Charlie Kirk; Saying the quiet part out loud.
TAT readers,
Today’s essay is about the insanity surrounding the murder of a bigoted, dishonest, insurrectionist and otherwise far-right provocateur. At no other time in my life, have I said anything to malign those recently deceased, but then again, this is the first time that I am experiencing a coup by one of the nation’s primary political parties, that is currently dismantling our republic from the inside. Charlie Kirk, was an integral part of empowering this coup, by corrupting the minds of our youth, via conspiracy theories, overt lies and vitriol.
Introduction
Before continuing, I want to be crystal clear that I do not condone in any way, political violence and this even includes Kirk, Trump, Mike Johnson, John Thune, Jim Jordan or any of the other profiteering hatemongers dominating today’s Republican Party and right-wing media. It is also true that I very rarely use the word “hate” to describe a person, even though their actions may be hateful. This is my own personal standard for reflecting on people or organizations. I hold myself to this standard because moral standards matter. This standard also includes compassion for Kirk’s widow and children. The word hate, is too visceral of a term to assign to most people or their organizations, as well as being a somewhat irrevocable condemnation. Yes, I still believe that people are mostly good, even though at times, tragically misguided and seduced by the power they acquire from their popularity. Charlie Kirk, was one such example.
I will also briefly touch on the frenetic media coverage of this event, while that yet another school mass shooting occurred at nearly the same time as Kirk’s. Media was and still is, scampering to know everything about the assassination of a far-right influencer, while mostly ignoring the dead and wounded at the school near Denver. Shame on them! One point from this paragraph is that I refuse to use the term “conservative,” when describing today’s GOP and their followers. I have written on this topic previously, because again, “someone must say the quiet part out loud.” As I often say, I believe that most newsroom editors no longer own a dictionary. The words conservative and far-right extremist, are not synonyms even though most media after a decade plus of MAGA, still lies by euphemism, calling today’s right, “conservative.”
If someone doesn’t tell the truth clearly, we all suffer the consequences, much like cattle led to slaughter, by being gently led and herded to their fate. Yes, J’ Accuse today’s media of doing precisely this, by treating the current insurrectionists controlling our government, as if they were a somewhat “normal” administration. Today, I will discuss who Kirk was, though not to imperil his legacy for those who either loved or despised him. I am with the latter. This is just me, as the name of this publication denotes, telling the truth in order to help folks see things more clearly. As mentioned earlier, this is an unprecedented step for me regarding those deceased. I do this solely for the good of our republic, not in spite.
Who was Charlie Kirk, in the Trump era?
The answer to this question is twofold, first, who he was as a person and secondly, who he was to the MAGA GOP. The answers to these questions, could not be more polarized. BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) an old army saying that means, give me the bottom line first, before explaining. The BLUF to the first is that as human being, Kirk was tragically and intentionally, a horrible human being, that represented everything but morality and patriotism. To his followers and the GOP, he was a charismatic star, nearly as dishonest, racist and insurrectionist as Trump himself. This is what America is now dealing with. The reality gap, is as wide as the Pacific Ocean and on all things.
Today’s Republicans are sustained on a conveyor belt of interlocking conspiracy theories and lies, all of which is spewed 24/7 by their associated media. Reality is nowhere in sight. The left, often too polite and definitely incapable of campaigning, are also enablers of this phenomena holding our political landscape hostage. Charlie Kirk, did all possible to sustain the hateful dishonesty permeating today’s right, even to the point of criticism by his own party. Not only has that dishonesty brainwashed them, but without any resistance from the left, plus other belief systems or government to rein in the insane amount of dishonesty spoken, but their ideology continues to spread, like a metastasizing cancer.
Kirk, like his party, capitalized on the absence of any real resistance to their firehose of falsehoods. They not only solidified their cognitive hold, on an ever-growing fascist movement called the GOP, but with Trump and MAGA now running our republic, they have been actively and aggressively trying to establish conspiracy theories, as history. Hitler, Russia, the Soviets, China etc. etc. were also the prototypes for the historical revisionism of the current administration. Without the Fourth Estate, and most mainstream media, cowardly abdicating their First Amendment rights in failing to support full truth, the entire nation and parts of the world, now exist solely on dishonest and cruel ideology, the precise opposite of knowledge.
