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[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
During the first few years after 9/11, I commemorated the anniversaries of that terrible day by re-watching news reports about the attacks and their aftermath. On a half dozen or so of these anniversaries, I published pieces in which I reflected on the meaning of 9/11 five, ten, or however many years later. Never did I think that I might spend the 24th anniversary of 9/11 watching podcasts about the assassination, the day before, of a young man who was all of seven years old when Al-Qaeda struck the Twin Towers and Pentagon but who had since become a major figure on the American political scene.
After 9/11, we were told that Al-Qaeda had attacked America because it hated our freedoms. That wasn’t the entire truth – in reality, the attacks were acts of jihad, inspired by the key Islamic tenet that it’s incumbent upon true believers to fight the infidels and bring their lands into the Islamic fold. But, yes, part of what made America an infidel land was its devotion to free speech – a concept that is anathema to Islam, which regards any deviation from orthodox Muslim belief as intolerable heresy.
The killer of Charlie Kirk, and the countless people around the world who cheered his murder, share that Islamic contempt for the free exchange of ideas. At the time of 9/11, most Americans on both sides of the aisle would have said that they supported free expression. But during the years that followed, a dark change took place. The poisonous far-left attitudes that had been fed to college students for years broke out into the society at large. Like the Al-Qaeda terrorists, many people on the left became prisoners of a hardened, hate-driven, undemocratic ideology that compelled them to prize raw power over anything else. Democratic Party rhetoric about Republicans became more extreme, with the labels “Hitler” and “Nazi” being thrown around more liberally than ever. Americans whose opinions would have been considered centrist and commonsensical only a few years earlier were now ruthlessly demonized. As a result, many of us who dissent from leftist orthodoxy found ourselves cut off by friends and relatives who 20 years ago didn’t have a political thought in their heads but who had now been convinced by the media that our views were abhorrent.
Increasingly, reasonable conservative opinions were excluded from the mainstream news media. Major publishing houses ceased putting out books that didn’t toe the leftist line. Cancel culture thrived. And it was worst of all at our institutions of higher education. Professors who dared to challenge leftist orthodoxy, if only in the most modest and respectful manner, were savaged by their students and punished by pusillanimous administrators. Irreverent stand-up comics who had once been hugely popular on the campus circuit walked away from it because leftist students now viewed them as fascist. Conservative speakers who had once been welcomed at universities were prevented from speaking by angry student mobs who blocked the doors to auditoriums and disrupted their speeches with loud, inane chants.
It was into this swamp that Charlie Kirk dared to wade. If America’s response to 9/11 – the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – proved disastrous, squandering blood and treasure in the naive expectation that semi-literate devotees of a savage religion would welcome Jeffersonian democracy, Charlie’s efforts turned out to be a smashing success. He greeted left-wing students with respect and courtesy, even if, in many cases, they were all but foaming at the mouth with hatred for him, having been informed that he was “divisive,” “controversial,” “polarizing,” a white supremacist, a misogynist, an instrument of evil. The wrong kind of speech, they had been instructed, was violence – and could justify actual violence.
Not a few of those students, however, ended up being disarmed by Charlie’s kindness and persuaded by his arguments. Then there were those students – who could be found even on the most far-left campuses – who didn’t buy into the campus orthodoxy, but who, before Charlie came along, didn’t dare to speak their minds. Charlie brought them out in droves. They discovered they weren’t alone in their dissent. Inspired by his courage, they began to challenge the orthodoxy.
And this was what made Charlie so dangerous to the left. He took his crusade to the campuses – Ground Zero for American leftism – and broke the left’s ideological hold on those places. During the Trump-Biden-Trump era, as the left disgraced itself repeatedly by spreading hoaxes, imposing lockdowns, calling January 6 an insurrection, and trying to destroy Trump by any means necessary, Charlie hung in there, arguing in a calm and steady voice for the founding values that had once united almost all Americans. Desperate for power but having no real arguments in its quiver, the left resorted increasingly to jihadist-style violence, supporting Antifa and BLM, encouraging unstable young people around the country to wreak havoc over the death of a Minneapolis thug, and telling prosperous white Baby Boomers, most of them probably former hippies who still got their news exclusively from network TV, CNN, and MSNBC, that Trump – who was in fact rescuing democracy from the tyrannical left – was a threat to democracy.
