First, I absolutely feel horrible for Charlie Kirk’s wife and kids. 

It’s heartbreaking knowing that someone has lost a husband and father. The people celebrating are also wrong. Political and senseless gun violence has taken another life and left a family and a giant community shaken. There should be no place for violence in America.

That being said, Kirk was not a martyr and shouldn’t be remembered as this great man who wore his heart on his sleeve.

This revisionist history that both conservative and liberal politicians seem to be pushing is perplexing and incredibly dangerous. 

If someone didn’t know who Kirk was or what he said, they would see all of these posts and statements about him and think that he must be this man that encouraged debate and a voice for conservative youth. 

He was not a champion of free speech.

Instead, Kirk was a Christian nationalist, far-right advocate who chose to simplify complex political issues and used debate fallacies to try to make college students look unintelligent. 

Kirk chose to point fingers and demonize anyone who disagreed with him before he sent his massive following after them. He was racist, homophobic, sexist, incredibly close-minded and self-righteous.

He tried to discourage these same students, which he debates, that college is a waste of time, just because he didn’t go to college. He claimed that universities and colleges are breeding grounds for a left-wing agenda without any thought to what he speaks of or the ramifications of saying that to a student.

Kirk made his fame off of rage-baiting and antagonizing young adults, often being stumped by people with common sense and falling back onto hateful, disgusting and factually incorrect talking points.

He had attacked almost every marginalized group. Last year, Kirk said that Black women lacked the “brain processing power to otherwise be taken seriously.”

According to the American Association of University Women, Black women earn 64.1% of all bachelor’s degrees, 75.5% of master’s degrees and 69.5% of all doctorate degrees. These statistics not only match or exceed the percentages of other minority women, but also challenge or even beat the statistics of men in college.

This is just one example of Kirk targeting a minority group to spew hateful and incorrect rhetoric. Like I said before, political violence has no place in America; but, Kirk is a politically violent person.

His hate didn’t just spark controversy; it fostered hate and encouraged political division. 

Kirk’s messaging is meant to do nothing but stir hate in an echo chamber and then have his supporters and himself spew whatever opinions he comes up with.

He said that there should be some gun casualties every year so we can have gun rights, calling it “worthwhile.” Kirk would gladly have a fellow human die from a gun rather than have a gun be taken.

On the same day as Kirk’s shooting, there was a shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado where two students were left in critical condition and another, the shooter, dead.

Am I supposed to believe that Kirk would have had empathy for those students? Based on those statements he made, I don’t think he would. That’s not me being hateful, I’m taking him by his word that he thinks those kids are a “worthwhile” casualty.

As for the argument that he was a husband and father, I don’t think that is a valid reason to put aside what he said or did. Just because he has kids doesn’t mean he’s suddenly not responsible for what he said.

This doesn’t mean that I think he should have been shot just for being out there; it was a school campus and a public event. No matter what, he shouldn’t have died.

However, he knew that this was a possibility. Kirk said that he received death threats, and with two young children, he chose to continue debate and antagonize. 

I would argue that becoming a parent, which Kirk encouraged people to do, requires a radical lifestyle change, which he did not do, not even if it was for the benefit of his children.

In 2020, Kirk called George Floyd a “scumbag.” Floyd was a father to a daughter. Kirk, who championed traditional family values and told young adults to get married and have children, called a father after his murder was watched by millions.

Along with that, people die from gun violence all the time. Whether it be Uvalde, Pulse Nightclub or Mandalay Bay, people with families died, and we were never asked to put the conversation of violence aside for them. 

If we are asked to be respectful of his death, I think we should also hold his death with the same respect Kirk chose to give to people who are victims of guns.

In addition to that, I think the real danger from all this is the talking points that Kirk’s far-right colleagues are expressing.

Fresno County Supervisor Gary Bredefeld said in a press conference about condemning political violence while also saying the people behind this are “the enemies within.”

Far-right commentator Alex Jones called for a civil war and Fox News personality Jesse Watters blamed the people on the left.

These conservatives are using Kirk’s death as a propaganda tour to spread anti-left rhetoric. I’d argue it is just as disrespectful as celebrating a death.

President Donald Trump said that we should lower all flags to half-staff. This is a shameful attempt to politicize a death, something the right says is not appropriate after shootings.

It seems the Trump administration cares more about painting Kirk as an American hero rather than the close-minded, college debater he was.

It seems to be an undeserved and distasteful action that should not be happening.

Kirk spent his entire adult life defending policies that tore families apart, supported military takeovers and made groups that differ from him his enemy. To pretend his shooting exists as a black and white issue is a lie.

In the same press conference that Bredefeld spoke at, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said that we should all hold ourselves accountable for what we post and see online, referring to all of the celebratory memes of Kirk’s death.

Why can’t we hold Kirk to that same standard? He said and posted heinous things, but we have to hold ourselves to a different standard than a 31-year-old man? I will not.

We should absolutely condemn violence, his shooter must be tried and convicted, his wife and kids deserve justice, there is no doubt in my mind about any of those things. But I will not pretend that Kirk’s death makes Kirk a different person. 

Frankly, I see him as the same white supremacist, Christian nationalist man that he was. And I refuse to pretend that thinking like that is a bad thing.

Clarification: The language in this story has been updated to better reflect the writer’s opinion.