Kirk wasn’t just satisfied to be a cheerleader for fascism. He turned his whole organization, Turning Point USA, into a immoral and utterly dishonest town crier for most Republican conspiracy theories. Truth was not in Kirk’s personal dictionary. He would say and do anything for attention and the backing of the far-right Republican Party, now dismantling our republic. He was also, an unabashed, profiteer, often even drawing complaints from his beloved right-wing compadres. Dishonesty and conspiracy theories pay well among the Republican faithful. Since its founding in 2012, TPUSA, Turning Point USA, has raked in roughly a quarter of a billion dollars of funding, and according to sources including the FEC/ Federal Election Commission which has been holding their feet to the fire prior to the new administration, is now failing to pursue existing efforts to sort out Kirk’s illegal and unconfirmed donor issues.
And Kirk’s agenda, including his December, 2024 AmericaFest Agenda, represents the who’s who, of conspiracy theorists and their agenda of hate, racism, misogyny, unraveling of our constitutional rights and of course, the rest of the culture war items that Republicans dine on regularly. Throughout the posted agenda, there are also items highlighting profiteering opportunities for the GOP elite. Coming full-circle, Kirk was murdered at an event, where all of his conspiracy theories and overt lies, were likely the last words he would ever speak. I am not sad that his dishonesty has been silenced, but I would have preferred that media simply ignored guys like this, rather than giving them celebrity. No one should die for their opinions in America, even though the current administration is strangling those rights at every opportunity.
Let’s talk the media
I don’t watch cable news, so I can’t tell you what’s going on there, but I am a student of other news, digital or otherwise. It’s a professional skill, acquired over decades. I can assure you, that mainstream news outlets are bending over backwards, to carefully cover Kirk’s murder. They do this, while that an extremist shooter shot up a Denver area school at nearly the same time. You’ll have to look much harder for reporting on yet another mass school shooting, while that every nook and cranny of print media, is covering every trivial detail of the murder of a fully MAGA fascist influencer. They should be ashamed. I won’t go deeply into how cowardly most media is during the Trump/ MAGA era, mostly because I have written extensively on the topic. I will add a couple of those links below, for those seeking more well-sourced support for my comments.
I have lost so much faith in mainstream news in the MAGA era, that I now have only two, “go to news services,” for most news and they are the AP/ Associated Press and USA Today. Yes, I still read plenty of other news, reports, research etc., but if I only have a minute or two, it’s the AP for me, and I even have some issues with them. Even the AP today has 22 entries on their homepage about Kirk’s shooting, while only one, regarding the school shooting in Colorado. What the hell is the fuss about a liar spewing fascism?
The AP is not alone. In the conspiratorial landscape of social media, things are far worse, especially within the far-right, which today includes the Republican Party. I actually had a long debate with dear old friends last night on social media, who were bemoaning the death of a “nice guy.” While in the debate and like on TAT, I provide sources, not one of them provided anything that I hadn’t already shared. As I have discussed in-depth and often, Republican America has been “conned” into believing anything spewing from their leaders’ mouths. Their subservience to lies and conspiracy theories, is now automatic, after being “conditioned” for thirty plus years, by media like FOX and similar. They are experiencing what is called a “conditioned response.”
If we cannot depend on media to employ their First Amendment rights honestly and our family and friends are so brainwashed that they cannot see reality, America may be doomed to the future that the MAGA Republicans are seeking, The four horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and Political Violence. As a specialist in NW/ Narrative Warfare, I can assure you that the only person a MAGA Republican may listen to a tiny bit, is you, a trusted friend or family member. One thing that the nation must master if we are to survive as a constitutional republic, is that we all must lose our reticence to engage in political debate. Everyone’s voice matters, especially to those you know well.
The last issue that I will just briefly touch on, is a very real fear of retaliatory responses from Republicans and the administration. The administration, needs no cause to inflict cruelty on those who disagree with them. Look at the National Guard assaults, on what Trump and the GOP call, “Democrat cities” despite the fact that the majority of worst cities for crime are in red states. Trump has a knack for turning any event, especially an anti-MAGA GOP event into a cause celeb for vengeance for his perceived grievances. I expect no less from the White House after Kirk’s murder. Tensions are already sky-high throughout the nation and like any brush or forest fire, everything is an opportunity for the fire to spread. Like brush fires, our nation is a tinderbox.
No one wants a civil war but the way things are going, we just may see one and this is not hyperbole. We have been in what the military calls a “Low Intensity Conflict, during the entire Trump/ MAGA era. Yes, we are on the doorstep of a civil war unless we can begin shutting down this administration. It’s bad enough that for the past twenty years or so, that the far-right has been the most dangerous and lethal domestic extremist movement in the US. Now they are simply empowered extremists with their extremist-in-chief and GOP-led Congress, enabling their agenda (s). America cannot survive this if we do not fight back. It is truly… that simple.
