Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
America is currently sick.
The young conservative organizer and media personality Charlie Kirk was just murdered in a political assassination by a 22-year-old ‘anti-fascist’ and trans advocate, Tyler Robinson. As planned, he eliminated the most astute and successful political activist in a generation. Indeed, Kirk may well have ensured that Donald Trump won the 2024 election by not just increasing his youth vote by 6 percent since 2020 but, more importantly, by margins in the swing states of 15-24 percent, ensuring Trump’s victory.
No sooner was he killed than thousands on left-wing social media erupted in celebration—among them scores of teachers and professors. Their venom was eerily reminiscent of their earlier canonization of left-wing murderer Luigi Mangione. Recall, Mangione was the spoiled nepo baby who lethally ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thereby, he became an icon to the Left as a social justice warrior fighting the evil capitalist system, which had so enriched himself and his own family.
Such utter moral bankruptcy was on display as well by the social media praise of Palestinian activist Elias Rodriguez (“Free Palestine”), after he brutally murdered a young Jewish couple at the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. Rodriguez supposedly showed the world how to deal with Zionists—reifying the hateful rhetoric that pervades the modern campus.
Was that ghoulishness confined to such anonymous left-wing nuts and fringe trolls?
Not really.
MSNBC’s guest “analyst,” Matthew Dowd, casually raised an asinine suggestion that the lethal shot came from a Kirk supporter firing off a round. And then, in Pavlovian fashion, he blamed the assassination of Kirk—on Kirk himself—for being an unapologetic “divisive” activist.
Dowd, who was subsequently fired by an embarrassed MSNBC president, only took his cue from anchorwoman, the untouchable Katy Tur, who first editorialized Kirk as a “divisive” figure. By her logic, would that mean that, say, a Bernie Sanders or Zohran Mamdani would also be divisive? What does Joe Biden, by Tur’s logic, deserve after labeling half the country as “semi-fascists” or reducing them to “garbage,” “chumps,” and “dregs”—or boasting he’d like to take Trump behind the gym and beat him up?
Does Tur mean that anyone deemed “divisive” then should naturally expect what befell Charlie Kirk?
Yet, in truth, Charlie Kirk was an upbeat, happy warrior not unlike William F. Buckley in his youth, willing to politely debate political opponents without anger and bias.
The multimillionaire socialist Rep. Ilhan Omar, who once claimed that the Trump “dictatorship” was worse than what she had fled from in her native Somalia, claimed the slain Kirk mourners were “full of sh-t” in a long, incoherent rant. Such creepy examples could be easily multiplied, such as the accustomed lunacy of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She now claimed that those who block gun control legislation could not blame others for inciting the violence: i.e., Charlie Kirk should have expected to reap what he sowed.
A dense AOC seems clueless that not even her fellow leftists seriously advocate confiscating bolt-action .30-06 hunting rifles of the sort that the assassin used to kill Kirk. Perhaps it might be wiser not to try to hunt down and round up 500 million guns in America, but rather to enforce existing unenforced gun laws that prohibit felons, the mentally ill, and domestic terrorists (“anti-fascists”) from possessing them.
Just prior to the murder of Charlie Kirk, a video had been issued of a 23-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, Iryna Zarutska, brutally murdered on public transit in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her throat was slashed by one Decarlos Brown, an African-American, 14-time felon, recently and prematurely released from custody.
The horror followed the now familiar left-wing script. The left-wing mayor, Vi Lyles, immediately tried to stop the release of the transit video, lest it cause anyone or anything to be blamed. Then she followed with the usual DEI boilerplate that excuses evil: do not judge the homeless, arresting people solves nothing, and the murder was merely “tragic,” as if there is no culpability, just bad luck or fate.
As expected, most of the media suffocated the murder story. After all, it upset the dominant racial narrative that must remain unquestioned. We have been told for decades that systemically racist Americans prey on victimized blacks, and thus, Ibram X. Kendi-style antiracism—de facto stigmatizing and demonizing whites—is needed to stop racism.