They opted for violence – for arson and vandalism and beatings and even murder – because, like the Al-Qaeda terrorists of 9/11, they had no other means of carrying out a successful conquest. They had no way of making an effective case for their ridiculous causes. In a debate with somebody like Charlie Kirk, they didn’t stand a chance. They stood, essentially, for a totalitarian ideology that had ravaged the Western world during the twentieth century. They embodied absurd contradictions, as illustrated by such groups as “Queers for Palestine.” They professed to be fiercely anti-gun, but again and again they resorted to using guns because they were intellectually impotent.
No wonder that Trump was the target of not one but two would-be assassins in the lead-up to the 2024 election. No wonder that, thanks in part to the fact that the left had simply gone too far in its relentless lying, its love of violence, and its support for transgender ideology, open borders, and other cockeyed causes – and thanks in part to a handful of people like Charlie who managed to swing the vote decisively by telling the simple truth to various demographic constituencies – Trump won that election in a landslide. No wonder that on the eve of the 24th anniversary of 9/11, one of the young people who had been brainwashed by the left’s malevolent post-9/11 propaganda has now felled Charlie Kirk. And no wonder that countless others around the planet – all of them equally brainwashed, drenched with hate, yet as convinced as any bloodthirsty jihadist that they stand for all things bright and beautiful – have cheered Charlie’s death, because in their view the greatest threat to their twisted faith is the idea of honest debate, of questioning one’s most fiercely held beliefs, of holding your own creed up to the light of truth.
No, the murder of Charlie Kirk wasn’t another 9/11. It was one murder, not three thousand. Charlie’s murderer didn’t take down two 1300-foot towers. But he took down a truly towering figure – a pillar of liberty, a man who in his fundamental decency, openness, and tolerance was emblematic of America at its best. In its own way, that one perfect shot to that golden throat, and the horrifying shower of blood that followed, was as shocking as the collapse of the World Trade Center. And like 9/11, his murder is a defining historical event – an atrocity, committed by the enemies of freedom in the name of a rigidly totalitarian dogma, whose long-term impact we can only begin to imagine.
Some of those Muck Suckers who were dancing in Kirks Blood and now Out of their Jobs and they can go sell Pencils on 5th Avenue
Your article expresses my frustration and sadness perfectly. Thank you
Even I was stunned by the sheer volume of these idiots shouting their joy so loudly & publicity (some eager for much more deaths.)
Before Veritas brought ACORN to their knees, ACORN was used to zero consequences for their voter-fraud operations. They had no reservations what-so-ever about registering the names of the entire Dallas Cowboys to vote in Arizona.
Same with these cosseted low-lifes. They felt no need for self control, or self censor.
Under Bush, this was tolerated (Matthew Dowd worked for Bush in 2004)
Under B. Hussein & Sleepy, there was zero interest in social media unless one was Tea Party or MAGA. (San Bernadino shooters announced their intentions long before acting.)
During Trump’s 1st term, the rancid bitch Maxine Waters riled up mobs to attack conservatives. Mobs surrounded homes & restaurants. MAGA routinely had drinks thrown at ’em (including Tomi Lauren and her mom.) and had caps snatched away.
Now these low-lifes are getting what we’ve gotten for decades. The big difference is that we were “canceled” for simply existing.
(Example: Rodeo clown named Gessling was barred from ALL rodeos for wearing an Obama mask. He had also worn Reagan & Bush masks – seen for the comedy it was. But, Lord Obama wasn’t to be mocked!)
ACORN was not brought to its knees. It abandoned the name, re-branded, and then continued both at home and internationally.
Re-branding was cheap and easy.
That’s true, but it still was forced to restructure.
(I’d even wager the new organization is getting our tax money as before.)
People that can’t help themselves celebrate a murder on social media, or in full view of a camera that will be uploaded to social media are doing the country a favor. Now we know who they are. Hopefully, a database of these misfits is being gathered at appropriate law enforcement agencies.
A powerful and great essay, Bruce — thank you.
Magnificent tribute, Bruce. Thank you for writing it.
Dear Mr. Perazzo: You took the words right off my keyboard.
Thank you, Bruce Bawer, for an article both melodically beautiful in
its tribute to Charlie Kirk while packing a wallop in helping to under-
stand what his young life meant.
