Charlie Kirk Is the Latest Victim of Assassination Culture

Charlie Kirk, murdered at an event in Utah Valley University on Wednesday, was one of America’s most influential conservative leaders. He spent his life and career warning about the many social ills afflicting American cities and American society. Six months before he died, he highlighted on X a dangerous trend identified in my colleagues’ research: the alarming rise of assassination culture.

Kirk warned about the incubation of violent norms that the political Left has tolerated for years, observing how over half of left-wing respondents to a survey conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute saw some justification for killing Donald Trump. Yesterday, Kirk became the latest victim of this assassination culture.

We still know very little about the murder—to say nothing of the gunman, who remains at large as of this writing. It is highly unlikely, though, that such a prominent conservative thought leader was killed for nonpolitical reasons.

Kirk spoke regularly to huge numbers of people on prominent national issues. And that’s what he was doing when the end came, addressing a crowd of perhaps 10,000 college students. According to witness reports, and perhaps in keeping with his belief in open dialogue, he waived security at the entrance to the event.

Though the facts remain to be sorted out, it is quite possible that Kirk’s murder is the latest example of what I and my colleague Zack Dulberg have called “left-wing assassination culture.” In polling we conducted this past March, we discovered that unprecedentedly high numbers of Americans are comfortable with political violence if it aligns with their political position.

Part of this trend, we believe, comes from online echo chambers that circulate memes and imagery celebrating figures like Luigi Mangione. This atmosphere creates a permission structure that incubates such behavior further. We saw it in action after the recent mass shooting at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan, as voices on social media clamored to justify the murder of corporate executives like Wesley LePatner. We saw it yesterday, too, with assertions that Kirk deserved his murder for being a “fascist,” “Zionist,” or “bigot.”

The United States is an increasingly polarized society, with each side seeing the struggle as a zero-sum game, with defeat meaning obliteration. Left-wing authoritarianism, which justifies upending hierarchies, tearing down the established social order, and enforcing strict censorship, has become a major political force. Luigi Mangione became its first totemic hero, and his figure looms large over this most recent act of deadly political violence.

I write regularly about the rise in left-wing violence and often get asked if I believe it will continue. I’ve been hesitant to make predictions, concerned about misjudging the situation. Perhaps, too, I don’t want to believe that America has arrived in the place that it has.

These illusions can be sustained no longer. Assassination culture is real, and growing. Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images