The left knows that black males, age 15-40, commit well over 50 percent of the most violent crimes in America, while comprising about 3 percent of the population. They know it and privately navigate accordingly, but few speak of it, and none seem to have answers to it. So the topic remains taboo.
Any “tragedy” that highlights that fact—such as the murder of Ms. Zarutska or the recent brutal strangling of Auburn retired professor Julie Schnuelle by a young black man with a felony record who was released back into the public—must be suppressed. So too we rarely hear of the recent murder of the elderly Queens couple by the alleged career felon and released criminal Jamel McGriff. He robbed them, he tied them up, he murdered them, and then he torched their home. And on and on the crime continues, the narrative continues, and we dare not say a word.
In our post-Daniel Penny world, three young black people, sitting just feet away from Zarutska, witnessed Decarlos Brown slit her throat—and did nothing. Perhaps they were afraid, we were told. Perhaps, we were advised, no first aid could have staunched such horrific wounds. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…
Nonetheless, when Zarutska was staring out at eternity in her death throes, bewildered that someone or something had just ended her life, none of the three lifted a finger to help her—or even console her in her final moments. Instead, the killer, blood dripping from his person, calmly walked off the train unmolested. And even then, in his absence, there was no effort of any of the nearby witnesses to tend to the dying Zarutska. Instead, they sidestepped her and left her behind on the train as she lay gasping her last breaths.
The killer, Decarlos Brown? He can be heard on the video mumbling twice, “I got that white girl.” Yet we were told either that the video was doctored, or too unclear, or irrelevant. If accurate, it demolished the media elite’s insistence that Decarlos Brown had not a racial thought in his mind.
Instead, we were to listen to media analyst Van Jones pontificate that the late Charlie Kirk should have been ashamed for connecting Decarlos Brown to racist hatred. Perhaps Van Jones should reconsider. He should review the entire narrative of how Zarutska found herself a target of a killer. Brown was a 14-time felon. He was out on cashless bail. The magistrate Teresa Stokes, who freed him, had no law degree. Such a “judge” had never taken, much less passed, a bar exam.
She owned an out-of-state alternative treatment center and was involved in another local one. In a prior sane world, magistrates had law degrees. They had been certified as competent by the bar exams. They followed conflict-of-interest protocols that prohibited them from even indirectly profiting from their judicial decisions.
But again, that narrative too is passé, given the power of diversity, equity, and inclusion to exempt norms and protocols for the supposed greater collective good.
From where does all this hatred, violence, and moral vacuity arise? Why did the shooter inscribe his bullets with “anti-fascist” messaging, cruel taunts, and trans jargon?
Is the hatred caused by the media, who talk about toxic “whiteness” nonstop? Is it the collateral damage from the racial obsessions of a Jasmine Crockett, Joy Reid, and septuagenarian Al Sharpton, now ending his racialist career where he started it?
Or is the promulgator the Democratic Party and the Left, out of power, impotent, and angry that their superior intelligence and morality are not properly appreciated by 51 percent of the people? Who put a photoshopped Trump on a New Republic cover as Hitler?
If a General Milley (“now I realize he’s a total fascist”) or a General Kelly (“certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure”) calls a current or ex-president a fascist, and presidential candidate Kamala Harris agrees (“a president…who admires dictators and is a fascist”), then does an unhinged 22-year-old “anti-fascist” college student feel the popular culture might approve of his own efforts in dealing with “fascist” Trump supporters?
Milley, Kelly, Harris, and the rest can call anyone a fascist but without ever defining the term. Did Trump suspend immigration law to let in 12 million illegals? Did he invite into the DOJ or White House the prosecutors Nathan Wade, Jack Smith, and the revolving door Michael Colangelo to coordinate lawfare against an ex-president?
Is Trump ignoring the improper usurpation of executive power by left-wing lower-court judges or instead appealing their decisions through lawful channels?
