By Daniel Moritz-Rabson
Copyright truthout
Conservative politicians and activists are calling for retribution against a wide range of perceived opponents in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing on September 10, sparking fears about a sweeping crackdown on free expression.
Even as law enforcement officials sought to determine the motive behind Kirk’s fatal shooting and the ideological alignment of his alleged killer, prominent right-wing figures quickly began using the outrage sparked by his death to blame the political left, vowing to enact a broad range of measures that could clamp down on civic society.
On September 15, Vice President J.D. Vance said he would “work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country” and swore to “go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates, and engages in violence.” Vance made the comments while hosting “The Charlie Kirk Show,” the daily podcast Kirk hosted before his killing. Although law enforcement officials have said they think Kirk’s shooter was acting alone, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who joined the podcast as a guest, also vowed to “uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks.”
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people,” Miller said. “It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”
The remarks have sparked fear among civil rights leaders, free speech advocates, and extremism monitors who have been tracking the response to Kirk’s assassination. In the days since the shooting, right-wing figures have variably declared that a “war” with the left is occurring, decried the nation’s polarization, and promoted the Turning Point USA founder as a venerable defender of free speech. Now, Vance and other political leaders are encouraging people to call the employers of those whom they consider to be “celebrating” Kirk’s death.
“It is 1952 in too much of America right now,” Ken Paulson, the director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, told Truthout, comparing the modern political moment to the widespread repression and persecution that swept the country during McCarthyism. “We have not seen anything like this since and I never thought we would see it today.”
The calls to crack down on speech deemed undesirable have emanated from a wide cross-section of government personnel. As employees across a range of federal agencies have been disciplined for social media comments about Kirk, multiple cabinet secretaries have sworn to punish those who mock or condone his killing. Federal legislators including Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Nancy Mace have called for professors and other university employees to be fired. Florida Rep. Randy Fine asked people to report individuals celebrating Kirk’s death, and that he would “demand their firing, defunding, and license revocation.”
“Those celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk must be thrown out of civil society,” Fine wrote on social media.
Similar dynamics are also unfolding at the state level. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said that teachers reported to his office by the public would be included in a state government dashboard used to document “objectionable” political ideology in the classroom. Iowa state lawmakers signed a letter supporting the firing of university employees who they claimed “publicly celebrated [Kirk’s] killing online.”
While these government-endorsed calls for sanctions have provoked quick backlash from free speech advocates, employers have even more swiftly doled out punishments. Many of those fired have mocked Kirk or said they have no remorse for his death. Others have been censured for critically describing the activist’s work and statements.
Last week, MSNBC fired political analyst Matthew Dowd hours after he said on air that “I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.” Karen Attiah, a former opinion columnist at The Washington Post, wrote in a Substack piece that she was fired by the paper after a series of posts condemning the country’s acceptance of political violence.
Her social media posts only directly referenced Kirk while referencing a time when, in speaking Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson and describing them as “affirmative-action picks,” Kirk said: “Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
Attiah’s Bluesky post shared an activist’s slight reworking of Kirk’s quote — “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.”
The termination letter from The Washington Post said Attiah’s Bluesky posts “about white men in response to the killing of Charlie Kirk do not comply with our policy.”
Fueled by the rhetoric of prominent politicians, social media platforms have turned into a staging ground for collecting names and orchestrating campaigns to call for firings. Conservative social media influencers have encouraged people to submit posts of coworkers or community members, and then have used their large platforms to amplify calls for punishment. Laura Loomer, for example, promoted a tip line to help get people who work for the federal government fired for “celebrating political violence.” Later, she posted: “So many people have been fired. I’m so proud of you guys.” An anonymous site called “Expose Charlie’s Murderers” shared the names, employment information, locations, and social media accounts of people it claimed were “supporting political violence” and said it had received tens of thousands of submissions. Though the site has since reportedly been taken down via a hack, WIRED reported that many of the posts included did not glorify or promote violence.
“They’re definitely trying to destroy people’s lives,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told Truthout. “This is like a crusade for them at this point.”
One thread on X purporting to document people who have faced consequences due to comments about Charlie Kirk now includes at least 100 people. The crackdown has touched a wide array of sectors. The Carolina Panthers fired a communications worker. An employee of the Nashville Fire Department was placed on paid administrative leave for a social media post. Three major U.S. airlines said they suspended employees for posts about Kirk’s death.
In the rush to expose those who aren’t mourning Kirk appropriately, the online army has made some notable errors. User Mag reported 30-year-old IT technician Ali Nasrati was flummoxed when he began receiving a slew of threatening messages telling him to “get the fuck out of America.” A series of right-wing accounts had begun circulating the man’s personal information, claiming he’d been running an X account that cheered Kirk’s death. Back in May, someone had set up an account using photos from Nasrati’s real LinkedIn and Instagram accounts and has been impersonating him. By the time Nasrati figured out what was going on, his phone number and personal address had already spread widely and his job had suspended him.
Educators at all levels have been heavily swept up in the backlash. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that at least 11 faculty members at colleges and universities have been disciplined since Kirk’s shooting. The rapid doling out of punishment led PEN America to warn that “colleges and universities risk undermining free inquiry and academic freedom if they treat all online expression as grounds for termination.”
On many campuses, that chilling effect has already been playing out for years.
In the days since Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University, conservatives — as well as some liberals — have effusively paid tribute to him by praising his dedication to free and open debate and willingness to speak with those he vehemently disagreed with. This depiction of a charismatic champion of civil discussion has contradicted the experiences of the university professors who have been targeted by Kirk’s organization.
In 2016, Kirk’s Turning Point USA launched the Professor Watchlist. Soliciting tips from the public, the project proclaims to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” Much like the social campaign unfolding now, educators whose names appeared on the list were subjected to threats. Many feared for their safety.
“I’ve seen faculty put on the professor blacklist and then have to get security to escort them around campus,” Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, told Truthout.
While Kirk’s watchlist helped foment an environment of fear among educators, so have Trump’s attacks on academic freedom and aggressive efforts to force universities to reshape their curricula. Widespread firings and censorship for pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses further instilled a chilling effect. The backlash to faculty who protested Israel’s conduct “was a testing ground for ‘Can you shut up the speech of students and faculty?’ And now we’re seeing that there could be a much broader attack on our speech,” Wolfson said. Those fears are even more amplified in the current moment, as conservative leaders from the president down encourage retribution.
“This terrain that has been created — where faculty are constantly a target of the right and a target in a way that’s getting escalated and escalated and escalated — scares the death out of my faculty,” Wolfson said. “They are worried about a paper they wrote five years ago. They’re worried about walking to campus.”
The impact of the widespread clampdown at universities and beyond will reverberate across the country, Beirich warned. “It’s going to suppress free speech, political activity, and make people terrified to speak their mind.”
