Charlie Kirk: Death of a Polarizer - Between Extremism and Violence

The Last Appearance of a Controversial Demagogue!

Charlie Kirk is dead. The 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA was shot and killed on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University. While political violence can never be justified and this attack must be condemned in the strongest terms, Kirk’s death must not lead to a whitewashing of his dangerous role in American politics. Kirk was not a conservative intellectual or a democratic actor - he was an arsonist who systematically contributed to the radicalization of young people and made extremist ideologies socially acceptable.

The Anatomy of an Extremist

Kirk held positions that went far beyond legitimate conservatism: he spread the “Big Lie” about the stolen 2020 election and organized buses for January 6, 2021 - the day of the storming of the Capitol. When later subpoenaed by the January 6 Committee, he invoked the Fifth Amendment. His racist outbursts were legion. In 2021 he called George Floyd, whose murder sparked nationwide protests, a “scumbag” and added: “Just don’t totally mess up this state. It was built by wonderful Scandinavians, and it seems as if it’s being destroyed now, rather intentionally.” Kirk propagated a militant Christian nationalism, referenced the “Seven Mountain Mandate” - the idea that Christians should dominate every area of society. At events he led thousands in chants of “Christ is King,” not as a spiritual exercise but as a political battle cry against pluralism and secularism.

The Day of Violence

The nearly 1,000 signatures against Kirk’s appearance did not come out of nowhere. Students and faculty saw him as a threat to the safety of marginalized groups on campus. His “divisive rhetoric” was not academic discourse but a targeted incitement of hatred. Nevertheless: what happened on September 10 was a crime. At 12:20 p.m., while Kirk was performing his usual provocation show, a shot hit him from the Losee Center, 200 meters away. The videos show him clutching his neck, blood streaming, falling off the chair. Around 2,000 people, many wearing MAGA hats, panicked. We have consciously decided not to show these videos here.

The irony is bitter: Kirk was shot while answering a question about mass shootings - a problem that his own movement had worsened through its worship of guns and rejection of any regulation.

The Hypocrisy of the Mourners

The reactions revealed the hypocrisy of the right-wing establishment. Elon Musk, who himself spreads conspiracy theories and hate on X, declared: “The Left is the party of murder.” Harrison Smith of InfoWars - the platform that defamed Sandy Hook parents as “crisis actors” - spoke of the “fostering of extremism” by Democrats. Stephen Miller, architect of Trump’s cruel immigration policy, spoke of the “evil that stole Charlie from this world” - as if Kirk himself had not actively brought evil into the world through his agitation against minorities, LGBTQ people, and immigrants. Trump himself called Kirk “Great, and even Legendary” - a description that only makes sense in a completely degenerate moral universe.

The bridges between the camps are fragile, the incentives for escalation high, the lines between speech, call, and risk thin. And yet in this hour there is also something like a common language: prayers, declarations, clear sentences against violence - from Obama to Trump, from Newsom to Thune, from the FBI to the mayor of Orem, David Young, who is asking the city for information.

The True Legacy

Kirk leaves behind a poisoned legacy. Turning Point USA, with a budget of over 90 million dollars, continues to indoctrinate young people with extremist ideologies. The organization he built is a pipeline to radicalization disguised as a conservative student group. His “Prove Me Wrong” tables were not places of honest discourse but stages for bad faith arguments and propaganda. The YouTube videos with millions of views do not show intellectual exchange but a man with media training and prepared talking points making inexperienced students look foolish. Beyond the political dimension of his work, his role in the culture war cannot be overlooked. Charlie Kirk had in recent years become a loud opponent of LGBTQ rights, repeatedly attacking trans people and framing equality as a threat to American values. We had already documented in our own research how Turning Point USA systematically organized campaigns against trans rights, with speakers like Riley Gaines and Chloe Cole, who on college campuses advocated for banning gender-affirming care. Together with the far-right Proud Boys, a rally was held in Tennessee under the title “Teens Against Gender Mutilation,” where chapter leaders publicly declared, “Transgender does not exist.”

Civil rights organizations responded to the attack with a double appeal: they condemned the violence but at the same time warned of the damage Kirk’s rhetoric had caused. “Political violence is unacceptable, and gun violence is an epidemic from coast to coast that needs urgent action,” GLAAD stated. “It is a demonstrable fact that Charlie Kirk spread infinite amounts of disinformation about LGBTQ people. Lies and vitriol about transgender people were a frequent part of his rhetoric and his events.” The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ organization, also condemned the murder and called for an end to gun violence: “We cannot ever accept this epidemic as normal. We cannot keep living like this.”

The Uncomfortable Truth

Yes, Kirk was murdered, and that is tragic, morally reprehensible. He leaves behind a wife who lost her husband and two children who lost their father. No person deserves to be shot for their opinions, no matter how abhorrent they are. But - and this but is important - Kirk was not a martyr for free speech. He was a profiteer of hate, an architect of division, a man who built his wealth and influence on the backs of those he demonized. Kirk became rich by sowing division - his 4.75 million dollar estate in Arizona was financed with the hate he sowed.

The real tragedy is not only that a man was shot. It is that America has reached a point where extremists like Kirk can mobilize millions, where hate is normalized as a political strategy, and where violence becomes the predictable consequence of a poisoned political culture.

The Shooter and the Guilt

The shooter is still on the run. Whoever it was committed a crime that cannot be justified by anything. Political violence is always wrong, no matter who it is directed against. The killer is not a hero but a terrorist.

But while we condemn the violence, we must not forget that Kirk himself was part of an ecosystem that normalized violence - just not against people like him. His movement celebrated Kyle Rittenhouse, defended January 6, romanticized guns and militant rhetoric.

An America on the Brink

Kirk’s death is another milestone in America’s descent into political violence. From the murder of a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota to the shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado, also today - the country is tearing itself apart. But the solution is not to canonize extremists like Kirk as heroes. The solution is to fight the ideologies he represented - with words, not with weapons. With education, not with bullets. With empathy, not with extremism. Charlie Kirk is dead. The movement he built lives on. That is the real tragedy. While we condemn the murder, we must not forget what Kirk stood for: hate, division, and the destruction of American democracy.

His last words on X were: “Utah Valley University is fired up and ready.” The irony could not be more bitter. He was ready for another day of hate. Instead, he became the victim of the very violence his movement had normalized. America must break out of this cycle. Kirk’s death should be a wake-up call - not to honor his extremism but to overcome it once and for all. Only then can further deaths be prevented, whether by assassination or by the violence unleashed by demagogues like Kirk.

That is the uncomfortable truth about Charlie Kirk: he was both perpetrator and victim in a system he himself helped create. His death is tragic. His life was too - for all those who suffered under his hate.