The Mourning of Charlie Kirk Reveals a Nation Lost in Illusion

By Tony Pentimalli

The outpouring of grief over Charlie Kirk’s assassination has revealed as much about America as it has about Kirk himself. Supporters insist he was not hateful, only firm in his beliefs. They point to viral “Change My Mind” clips as evidence of civility, as if a staged spectacle of confrontation were proof of respect. They confuse composure with compassion, and mistake rehearsed debate tactics for genuine discourse. This is not accidental. It is the architecture of myth.

That myth is already being carved in stone. Social media has circulated images placing Kirk alongside Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and even Jesus Christ, beneath the words “All Because of Words.” This is not mourning. It is propaganda. It equates Kirk’s career of racial dog whistles and conspiracy theories with the sacrifice of leaders who fought for equality, liberation, and national unity. It turns cruelty into courage, bigotry into martyrdom, and propaganda into gospel. Grief for his family and the trauma suffered by his wife and children is human and necessary. But grief is not the same as myth. Myth is what happens when mourning is converted into political capital, when pain is harnessed to sanctify lies. That is what is happening now.

Kirk’s record is plain. He called Martin Luther King Jr. “awful,” condemned the Civil Rights Act as a “huge mistake,” dismissed empathy as “a made up New Age term,” and described George Floyd as a “scumbag.” He argued that the deaths of schoolchildren were a “prudent deal” to preserve gun rights. He smeared Jewish donors as funding anti-white causes, defended Elon Musk’s embrace of the Great Replacement theory, and cited scripture to justify killing gay men. He said that Black women lacked the mental capacity to succeed on their own, and he declared that abortion was worse than the Holocaust. These were not slips of the tongue. They were applause lines, repeated because his audience wanted to hear them.

And that is the heart of the matter. Kirk did not rise in spite of his cruelty. He rose because of it. Millions of Americans resonated with his message because it gave them license to sneer at empathy, to diminish minorities, to treat contempt as strength. Many delighted in watching him humiliate unprepared college students, mistaking his orchestrated ambushes for wit and courage. They were not tricked. They were not misled. They embraced Kirk because he reflected back their own resentments, and in doing so made them feel righteous. The illusion of Kirk as martyr is not just the invention of the Right’s leadership. It is the culmination of a culture that mistook grievance for identity and cruelty for truth.

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*Tony Pentimalli is a political analyst and commentator fighting for democracy, economic justice, and social equity. Follow him for sharp analysis and hard-hitting critiques on Facebook and BlueSky
@tonywriteshere.bsky.social