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I thought I knew what I would write about this week. There were notes, bookmarks, and browser tabs open for days. I even had a lovely conversation about today's topic with a favorite VIP in our Platinum-level private chat channel.
The notes, the plans, all of them suddenly seemed so trivial. No, that's not the right word. They all became so unworthy of the moment, the instant an assassin's bullet struck Charlie Kirk in the neck. Like virtually everybody I've spoken with in the last 16 hours or whatever it's been, I have a swirling collection of observations, and a few half-formed thoughts, but no answers.
My hope is that if you'll indulge me with just enough of your time today, maybe together we can sort through the observations and thoughts until we can at least make a little sense out of Kirk's senseless murder.
I suspect answers might yet be impossible to come by, or at best, any that we do find will feel unsatisfactory. But what satisfaction could we even hope for after yesterday's act of pure evil?
Before we dive in, let me set the stage for you with some sharp analysis, courtesy of Eric S. Raymond. In an early morning X post, he sorted assassins into three broad types: "the nutter, the zealot, and the pro." In Kirk's case, Raymond argued that neither the nutter nor the pro seems as likely as the zealot.
"In the case of Charlie Kirk, it's pretty high odds we're looking at a zealot," Raymond concluded. "That's usually the way to bet, and in this case, the quality of his exfiltration plan and the fact that he has successfully disappeared raises the odds."
Based on Thursday's report that "Investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology inside the rifle" believed to be the murder weapon, Raymond's analysis at least appears to be spot-on.
"Accordingly, the first place investigators of the assassination of Charlie Kirk are going to be looking is gun clubs associated with Antifa and the hard left, like the John Brown Gun Club and Redneck Revolt."
There have been two men detained so far, but both were quickly released. Here's the latest suspect:
We are asking for the public's help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
— FBI Salt Lake City (@FBISaltLakeCity) September 11, 2025
1-800-CALL-FBI
Digital media tips: https://t.co/K7maX81TjJ pic.twitter.com/ALuVkTXuDc
So that's a little of what we know and a bit more of what we might know. Now we need to talk a little about Charlie Kirk.
I knew little about him until yesterday. His message was for America's youth, and I'm no longer young.
Is... sorry. Kirk's message is for America's youth. "The tyrant dies and his rule is over," Kierkegaard wrote, "the martyr dies and his rule begins." I had once thought, or at least hoped, that we'd evolved past the need for martyrs. Or maybe we did, but have since devolved. Whether we still need them or need them again, martyrdom is a terrible thing.
But back to Kirk.
Near as I could tell from my research, these are among Kirk's most inflammatory, fascist, genocidal, etc. statements:
- "Get married and have children."
- “Now, we must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty.”
- “Only in America could a President achieve the lowest ever black and Hispanic unemployment, have black business startups skyrocket 400%, see wages go up for black workers, advocate for prison reform, pardon wrongfully convicted people of color, and still be called a racist.”
- “Transgenderism and gender ‘fluidity’ are lies that hurt people and abuse kids.”
If today's report is true, it might be that last one that got him murdered.
"The first question being about transgender shooters right before the shot rang out is a difficult coincidence to ignore in light of the ammunition being marked with trans messaging," John Ekdahl posted Thursday.
But the point is that Kirk would go anywhere to say these things to any audience, and he said them without rancor. He also took his opponents' arguments seriously, and he listened.
That last one feels like it's become a rare skill. Or maybe it always was.
The 31-year-old married father of two was, as conservative legal scholar Randy Barnett put it, "the kind of conservative that progressives claim to like. Calm, rational, substantive, open to respectful engagement with the other side."
I can't help but think that's why Kirk was targeted.
Kira Davis — an old friend and as level-headed as they come — posted yesterday, "My friend just texted 'This is Archduke Ferdinand bad,' and I can’t stop thinking about it." When someone unknown to me replied, "It started WW1. I don’t think Charlie’s political assassination will start WWlll," I was floored by Kira's response.
If you don't know her, I'm sure you've at least seen Kira on Fox News. She's the friendly conservative mom, wife, and activist — the charmer, not the bomb-thrower. If Kira is a red-meat conservative — and she is — she's a perfectly seasoned steakhouse filet mignon... not ground chuck thrown to the hounds.
So when someone like Kira concludes that we're at war — and she's far from the only one — there's been a sea change.
My dear friend and colleague Stephen Kruiser wrote in today's Morning Briefing, "Yes, the assassination of Charlie Kirk has pushed people to places that they never wanted to be pushed to."
Indeed.
