and children shot by unhinged weaponized extremists weren’t worth mentioning in Trump’s speech seeking to blame all violence on the left.

The obvious problem and common thread: easy access to deadly weapons and training throughout this country. Yet the solution, which is to change that, is somehow never seriously considered. 

Nor is culpability. The GOP-dominated Utah Legislature had just made it easier to bring weapons onto campuses. Why no hue and cry over that? Why no demand that the Utah Republicans justify their action? 

Meanwhile, what about MSNBC’s craven firing of Matthew Dowd for his accurate analysis of Kirk’s impact? 

It was okay to insult Jimmy Carter right after he died; or to joke on Fox News about a savage attack on Paul Pelosi; or, like Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), to mock the assassinations of a prominent Democratic Minnesota legislator and her husband (“this is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way”).

But Dowd is fired for noting that Kirk’s main function was to stoke animosity? When in fact Kirk constantly invoked images and language that fostered hate, from referring to “prowling Blacks” to advancing the “Great Replacement Strategy” theory, where Democrats want to see white people replaced as a means of securing more votes and ultimate power. 

Obviously the shooting was horrendous but… such a glaring double standard to can Dowd? And not just Dowd, but a host of others who have been fired for being insufficiently “respectful” of Kirk’s sanctified memory — in a witch hunt that keeps gathering steam. So much for the “free speech” that is being MAGA-touted as Kirk’s immortal legacy.

But apparently it’s OK to call, on-air, for the homeless and mentally disturbed to be terminated (as in, permanently) by “involuntary lethal injection or something, just kill ‘em.” That is if you’re Fox News’s Brian “Final Solution” Kilmeade, whose co-hosts stare blankly into the camera in apparent indifference to, or agreement with, the unspeakable, and whose bosses haven’t even cleared their throats. Kilmeade has apologized for his “insensitivity” and moved on — still employed, unlike Dowd and co.

Possibly Kilmeade got his inspiration from Trump who, a few years ago, said of the disabled, “maybe those kinds of people should just die,” given “the shape they’re in, all the expenses.” And when Trump’s nephew asked him for help with the medical expenses incurred by his disabled son, Trump replied, “I don’t know. He doesn’t recognize you. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.”

Let’s hope that being liberal is never considered a disability.

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And speaking of ways to die in America, it’s worth noting that on Friday the Trump administration proposed ending a program that requires coal-fired power plants, industrial factories, and oil refining facilities to report their planet-warming pollution to the federal government — pollution that kills hundreds of thousands every year.   

In other words, the right is, understandably, outraged by the death of one particular person who was an ally — but, bafflingly, they’re just fine with making the planet uninhabitable for all human beings.

One other thing: As of Sunday, September 14, 2025, 10:00 p.m. EDT, the number of gun-related homicides and accidental killings for this year is 10,488. 

But the day isn’t over yet.