The Whitewashing of Hate and Bigotry Goes Mainstream
While Charlie Kirk didn’t deserve to be shot and killed, he died in an environment of his own making
Founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed on the campus of Utah Valley University during an event similar to many Kirk has hosted in the past. This story isn’t about Kirk, but about how legacy media, lawmakers of both sides of the political aisle, and many others are whitewashing his beliefs, his rhetoric, and the harm he’s caused to the Black, Latino, Indigenous communities, and various other marginalized groups, such as the LGBTQ community.
For many in the groups mentioned above, it’s hard to feel sympathy for a guy who would rather see us and our families dead. Kirk often said things like, “Prowling Blacks go around for fun to target white people - that’s a fact,” which is not “a fact” based on data; it’s hateful, hyperbolic rhetoric akin to that of the Ku Klux Klan. He also constantly reinforced the racist conspiracy theory that posits there is a concerted effort to make white people extinct, which is also telling.
When Kirk said things like, “The ‘great replacement’ is not a theory, it’s a reality,” he was bolstering the idea that reeks of various forms of racism. The conspiracy theory argues that Jewish people in the U.S. and Muslims in Europe are paying migrants to replace white people, ideas that were born of French novelist and conspiracy theorist Renaud Camus in his 2011 book “Le Grand Remplacement” (The Great Replacement). In the book, Camus argues that the “global elite” is colluding against white people.
Beginning in 2019, Kirk also often parroted the false claim that migrants received $2200 a month in cash from the government at the expense of U.S. taxpayers, a claim I have debunked countless times. Kirk made his hatred for immigrants, particularly Latino immigrants, abundantly clear. He would often say that the U.S. was ruined decades ago by immigrants. While he would also say “not all” immigrants were responsible, he was blaming nonwhite immigrants, such as Latinos, Haitians, Chinese, and Iranian immigrants, while absolving white immigrants of any wrongdoing.
His targeting of the LGBTQ community is also well documented. He publicly denounced all LGBTQ rights and same sex marriage, he vilified gender identity and transgender people, often using Christianity by hiding behind Leviticus, a favorite of the Ku Klux Klan. He framed the LGBTQ community as having an agenda aimed at "corrupting children” and that corporations supporting LGBTQ pride were "gay corporations that hate America."
Despite all of this harm, legacy media is going all out to whitewash these problematic views. These views led to mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, Christchurch, New Zealand, and the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, among others. The crossover from his invocation and promotion of the great replacement conspiracy theory and the connections between the idea posited by Camus is evident in more ways than one and cannot be denied.
After Kirk’s death, the news media ecosystem, alongside politicians, all seemed to be parroting the same narrative. While pundits argue, as the vast majority of the country does, that Kirk didn’t deserve to be murdered, they are overlooking the harm he has caused throughout society while attempting to influence young minds on college campuses. Pundits are also focused on the effectiveness of his tactics that helped grow the MAGA base for Trump.
They have yet to acknowledge that much of Kirk’s rhetoric, like that of Trump, suggests violence is the answer to all of the social issues in the U.S. Even liberal leaning MSNBC recently fired Matthew Dowd for mentioning these points, suggesting they refuse to address these serious issues and are instead providing cover to the damage Kirk has done.
Gavin Newsom, a self-proclaimed friend of Kirks, posted on Twitter that we should “continue his work,” as if it's harmless to be a racist, anti-LGBTQ bigot. Meanwhile, the White House is carrying on a similar legacy to Kirk’s in its Religious Liberty Commission, the Homeland Security Advisory Council, and Trump’s White House appointees; all of which are set to usher in a white Christian nationalist agenda.
What this says about where society is headed speaks volumes. Not only have legacy media bowed to Trump in many ways, but they are now openly looking away from the broader agenda of ushering in Christian nationalism as a tool of oppression against all the same groups Kirk targeted. This signals that our media ecosystem, which is now arguing for free speech on campus after villainizing anti-genocide protesters, is shifting to the right while suggesting we all should be, through the Democratic consultant class.
If there was ever a time to push back against false narratives in our lifetimes, it's now. Legacy media is becoming more complicit every day in advocating for hate.
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A few of them showing up on here saying what a great guy he was. JFC, these people are sick. They are schooling us on the things he actually said compared to what he really did say. Trying to sane wash his comments into innocent diatribes.
Right now, as we read, many people are repeating his rhetoric, showing to those who had no idea who he was, and educating about his positions, as you have stated in this. It’s scary how corporate media and influential voices are afraid to hold back the dialog, and simply state that violence is wrong. I see how many libs in media are going about it the way you state. I’m seeing alot of very hateful statements he made, on camera. I searched him and found them reported upon. Your point of view is important. I’m not quite sure the outcome of this all. But I’m not seeing it as a come together moment.