I don’t wish to belabor any of this, as that most media is already providing snippets of information elsewhere, but I will add a link below, that illustrates Kirk’s dishonest and fascist nature. I do this simply because so many that I debated last night, have demanded sources. Unlike them, I will provide some.
America, we can delay no longer. We must get off of our couches and into the streets, onto social media and demonstrating loudly outside every single congressman’s office in the country. We demand respect for our constitution, even if Chief Justice John Roberts and his merry band of far-right justices won’t. The DNC has proved that they are no help. Some congressmen are doing extraordinary work, as well as resistance movements. We must be part of all forms of resistance, before its too late. No, I’m not fearmongering. Part of my military professional experience makes me well-informed regarding coups, insurrections, unconventional warfare etc. My comment is a well-considered opinion based on extensive experience. Please, do consider this warning as a sober view of the current situation. Let’s all then… act accordingly.
My very best for your weekend,
Paul
Publius, Redux
A tiny sampling of Kirk's fascist views Charlie Kirk, the far-right commentator and ally of Donald Trump, was killed on Wednesday doing what he was known for throughout his career – making incendiary and often racist and sexist comments to large audiences. If it was current and controversial in US politics, chances are that Kirk was talking about it. On his podcasts, and on the podcasts of friends and adversaries, and especially on college campuses, where he would go to debate students, Kirk spent much of his adult life defending and articulating a worldview aligned with Trump and the Maga movement. Accountable to no one but his audience, he did not shy away in his rhetoric from bigotry, intolerance, exclusion and stereotyping. Here’s Kirk, in his own words. Many of his comments were documented by Media Matters for America, a progressive non-profit that tracks conservative media. Trump blamed ‘radical left’ for Charlie Kirk’s death – even as shooter’s identity remains unknown On race If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 January 2024 If you’re a WNBA, pot-smoking, Black lesbian, do you get treated better than a United States marine? – The Charlie Kirk Show, 8 December 2022 Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 19 May 2023 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 affirmative action? – The Charlie Kirk Show, 3 January 2024 On debate We record all of it so that we put [it] on the internet so people can see these ideas collide. When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence. That’s when civil war happens, because you start to think the other side is so evil, and they lose their humanity. – Kirk discussing his work in an undated clip that circulated on X after his killing. Prove me wrong. – Kirk’s challenge to students to publicly debate him during the tour of colleges he was on when he was assassinated. On gender, feminism and reproductive rights Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge. – Discussing news of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement on The Charlie Kirk Show, 26 August 2025 The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered. – Responding to a question about whether he would support his 10-year-old daughter aborting a pregnancy conceived because of rape on the debate show Surrounded, published on 8 September 2024 We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 1 April 2024 On gun violence 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. – Event organized by TPUSA Faith, the religious arm of Kirk’s conservative group Turning Point USA, on 5 April 2023 On immigration America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 22 August 2025 The American Democrat party hates this country. They wanna see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 20 March 2024 The great replacement strategy, which is well under way every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 1 March 2024 On Islam America has freedom of religion, of course, but we should be frank: large dedicated Islamic areas are a threat to America. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 30 April 2025 We’ve been warning about the rise of Islam on the show, to great amount of backlash. We don’t care, that’s what we do here. And we said that Islam is not compatible with western civilization. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 24 June 2025 On religion There is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication, it’s a fiction, it’s not in the constitution. It’s made up by secular humanists. – The Charlie Kirk Show, 6 July 2022 - Charlie Kirk in his own words: ‘prowling Blacks’ and ‘the great replacement strategy’ - The Guardian - Chris Stein - September 11th, 2025
And finally, a link to an entire page of Kirk’s quotes. They are disturbing to any American patriot who actually believes in our founding values.
The sad part is that Charlie Kirk and his ilk have always been a part of the landscape of this country. Hate and intolerance of the “other” is as American as apple pie. It is appealing to so many due to fear (of unknown or of some kind of loss…economic or social status) and plain ignorance and want of “control.” But for Native Americans (First Nations in Canada) we are all immigrants or descendants thereof. Some came because of tyranny at home. Some were forcibly brought here. Others came for opportunity they otherwise would not have. By the end of the Civil War, all came because of an ideal, albeit imperfectly implemented, embedded in the Constitution. To paraphrase from a soliloquy from the movie Gettysburg, “To be judged as who I am. Not who my father or my father’s father was”