The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk

7 min read CHRIS HEDGES 0 comments

Martyrs are used by messianic movements to sanctify violence. Showing mercy or understanding toward the enemy betrays the martyr and the cause he died defending.

CHRIS HEDGES

The murder of Charlie Kirk heralds a deadly new phase in the disintegration of a divided and highly polarized United States. While toxic rhetoric and threats are launched across cultural divides like hand grenades, sometimes erupting into actual violence—including the assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the two assassination attempts on Donald Trump—Kirk's killing is a harbinger of larger-scale societal disintegration.

His assassination has given the movement he represented—based on Christian nationalism—a martyr. Martyrs are the soul of violent movements. Any hesitation about the use of violence, any talk of compassion or understanding, any effort at mediation or dialogue, is a betrayal of the martyr and the cause he died defending.

Martyrs sacralize violence. They are used to disrupt the moral order. Depravity becomes morality. Atrocities become heroism. Crime becomes justice. Hatred becomes virtue. Greed and nepotism become civic virtues. Murder becomes good. War is the ultimate aesthetic. This is what's coming.

"We have to have a steely resolve," conservative political strategist Steve Bannon said on his "War Room" show, adding, "Charlie Kirk is a victim of war. We are at war in this country. We are."

"If they don't leave us alone, then our choice is fight or die," Elon Musk wrote on X.

“The entire right needs to unite. Enough of this infighting. We are facing demonic forces straight from hell,” wrote commentator and author Matt Walsh in X. “Leave aside the personal bickering. Now is not the time. This is existential. A fight for our very existence and the existence of our country.”

Republican Congressman Clay Higgins wrote that he will use “the authority of Congress and all of his influence with Big Tech to demand an immediate, lifetime ban on all posts or comments that disparage the murder of Charlie Kirk…” He further stated, “I will also be targeting their business licenses and permits, their businesses will be aggressively blacklisted, they must be expelled from all schools, and their driver’s licenses must be revoked. Basically, I will cancel these evil, sick animals who celebrated the murder of Charlie Kirk with extreme prejudice.”

Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale used Kirk's death to advocate for the overthrow of the "red-green alliance" of "communists and Islamists" who, he claims, have united to destroy Western civilization. He proposes an app where citizens can upload photos of crimes and homeless people in exchange for "property tax discounts."

Far-right comedian Sam Hyde, who has nearly half a million followers on X, wrote in response to Trump’s announcement of Kirk’s death that it was “time to do your fucking job and take power… if you want to be anything more than a footnote in the “Collapse of America” section of future history books, it’s now or never.” In his tweet, he tagged members of the administration and private military contractors.

Conservative actor James Woods warned, "Dear leftists: We can have a conversation or a civil war. One more shot from your side and you won't have that option again." His tweet was retweeted by nearly 20 people, received 000 million views, and more than 4,9 likes.

These are just a few examples of the avalanche of virulent sentiments shared and applauded by tens of millions of Americans.

The dispossession of the working class—30 million people laid off due to deindustrialization—has generated rage, despair, rootlessness, alienation, and fostered magical thinking. It has fueled conspiracy theories, a thirst for revenge, and the celebration of violence as a purgative for social and cultural decay.

Christian fascists, like Kirk and Trump, have cleverly taken advantage of this desperation. They've fanned the flames. Kirk's assassination will ignite them.

Dissidents, artists, homosexuals, intellectuals, the poor, the vulnerable, people of color, the undocumented, or those who do not mindlessly repeat the discourse of a perverted Christian nationalism will be condemned as human contaminants who must be extirpated from the body politic. They will become, as in all sick societies, sacrificial victims in the vain attempt to achieve moral renewal and recover lost glory and prosperity.

The cannibalization of society, a futile attempt to recreate a mythical America, will accelerate disintegration. The poisoning of violence—many of those who reacted to Kirk's assassination seemed intoxicated by the impending massacre—will feed on itself like a firestorm.

The martyr is vital to the crusade, in this case to rid the United States of those Trump calls the "radical left."

Martyrs are commemorated in ceremonies and memorial services to remind followers of the justice of the cause and the perfidy of those blamed for the martyr's death. This is what Trump did when he called Kirk a "martyr for truth and freedom" in a video message on September 10, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday. Therefore, Kirk's coffin will be flown to Phoenix, Arizona, on Air Force Two.

Kirk was a paradigmatic example of our emerging Christian fascism. He championed the Great Replacement theory, which asserts that liberals or "globalists" allow immigrants of color into the country to replace whites, distorting migration trends and turning them into a conspiracy. He was an Islamophobe, tweeting that "Islam is the sword the left is using to slit America's throat" and that it is "not compatible with Western civilization."

When child YouTuber Rachel said, "Jesus says to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves," Kirk countered that "Satan has quoted Scripture many times," and added, "By the way, Rachel, you might want to open your Bible to a less referenced part of the same section of Scripture, Leviticus 18, where it says if you sleep with another man you shall be stoned to death."

He demanded the repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and disparaged civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King. He was contemptuous of Black people: "If I have to deal with someone in customer service who's an idiot Black woman... is she there because of affirmative action?" He said that "marauding Black people" prey on white people "for fun." He blamed Black Lives Matter for "destroying the fabric of our society."

Kirk insisted that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. He founded Professor Watchlist and School Board Watchlist to purge professors and teachers with what he called "radical leftist" agendas. He advocated for televised public executions, which he argued should be required viewing for children.

The idea that he defended freedom of expression and liberty is absurd. He was an enemy of both.

Kirk, who was an enthusiastic fan of the Trump cult, embodied the hypermasculinity at the heart of fascist movements. Perhaps this was his main appeal to young people, especially white men. He claimed there was "a war on men," fetishized guns, and sold Trump to his followers as a real man.

“There are many things you can say about Donald Trump,” she wrote. “No one has ever called him feminine. Trump is a giant middle finger to all the shouters who attacked young people for simply existing. He’s a giant “fuck you” to the feminist establishment, which was never challenged before he came down the golden escalator. Most of the media didn’t notice this. Young people did.”

History has shown what will come next. It will not be pretty. Kirk, elevated to martyrdom, gives those who seek to extinguish our democracy the license to kill, just as Kirk was murdered. It removes the few restrictions that still exist to protect us from state abuse and vigilante violence. Kirk's name and face will be used to accelerate the path to tyranny, which is what he would have intended.