Conservatives have pushed for people who made social media posts celebrating the killing of Republican activist Charlie Kirk to be fired from their jobs, sparking debate about whether they are now embracing the “cancel culture” they once rebuked.
Why It Matters
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot during a speech at Utah Valley University on September 10 during his “American Comeback Tour.” A suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, is in custody. Kirk was a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and played a key role in organizing young Republican voters. Many of his supporters responded to his death with messages of grief, but his critics were either indifferent or celebratory.
Conservatives have urged that businesses fire individuals who made celebratory posts over his death, fueling questions about free speech and cancel culture.
What To Know
A Reuters report on Saturday said that at least 15 people have been fired or suspended from their jobs due to their posts about Kirk amid a wave of conservative outrage to the response from some Kirk critics.
Steve Bannon wrote in a statement to Newsweek, “Fire Them All, and Fire Them Now.” Matt Wallace, an influencer with more than 2 million followers on X, wrote on the social media platform last week that his team has gotten dozens of people fired over their reactions.
A website called the Charlie Kirk Data Foundation asks people to submit names of people who have celebrated the shooting. The group wrote to X that it has nearly 50,000 identities and that it’s not meant for “doxxing”—only to “lawfully collect publicly-available data to analyze the prominence of support for political violence in the interest of public education.”
Those who have been fired include political consultant Matthew Dowd, who was let go from MSNBC, and a teacher in Oregon who wrote that the assassination “really brightened up my day.”
The firings have set off a cancel culture debate.
Journalist Don Lemon accused the right of “hypocrisy” during a recent episode of The Don Lemon Show.
“We live in an America of cancel culture, and it is the cancel culture on the right now that is leading the charge,” he said. “The hypocrisy on the right about free speech, it’s off the charts. Think about it—if you actually believe in what Charlie Kirk said he believed in—didn’t quite practice all the time—is free speech, then why are you out to cancel people who are using their First Amendment right to free speech to tell you how they feel about Charlie Kirk by using his own words?”
Progressive commentator Krystal Ball raised similar concerns in a post to X.
“The policing of everyone’s thoughts and emotions around Charlie Kirk’s death is wild. Cancel culture on steroids backed by the full force of the governments,” she wrote.
Republicans, however, have pushed back on the idea that getting people fired for their Kirk posts constitutes cancel culture.
“It’s not ‘cancel culture’ for someone to lose his job for celebrating a political assassination. It’s a just and necessary consequence if we want to maintain freedom of speech and our constitutional order,” wrote Representative Brandon Gill, a Texas Republican, to X.
Adam Goldstein, vice president of strategic initiatives at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told Newsweek that anyone calling for wholesale firing is participating in cancel culture.
Whether or not these firings violate individuals’ free speech may vary based on specific circumstances, according to Goldstein.
“Some of those firings will violate their rights, and some will be lawful but bad for the culture of free speech, and a handful might even be both lawful and culturally justifiable. But the scale of this makes it all but inevitable that some individuals’ rights will be violated, and speech will be chilled,” he said.
He warned that even if somebody is comfortable with the current canceling, “continuing this cycle is going to mean we see this the next time, and the next time, and the next time.”
“At some point, we stop being a free society,” he said.
Lee Rowland, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, told Newsweek efforts for people to be fired over their posts are a “literal illustration of cancel culture.”
“This is someone who participated in very divisive political rhetoric. The idea that other people engaging in divisive political rhetoric is somehow honoring Charlie Kirk’s memory has quite the whiff of irony to it,” she said. “This was someone who was a crusader against cancel culture, and now people are being canceled in his honor.”
Neither party has a “moral high ground” on cancel culture, she said, warning that these tests of purity and decorum will at some point “come for all of us.”
Although many conservatives have railed against cancel culture, critics have said they have engaged in it in the past, such as when many boycotted companies like Bud Light or Target for their support of LGBTQ+ rights.
Everyone, regardless of their political leanings, has reason to be concerned, according to Rowland.
“When there is a creeping authoritarianism, not just that penalizes people for sharing political opinions but that actively turns others into snitches against their fellow citizens is deeply toxic,” she said. “It is a race to the bottom, and we are all poorer for it.”
Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator, wrote in a post to X that there is a “big difference” between the right and the left canceling people.
“The left cancels you for saying things that are true. To the extent that the right cancels you, it is for saying things that are abhorrent and sick. A pretty important distinction,” he wrote.
Another conservative commentator, Blaire White, wrote to X that it is “hard to care about the right engaging in cancel culture when the left has moved on to assassination culture.”
Can People Be Fired for Charlie Kirk Posts? Legal Experts Weigh In
David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, told Newsweek that the First Amendment applies only to the government, so companies likely have the legal ability to make these personnel decisions as they please. Some companies may have collective bargaining agreements, but the First Amendment does not apply to private employers.
“Whether those firings are unlawful really depends on the state that they’re in and what state employment laws say,” he said, adding that private companies are also conscious of how the market will react to moves that appear political.
Public employees such as teachers do have some protections because the First Amendment applies to the government, which in their cases would be their employer, he said. But those protections still aren’t unlimited.
Whether or not social media posts are protected depends on other factors. If a teacher makes a social media post on an account that does not purport to speak for the school, they likely have more leeway. But if the user has perhaps a logo of their school in their profile, they may face more scrutiny for those posts.
Rowland said those cases also depend on whether their speech outside of work becomes disruptive to the workplace. There are “hundreds if not thousands of cases” that have sought to determine which sort of speech crosses that line, she added.
What People Are Saying
Conservative commentator Mike Cernovich wrote to X: “When we were losing our jobs for not kneeling for George Floyd, cancel culture was not big deal. Now suddenly – gasp! – can you believe it, people are losing jobs for celebrating murder.”
Rogan O’Handley, another conservative commentator, wrote to X: “It’s not ‘cancel culture’ for people to be fired after celebrating the gruesome murder of an unarmed, innocent man It’s enforcing a basic standard of morality and human decency Murdering innocent people is wrong If you don’t agree with that, you will be reap the consequences from the 90% of Americans who do.”
Journalist Michael Tracey wrote to X: “What an absurd, destructive website. Declaring random people “murderers” because they posted intemperate or dumb political speech about the killing of a major public figure — and then trying to get them fired from their low-level jobs. Right-wing ‘cancel culture’ in full swing”
What Happens Next
Charges against Robinson are expected to be filed this week.