Charlie Kirk’s Impact Is Much Larger Than I Expected

It has been a week now since Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and I have to admit that I could not have predicted the impact that this one political act would have had. 

Sure, I knew Kirk had a following. I certainly was very aware of his work, but I am, as they say, in the biz. I expected that the terminally online would all have strong opinions about him, and that conservatives would be outraged. I knew that some Pravda folks would trash him, and I was unsurprised when the usual suspects started lying about him. 

But what I didn’t expect was several NFL teams giving tributes, huge vigils here and around the world, or even the self-reflection of people like Ezra Klein, who seems genuinely heartbroken about Kirk’s death, even though he didn’t know him. 

I have been struggling to figure out why this particular instance of political violence has hit the country so hard, and I have a few thoughts that I will struggle to get out. 

First and foremost, it’s Charlie himself. Many of us in older generations didn’t grasp what an impact he had on young people. They grew up with Charlie Kirk–he was a fixture in their lives in a way that those of us who grew up in a less online world didn’t imagine. While he went everywhere and talked to everybody, the absolute number who have been in his presence is, statistically speaking, small. 

However, those who came to know him online and debated his ideas approach 100% of young people. Everybody had an opinion about Charlie Kirk, and while many callow youths said nasty things about him after his death, it’s clear that the majority of kids felt a loss. 

But that doesn’t explain the worldwide outpouring and the massive vigils, nor the more mainstream cultural institutions such as the NFL honoring him. I think that has much to do with the revulsion that people who had no opinion about Charlie Kirk before he was shot felt at seeing the left erupt in gleeful celebrations. 

Those celebrations were, ironically, an exclamation point emphasizing that Charlie’s mission is vital to healing our country. What ordinary people saw was that people they knew and admired had, at the core of their souls, a kind of hatred that is making this country sick. Many people woke up to the fact that leftist ideology is like Gríma Wormtongue, the evil King-whisperer sucking the soul out of the country.

Eowyn’s reaction, “Leave me alone, snake,” is similar to what many people are feeling right now about the left. Charlie Kirk’s death seems to have awoken a sleeping giant–for a long time people have had the sense that something was deeply wrong in this country, and the reaction to Charlie’s death from the left crystallized in their minds what it is. 

No amount of words written by essayists like me can have the same impact, in the same way that our words could not persuade people that Biden was senile until they had a jarring experience themselves. A video says much more than a thousand words, or 10,000. And it wasn’t the video of Charlie getting shot that did it–many of us are inured to violent images. 

It was the videos of doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, lawyers, and judges celebrating the death of a man who just wanted to talk with kids that changed things. 

Obviously, a lot of the mourning is for Charlie and his family; but I think a lot is also mourning for the loss of innocence: people see who the leftists really are, and it repels them. They may not think about it in those terms–not all of us think in political categories–but the attraction to Charlie has been spurred on quite a bit by a repulsion to the celebrations. 

Early on some people saw the mood change in the country; I was more in a “wait and see” mode, because I am cynical. But after a week it is clear that Charlie Kirk has become a symbol of the light and his opponents a symbol of the dark for many people. 

There are plenty of people still hanging on to the hope that their fellow liberals are better than they have shown themselves to be. Habit, loyalty, or a pollyanna sense that there is good there motivates a lot of good people to dismiss what they have seen this past week. They are “both sides-ing” and quoting statistics, but you can’t escape the fact that whatever the numbers of violent incidents, only one side reacts with glee when a political opponent falls. Only one side shares hit lists. Republican teachers, what few are left, are not posting about how they yearn for more death. 

That’s liberals, and we know it. It’s even in the polls. One out of four very liberal people endorse political violence. Only 3% of very conservative people do. 

New poll from YouGov

Agree it’s okay to be happy about death of political figure they oppose:

Very Liberal: 24%
Liberal: 10%
Moderate: 7%
Conservative: 4%
Very Conservative: 3%

Agree violence can be justified to achieve political goals:

VL: 25%
L: 17%
M: 9%
C: 6%
VC: 3% pic.twitter.com/GztzwPcaqv

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 16, 2025

And not so long ago a majority of Democrats TOLD A POLLSTER that assassinating Trump would be justified. Same with Elon Musk. 

SURVEY: 55% Of Self-Identified Leftists Say Killing Trump Is Justifiablehttps://t.co/fCCPuBbCLR

— The Federalist (@FDRLST) April 7, 2025

The Network Contagion Research Institute did a whole report on assassination culture, and Pravda swept their findings under the rug because it harshed their buzz. 

NCRI, an independent institution working to “identify and forecast emerging threats in the era of information disorder,” finds the pattern is building on a broader trend discussed in two reports in December that analyzed “how viral social media narratives were legitimizing political violence, particularly in the aftermath of the United Healthcare CEO’s assassination.” 

“The reports found widespread justification for lethal violence — including assassination — among younger, highly online, and ideologically left-aligned users,” the authors of the latest study write. 

They note the spillover effect beyond the online world, illustrated by a proposed California ballot measure macabrely named “the Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act,” celebrating the alleged leftist terrorist and murderer of United Healthcare head Brian Thompson. The ballot measure targets health insurance denials, one of Mangione’s reported flashpoints. 

On Friday, a California man reportedly “angry with pharmacies” was arrested on charges of murdering a Walgreens employee just days after the Luigi Mangione Act was filed with the state. ABC 30 reported that Erick Velazquez, the victim, was not a pharmacist, and was a respected husband and father of two.

The attempted assassination of Trump certainly had a cultural impact, but I think Kirk’s actual assassination is having a bigger one. We are, unfortunately, accustomed to the idea that political figures are targets for extremists, but Charlie Kirk was just a guy who went to colleges to talk with people. He literally handed a microphone to people who disagreed and talked with them. 

Three major assassination cases in US courts today.

Luigi Mangione, Ryan Routh and Tyler Robinson.

What do they have in common?

— David Webb (@davidwebbshow) September 16, 2025

And people celebrated his death! That is a punch in the gut, and people are revolted. Whether they “blame” the left or not isn’t the point–they see evil and it repels them. When they see a teacher gleeful at the death of a gentle man, it hits in a way that no statistic can. 

It’s too soon to say how long the national mood will last–even the effect of 9/11 faded over time. But just as 9/11 was a turning point for many people, Kirk’s assassination appears to be a defining moment for many people. Not on the same scale, perhaps, but on a scale that is much larger than anticipated. 

Could Charlie’s assassination break the dam of silence?

https://t.co/1RobUSCsl3

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) September 16, 2025

I am worried that some conservatives are going too far, thirsting for revenge. There is always some revenge in human justice. But justice is not revenge per se, and we shouldn’t attack people for not mourning Charlie or even saying as much. We certainly should use the power of government to suppress legal speech or punish it. Let friends, neighbors, parents, and employers decide how best to impose the Overton Window. 

This is a moment to reach out to people who are opening their eyes to the lust for blood that is all-too-common on the left. We should hold our vigils, pray proudly and publicly, and chastise those who deserve to be. 

But no witch hunts, please. It hurts our cause and violates our principles. Charlie didn’t do it, and neither should we. 

• Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

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