Since his public assassination on Sept. 10, Charlie Kirk has been inescapable. Headlines often hail him a martyr to the Republican cause. Videos have been circulating of his widow seeking consolation from prominent conservative politicians, such as President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Even on campus, I’ve read opinion pieces praising Kirk’s legacy and passed flags hung up with the words, “We stand with Charlie.”
To many of us, however, Kirk is not a martyr. He was just one of many conservative figures who spent their lives spewing a divisive and hateful message. As tragic as his death was, it does not make his actions or ideologies immune from criticism.
Kirk established Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing educational organization, in 2012. TPUSA’s primary goal is to promote “the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government,” as per its official website. Geared toward students, the organization currently has over 900 chapters active on high school, college and university campuses across the U.S., including Miami University. TPUSA hosts a number of events, the most notable of which were political debates where Kirk himself engaged with college students.
These debates concerned hot-topic political issues, such as abortion, higher education and LGBTQ+ rights. Kirk would take the right-wing stance on each issue, debating students who represented the left. While in theory, debates are designed to be fair, engaging events — ideological conflict is, after all, an important part of a healthy democracy — these videos would often be intentionally manipulated to defame the students participating.
According to a New York Times analysis of his debate strategies, Kirk often employed techniques used to provoke emotional reactions and cited statistics with no credible basis, such as the idea that cesarean sections are safer than abortions, or that 80% of African-Americans do not have a “stable father.” Afterward, these clips would be edited to include only the opponents’ weakest arguments and packaged with titles about “destroying liberals.”
Kirk was never concerned with fostering healthy dialogue; he intentionally framed these debates to defame an opposing political party.
Aside from the debates, smaller chapters of TPUSA will often host general body meetings and speaker events aimed at promoting right-wing values. Miami’s own chapter recently hosted internet personality Shane Winnings to deliver a lecture on campus. If you were to look through Winnings’ Instagram account, you’d find it populated with nothing but inflammatory content.
One of his most recent posts includes a video of himself verbally degrading women for posting bikini pictures on social media, labelling them “Jezebels.” Another includes an image of Muslims lined up in prayer with the caption “MUSLIMS in CHRISTIAN Countries,” with an underlying image of prisoners lined up at gunpoint by masked figures claiming this to be the experience of “CHRISTIANS in Muslim-Countries.” You do not have to be Muslim to know that this is an offensive — and blatantly untrue — generalization of the Middle East.
Are these really the views we want to uphold on campus? What does TPUSA honestly hope to gain by spreading such false information targeting vulnerable minority groups?
Free speech is one of the founding principles of our country. All people should be able to express their political beliefs, regardless of whether or not we agree with them.
While Kirk demeaned minority groups under the guise of “free speech,” these same constitutional protections allow us to criticize TPUSA and what it stands for.
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Karma Abboud is a sophomore studying international studies and professional writing, as well as Spanish and Arabic. She is an opinion writer for The Miami Student, a mentor in the English Language Program and president of Miami’s Arab Student Association.
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