Did he hire a foreign national to undermine his presidential rival with a fake dossier?
Did he round up “51 former intelligence officials” to lie to the American people to warp the election?
Did he pardon his entire criminally minded family and then cover it up by in absentia outsourcing to his aides the pardoning of hundreds of criminals through an autopen? So please define fascism before smearing a president and lowering the bar of the acceptable.
What is the point of the past violent braggadocio of Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, posing with a baseball bat, or huffing that he will take the “fight” against the Trump agenda “to the streets?” Was he merely following on the earlier example of Rep. Maxine Waters, who urged supporters to whip up a crowd and physically confront Trump officials in stores and restaurants?
Why are congresswomen kickboxing and punching the screen as they video their seriousness to assault Trump?
What does now-campaigning California Governor Gavin Newsom mean when he promises, “It’s not about whether we play hardball anymore—it’s about how we play hardball. We are going to fight back, and we’re going to punch this bully in the mouth.” What would a potential third assassin think of that promise?
If the governor of the largest state in the union wants to bloody the face of the President of the United States or physically attack his opponents (“We’re gonna punch these sons of b‑‑‑‑es in the mouth”), then might lesser underlings and sympathizers try to outdo that?
Or, finally, is the culprit for the madness found ultimately in the elite university? Who, after all, mainstreamed the idea of racial re-segregation in dorms and graduation ceremonies and taught America that racial essentialism is part of the new tribal America?
Who ignored court rulings and civil rights legislation in their arrogance to recalibrate admissions by race? Who taught the anti-Jewish assassin Elias Rodriguez his hatred of Israel and his pro-Hamas zealotry, and who influenced Luigi Mangione, an honors graduate, to despise “capitalist” CEOs?
Where did the practice of identifying one’s pronouns at the end of memos start, or demanding that biological males could compete in women’s sports, and demonizing anyone who objected that there were still two, not three, biological sexes?
Where did the critical race theory and critical legal theory that empowered Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police, Cashless Bail, and all the laws that assured the public that thefts less than $950 were not really thefts?
From where did the new anti-Semitism come, and so strangely after the slaughter of October 7—if not from the campus?
Where else in America were young Jews fleeing to a library with the mob pounding on the windows? Where else are Jews roughed up by a thug who is subsequently given an award by their university? Where did demonstrations arise on behalf of those who murdered 1,200 on October 7?
Why, in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk, are so many teachers, professors, and college-graduate bureaucrats so eager to gloat over and cheer his death? Who taught them that?
Are universities critical to America’s prosperity and security now only in terms of the sciences, math, engineering, and medical schools?
As for the humanities? They scarcely exist at the elite universities as we once knew them. Either de facto or literally, they have been overwhelmed and distorted by endless studies-courses, DEI radicalism, 90 percent leftist faculties, and suppression of free thought and free expression.
Where did the envisioning of violent crime as the fault of a flawed society, the institutionalization of modern racialism, chauvinism, and essentialism, and the empowerment of militant transgenderism that in so many insidious ways has filtered throughout society—if not originally birthed in the university—come from?
Those sins of commission are force-multiplied by those of omission. Hundreds of thousands of students emerge from campuses not just indoctrinated with contempt for the Western tradition and American exceptionalism, and not just often thousands of dollars in debt from inflated tuition, but also poorly educated by the standards that once defined education.
The working classes and high school graduates, supposedly the losers of our society, are not those who are dividing the country. They are not often advocating violence or trying to use any means necessary to overturn the established order. But so often the products of the modern university are doing just that.
Sadly, in all these recent horrors, the ideology behind them—the premise that either birthed or appeased them—was birthed in modern higher education.
Why implicitly assume that those spouting inflammatory rhetoric are not doing so for the precise purpose of instigating a fatal attack on the President? These people are not oblivious. They are vicious.
Hey, Amos, the coroner said the bullet never exited the body. In addition, there would be ballistic evidence matching the rifle with the caliber of bullet retrieved from the body.