A little over four months ago on X – on 4/29/25 – Charlie Kirk wrote
a tribute to his friend and mentor David Horowitz of the Freedom Center
in which he said TPUSA would not have existed without David. All the
times David and those at FPM have courageously faced the thugs on
American campuses greatly influenced Charlie Kirk’s life.
Ordinary Americans too have suffered from thug American leaders and
officials. People such as J6ers – parents speaking up at school boards
against sexualizing their children – those speaking out against men in
women’s sports – Americans speaking out about anything and facing
an actual shutdown of free speech on Twitter and Facebook when the
Dems were in power.
Actual thug takeover of America is real if the Dem Left gets back in
power. Charlie knew that – could see what they were doing to America’s
young – and paid for it with his life. Patriots must now pick up the flag
and carry on the fight. May American fury be channeled into strategy
and fright be channeled into staying safe. May God bless America and
his good and faithful servant, Charlie Kirk.
Erika Kirk’s statement about “This wife, this widow’s” voice becoming a nationwide and even worldwide battle cry was the most badass thing anyone has said on TV in a long, long time
And invariably, this widow’s Protestant faith will slam into the Saintly veneration and idolatry that is already spreading like wildfire across the globe. She’ll be in a catch-22 of do I dare be seen praying to her lost husband and live in fear of being labeled an idolater or be more of a Calvinist and declare Charlie’s horrific public execution as God’s will. And that could stymie her “mission” to carry on this fight. Loyalty oaths and Kirk theological alignment will foster even more schism. (not to mention Fox News has turned into the 700 Club with better hairdos).
Opinion… Ipso facto, a new debate over Catholic vs Protestant will explode onto the scene. Maybe even debates on Spurgeon, Calvin and Edwards vs. the DEI deity known as the Pope.
Making it worse is millions of people learning their theology and apologetics via a downloadable app… one that not only can include morphing text based on likes and preferences, but store and record virtual confessions of one’s inner most secrets that will be admissible in a court of law.
Brave new world or a divinely inspired “man-forged manacles” as Mr Hitchens used to quip.
Just watch… It’ll be the campus battle of the Saint Che Guevara vs. Saint Charlie posters and t-shirt contest… and anyone entering the quad will be required to endure an ideological struggle session in order to enter.
And of course the Marxist/Leftist/Progressive atheists will praise China, Russia, Iran et al for stoking the discord in America in any way they can. Anything to tear America apart. And Mandami will play both sides.
While some of your commentary is to the point, hopes of ginning up another phase of internecine struggle between Protestants and Catholics seems counterproductive. It might be best for the two big factions to come together on what they agree on, It is painfully obvious that all of remaining Christianity has the same 2 mortal foes Islamists and Marxists, and they share those foes with the world’s Jewish population.
Are you advocating a Papal encyclical?
One of the most important points this article makes is that Kirk and others like him expressed views that were totally mainstream a generation or two ago and probably are still those of a large minority if not the majority of Americans. That these views could be called extreme is a terrifying example of the power of propaganda.
I see that the Baltimore Ravens had a Moment of Silence for Kirk Nascar and the Yankies also did their part
It seems that the left have learned from the muslims on how to kill people – Doesn’t the book of their mates the muslims tell them to ‘strike them in the neck’?
Is it a coincidence that three widely reported and recent incidents of murder and attempted murder involved ‘blows’ to the neck. President Trump would have been the third if he hadn’t moved his head at the last moment.
A lesson we all need to learn in public places and on public transport, be aware of your surroundings and who is close-by. Be defensive in your behaviour, everyone is a potential murderer these days, it doesn’t require a huge knife.
i am posting this video of a radical left winger saying Kirk is the problem and he is racist , someone has to comment on these stupid pages and set the record straight. hopefully some of us can comment on their page so others can get the truth https://www.facebook.com/reel/764656392862660/?s=single_unit&__cft__[0]=AZU0LYYuPEV1MUZzdqwH8NcWqpNU3o2nUWOnZWkCVmCOk42r7qZHeNHhSKAfv5VkxFwu5n9OWPnZv6sW625f4Q207RkSCyeIX7ql_9kzom0swWGpmGl4b5aseaELbNhqMrG630YbALlfm7Gupf4s8OImNGp-v6M_XBlp4jHJatcp8sEXzSpgM3z21bLHgJNuyys&__tn__=H-R