'The Free Market Is Handling It Just Fine': How Left and Right Responded to Charlie Kirk's Murder
On the latest episode of Free Media, Amber Duke and I discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk, cancel culture, and political violence.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk is reorienting the policies of the conservative movement, with major Trump administration leaders such as Vice President J.D. Vance and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller vowing to launch a vast crackdown on left-wing groups that they say are implicitly responsible for inspiring political violence. Some members of the conservative movement are also conducting a campaign of mass cancellation against people who have justified the murder of Kirk on social media.
In the latest episode of Free Media, I discussed with Amber Duke the responses to Kirk's shocking death from conservatives, the Trump administration, and the mainstream media—as well as our own personal reactions. For her part, Duke was understandably dismayed by the sheer number of people she saw on social media who seemed to approve of Kirk's demise.
"It's very disheartening, because I obviously shared a lot of Charlie's views, as did many people in the conservative movement," says Duke. "To know so many average people would celebrate our death if that happened to us is quite terrifying."
Duke said that while she didn't think people should be canceled for merely criticizing Kirk, people who evince support for his assassination are in a separate category; this is materially different from the kinds of cancellations spearheaded by woke progressives, she says.
While I agreed that I've seen far too many pro-murder takes from random and obscure people, I noted that the response from major figures, including people who clearly did not agree with Kirk, was overwhelmingly to condemn the violence as appalling. I also questioned whether it was fair to blame the infrastructure of the left—activist groups, wealthy liberal donors, academia—for the actions of a lone figure who does not seem particularly connected to any broader movement.
"It was online radicalism, not brainwashed by a professor, or brainwashed by George Soros," I say. "There's a kind of, maybe conspiratorial thinking is too unfair, but it's, 'They're out to get you…the billionaires are out to get you.' That sounds itself like leftist thinking. This person was radicalized by his peer group online, probably."
Duke and I definitely agreed, however, on the foolishness of Attorney General Pam Bondi's response to the tragedy, which was to vow to take legal action against so-called hate speech.
"She just used the left's favorite turn of phrase to criminalize free speech," says Duke. "We don't need the DOJ to arrest people for not celebrating Charlie Kirk. The free market is handling it just fine."
Watch the full episode here, and subscribe to both the ReasonTV and Free Media YouTube channels.