Here's what conservative civility bought us from Muslim-American writer Wajahat Ali:
I remember when right-wing Twitter set aside our disagreements and was actively praying for your daughter when she was ill.
— Fuzzy Chimp 🇺🇸🍌 (@fuzzychimpcom) September 11, 2025
Today, a different daughter lost her dad to political violence, but you can’t even find it in yourself to restrain your hatred for a moment. Despicable.
Ali's talent agency, Lavin, describes him as an "inclusion and humor speaker," and I just threw up in my mouth a little. Not because Lavin does its best to sell its talent, but because Ali is considered such.
I had something to say about that last night:
If one day just stopped elevating sociopaths to influential positions, the next day we'd wonder what happened to all the TV news, newspapers, and magazines.
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) September 10, 2025
Sorry about the missing "we" between "day" and "just," but yesterday was a rough one — and you don't go to X for polish, anyway.
Here's a thought I would never have countenanced before 9/9/2025.
First, see a few examples of what prompted my change of mind:
Make this evil bint famous. Make her radioactively unemployable https://t.co/w4V3m2YFLt
— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) September 11, 2025
Time to make this bitch famous. pic.twitter.com/oOzz6s7myI
— SgtEagle76™️ (@Trump716) September 10, 2025
BREAKING: Medical worker praises Charlie Kirk’s assassination, expresses how much she hates conservatives then says, “I’m glad he got shot, I hope he dies, I don’t care.”
— The Patriot Oasis™ (@ThePatriotOasis) September 11, 2025
Do your thing X. We need a name/employer pic.twitter.com/ymLoHl8uTx
Good Lord, a medical worker cheering on a political assassination. These people are toxic and need to be treated as such.
Before Kirk's murder, I would never have sanctioned making anyone "radioactively unemployable." I've known Physics Geek on social media for a very long time, and before yesterday, I don't believe he would have, either.
Another one of the Right's more temperate voices, The Federalist's Mark Hemingway, practically shouted today: "I am DONE."
"If you have ever excused or condoned violence or knowingly consorted with those who have," Mark continued, "and I don’t care one whit if you’re someone as lofty as Barack Obama, you need to be driven from polite society."
"Today is an inflection point," another old social media acquaintance wrote yesterday. "Choose a side."
Which is worse? The New York Times painting Kirk as a bomb-throwing radical in its obituary this morning, or the people openly celebrating his murder? I'm not certain, but I'm damn sure the former makes the latter possible. I've spent most of my professional life trying to drive a final stake in the heart of the Mainstream Media, and today I resolve to redouble my efforts.
Every society has norms. Ours used to be stolidly bourgeois, and around here they still are. We get our sense of fair play from the English, and our assertive cultural confidence from having tamed a wildness. We get those rules drilled into us on the playgrounds of our youth, or at least we're supposed to.
But you look around — particularly online — and you see a sizable cadre of leftists whose norms might be charitably described as "revolutionary."
As any student of history can tell you, that's a nice way of saying "murderous," folks.
Social shaming is a powerful tool for keeping our baser instincts in check. That's fine for small towns, close-knit organizations, and the like. But the social media age requires social-media shaming.
The Left uses it with ruthless efficiency. Without ever once succumbing to the temptations of violence, we must be equally ruthless. I don't like these rules, but the Left wrote them. And they'll kill to enforce them. Even if Kirk's murder turns out to be a false flag, just last year, both a nutter and a zealot made attempts on Donald Trump's life.
A Bernie bro shot up a GOP congressional softball team, and Steve Scalise had to learn to walk again. A lefty threatened to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh over a Supreme Court decision. Radicalized college students celebrated the rapes and murders of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023. I could go on, but as Hemingway noted today, "at no point has there been a responsible reconsideration of tactics and rhetoric among the media or Democrat officeholders; the left wants to regain power and will use the nearest weapon at hand — literally."
People with murder in their hearts can't be trusted to serve as our doctors or nurses, schoolteachers or professors, print journalists or TV talking heads. Polite society can no longer indulge those who refuse to be part of it.
Maybe what it all comes down to is that one thing: indulgence.
We've indulged the Left's economic fantasies, environmental totalitarianism, debasement of the culture, destruction of the family, and perhaps most dangerous of all, their elevation of mental illness into a human right.
When I say "we," I mean American society, not just us conservatives. But it will fall on us conservatives to do the heavy lifting.
I don't know how any of this will play out. I do know that their ways are done.
My nerves are raw and my soul is tired, but my gut says we're just getting started.
Last Thursday: ICBMs Are Obsolete — But Washington Didn’t Get the Memo
