In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Friday, bestselling author and national radio host Michael Savage warned that the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is not an isolated act of violence but a grim marker of a society unraveling, declaring that “we’re already in the civil war” he first cautioned against more than a decade ago.
Savage said the killing of Kirk, a young Christian leader who dedicated his life to restoring faith and meaning to American life, exposes the country’s collapse into what he called a “fetish for death” and the loss of spiritual grounding. “You see people today celebrating death, even the killings, of those they disagree with,” he said. “Something has broken in the West. It’s not just politics — it’s the loss of religion, of values, of a higher purpose. Charlie Kirk saw that and was trying to fight it.”
Savage pointed to endless wars abroad and the constant stream of killings broadcast on social media as the catalyst for what he described as a numbing of conscience. “The slaughter in Ukraine and Russia, the merciless killing back and forth, has desensitized the world. Human life no longer has meaning. And then people log on and watch killings replayed online every day. It’s breaking minds everywhere. No one even knows how to think clearly anymore.”
That cultural breakdown, Savage argued, is compounded by technology and narcissism. “The iPhone has made everyone into a star behind their bars — how many bars they have on their phone. Everyone’s the actor, writer, director, producer of their own show. They go on Instagram, and suddenly they think their opinions have the same validity as Einstein. If Einstein were alive today, he’d go on YouTube to explain the theory of relativity, and some schmuck would comment, ‘You’re just a Zionist Jew, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ That’s what passes for dialogue.”
The result, he said, is a society where “truth is gone.” Schools no longer teach logic or critical thinking, Savage lamented, and “when anything goes, everything goes. Marriage doesn’t mean anything. Family doesn’t mean anything. Loyalty doesn’t mean anything. Everyone is living in their own world, a world unto themselves.”
Turning back to Kirk’s murder, Savage said the questions about the shooter remain deeply troubling. “Did he act alone? Where did he get the rifle? Who was he communicating with on that gaming site, Discord?” Savage noted reports that the shooter had scrawled the radical protest song “Bella Ciao” onto his bullets, linking the act to decades of left-wing agitprop. “It’s basically an anti-fascist workers’ anthem. Bernie Sanders and so-called democratic socialism brainwashed a generation with this garbage, and now you see the fruit: a murderer who convinced himself he was killing for the cause of humanity.”
Even more disturbing, Savage warned, is the way violent rhetoric online merges with role-playing in video games until players can no longer separate fantasy from reality. “Many of these games are about fighting an oppressive fascist government. So the kid playing becomes the hero taking on fascists — then one day he carries that mindset into real life. And suddenly Charlie Kirk is a ‘fascist’ who must be eliminated.”
That, Savage said, is the madness of our time: a mild-mannered, respectful young conservative like Kirk branded a Nazi by his enemies and gunned down. “It could happen to any one of us,” he cautioned. “Anyone who writes or speaks from a conservative viewpoint is now seen as a target.”
For Savage, Kirk’s murder reflects what he warned of in his 2013 book Stop the Coming Civil War. He quoted Sen. Thomas Corwin’s words to Abraham Lincoln in 1861: “I cannot comprehend the madness of the time. Treason is in the air everywhere, but it goes by the name of patriotism.”
“That’s exactly where we are,” Savage said. “We’re in the civil war. It’s not coming — it’s here. And it’s one-sided. The left is killing the right. The left is silencing the right. People are terrified to even speak their views in public, afraid of being attacked. It’s a one-way civil war.”
Savage stressed that the rhetoric itself is already inciting violence. “If you’re calling your enemy day and night a fascist, fascist, Nazi, Nazi, Nazi — and then someone kills one of those people — how do you stop it?” he asked.
Asked how conservatives should respond without resorting to violence, Savage argued it will take decisive leadership from the top. “Trump has the power to stop it,” he said. “He could cut off funding to the organizations driving this repression of free speech. The FCC could revoke licenses for networks that are actively fomenting hatred and violence. MSNBC is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC — do you really think Bill Gates is going to step in to stop the hate? Of course not. But Trump could have the FCC suspend their license for disseminating hatred and fomenting revolution, and let them sue the government while they go silent.”
Savage closed by warning that the death of Charlie Kirk is not the end but the beginning of more unrest. “The unanswered questions remain — the rifle, the roommate, the accomplices. This isn’t over. More political violence will follow.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
