Charlie Kirk’s murder: Nothing to celebrate, much to fear
JVL Introduction
The killing of Charlie Kirk already seems further proof that America’s violent mania is colliding head-on with our political culture’s dehumanizing tribalism. This toxic combination threatens to badly corrode democratic norms and extinguish any hope of left-wing progress.”
So say Ben Burgis & Meagan Day writing in the left-wing American publication Jacobin. Burgis has himself debated with Kirk in the past and witnessed his politics – always extremely conservative – trending further right towards “uglier forms of nationalism and xenophobia.”
The danger now is that, whatever the motivations of the shooter turn out to be, Kirk’s murder could turn into Trump’s Reichstag fire moment. Leading figures on the American left must now be in serious danger, especially those like Zohran Mamdani, AoC and Bernie Sanders who make a point of going out into communities, building personal connections that enable them to popularise their progressive world view.
This article was originally published by Jacobin on Thu 11 Sep 2025. Read the original here.
Charlie Kirk’s Murder Is a Tragedy and a Disaster
The assassination of Charlie Kirk threatens to embolden the far right and provide Donald Trump with a pretext for crushing dissent. Escalating political violence corrodes democratic norms and poses a unique threat to the Left.
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The immediate deification of Charlie Kirk and the politicisation of his death by the US Right echoes the reaction to the murder of Horst Wessel by the Nazis. It is already being described across the media landscape of the Right as both a martyrdom and a call to arms
A page out of the CIA playbook? Create a scenario and use its consequences as a pretext for repression?
Are we ignoring the FACT he recently said the US media hasn’t been truthful about Israel. In the interview I saw he appeared to be criticising the Genocide & the whitewash. As a very influential Youth Influencer surely this would give Zionists a massive headache & suggests a Zionist Assassination especially as it was so professionally done.
Socialists, in particular Marxists like myself, have always rejected the tactic of individual terror against our class enemies.
Not because we are opposed to violence per se, as suggested in Jacobin, but because it is counterproductive.
We think socialism can be won only as the collective and conscious act of the working class; the substitution of individual acts tends to immobilise the masses, as well as supplying the right with the pretext for authoritarian repression
I agree there is nothing to celebrate, the Righteous right wing extremists are already in full firing mode in the onslaught on the left. However given his stance on the gun issue in the states I did wonder if he had time to re think what he said about the risks being worth it as his life ebbed away.
Some very interesting points raised here. Zionists can’t afford any more Tucker Carlson’s.
Sometimes it looks very simple. The life of one fascist is worth more than several thousand of the untermenshen.
As far as I’m concerned, as of now, anyone who even appears to be using this formula is a fascist, despite the inevitable layers of makeup. They have changed – they just crave sophistication.
We need to coldly remind them that they are fortunate the rest of us don’t share their view of humanity.
Never heard of him!