Blatant falsehoods about the Charlie Kirk shooting
Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons
Charlie Kirk was a right wing political commentator who spoke on current events, including the 2024 election, abortion, and transgenderism. Because he spoke his mind on many controversial subjects, he gathered enemies from various stances on the spectrum of politics. Let me clarify this: Charlie Kirk was as milquetoast a conservative as one can possibly be; he was not an extremist as many seem to believe. Many try to use this perceived extremism to justify his death with falsehood, and, in doing so, create the permission structure for more political violence to occur. In order to aid the prevention of more political violence, I feel a duty to disprove some of the smears on Charlie Kirk.
One of the smears used on a recently dead man (often a telltale sign of moral bankruptcy) is that Tyler Robinson was associated with the Groypers. The Groypers are a far-right racist and extremist group headed by key figures such as Nick Fuentes. The only way someone could even remotely come to this conclusion is if their social media exists inside an echo chamber. This lie was propagated and started by anonymous X accounts. It should go without saying that these anonymous X accounts lack facts to back up any of their claims. As stated by the Economic Times, “[I]t is important to note that these claims are from unverified social media accounts and there is no official statement from authorities about Robinson's political leanings or his motives.” This is also confirmed by the multitude of other news sources who propagate this lie but refuse to list a source.
This also connects to another misconception: That Tyler Robinson was Republican. This is either a blatant disregard of the facts or a lack of understanding of basic logic. Tyler Robinson hated Charlie Kirk because he “spreads too much hate,” according to ABC News. If you look at the vernacular of the two political parties, there is only one side who commonly deems the other side of spreading hate. Speaking of vernacular, there is only one side who labels the other a fascist. Written on the bullets were the words “Hey fascist! Catch!” according to the BBC. So yes, if we are completely void of reason and the ability to make logical connections based on evidence, Charlie Kirk’s shooter was a Republican.
The last and final point that I would like to clear up is on Charlie Kirk’s quote: “I think it’s worth having a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” This was taken from a 2023 TPUSA Event in Salt Lake City regarding gun violence. If you cherry-pick a quote out of context, it is almost always going to sound bad, but let’s add some more context. The broader point Kirk was making was that you can never limit gun violence to zero. This is true; even outside this context, evil has always existed in the world. Another quote not even seconds later that seems to get left out is “We should have an honest and clear reductionist view of gun violence, but we shouldn’t have a utopian one.” This is an example of the point he was making. Evil is always going to be pervasive so you should not take someone's ability to fight evil for a utopian and unrealistic perspective.
These are commonly either misinterpreted or malicious lies that are propagated about a man whose life was recently taken. This man spoke his mind and was viciously gunned down by an assailant. To those who propagate these lies maliciously about a father who will never get to see his children again: I pray for you and may God help your souls.