That boy didn’t shoot kirk. He is just getting/taking the blame. Kirk was shot from his right not front on. All that blood was exit wound. Also wasn’t hit wth an /06. His head would have become unattached from his shoulders. Who knows who put out the hit or pulled the trigger. All i know is this and our government is helping them get away with it.
I want to make sure that American’s understand that Charlie Kirk wasn’t assassinated. That’s a political term. He was martyred as a follower of Jesus Christ. Charlie’s Turning Point USA was more of a religious org than political. He was an evangelist for Christ, and politics were just the vehicle he used to get young minds re-focused on the Lord and NOT on the cultural communism that was introduced by Comrade Obama.
VDH
Best yet. Amazing Read. Scary times ahead , all because of HATE (TDS ).
Includes the Media who are a war with Our President because he blatantly called them out in public
Rallies. Which started in 2015 while running for President. “FAKE news”.
So sad
The left couldn’t have planned this any better. From the time of the Clinton Administration, when we were all told that everyone now must attend college because the competition for jobs was global… So all sorts of people unprepared for college went, not up to the task and taking on ungodly amounts of debt to do so. They couldn’t do the work, so insisted on new courses they could pass. They wanted professors who “looked like them.” PhD’s who knew nothing about history or Western Civilization, because doctorates were easier to earn in indigenous queerism. And since the money from them was sustaining the institutions, the institutions changed for them. And charged more and more from the federal government to do so. And when everyone was taught to be a social justice warrior, they all graduated to become social justice warriors because it was the only thing they knew how to do.
Professor Hanson,
Thank you for another precise and articulate article as to the state of our nation.
I have never hurt, let alone killed anyone in my life. Never. Yet I would consider it an honor to be on the much hoped for firing squad that will send Tyler to the hell he so richly deserves. And soon.
Hi,
in 1968 I recieved an MS from Stanford. At that time the University had already started to go WOKE. I did not concur, but felt helpless to make any change in the University’s direction. As Dr. Hansen seems to be saying, there might be an opening to change the University’s direction; I hope so.
Long live the spirit of Charlie Kirk !!!
B**2
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I was not familiar with Charlie and his organization. I found out from my two kids (in their late 20’s) the scope of his influence on their lives. There is no doubt in my mind that due to all the constant denigrating and heinous rhetoric spewed by the left wing lemmings both in government and the MSM evil will rear its ugly head through acts of violence. We have already witnessed it many times over. I’ve stated it before, when the principles of right v wrong, good v evil are fleeting in our society (and the world) the future looks grim. What really irks me is why none of these individuals are ever held accountable and allowed to continue their hateful acts both in words and actions?
‘Must I shoot a simple minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting, and there working upon his feelings till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptible government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy.’ A. Lincoln, 1863. My opinion is, shoot the ‘agitators’.
VDH,
Sciences, Math, Engineering, and Medical schools have been corrupted.
Tucker Carlson did many interviews when he was at Fox News during his ONE Hour special shows with many members of elite universities on this subject.
Everyone one said that STEM had been corrupt, including Oxford University, the so-called top of the ivory tower.
If the left, and their minions are spoiling for a fight, and I believe they are, then you need to be mindful of where you are at every moment when out in public. If your state has a carry law (mine does, thankfully) then consider getting a permit (I have one, and I carry) to protect yourself and those around you.
As we have seen in example after example the left’s minions have heard the words of their masters and decided to strike out, sometimes blindly, like the Ukrainian girl was attacked. Some times targeted, like Charlie Kirk. This violence must stop, and it will stop, but only after many examples have been made. This is the time to make examples.
Kirk’s killer possibly faces a Utah firing squad for his crime. I think that will be poetic justice if it plays out that way. And the sooner this example is dispatched the sooner the minions of the left will realize that their crimes will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
As for the political left? I think they’ve painted themselves tightly into a corner from which there appears to be no easy escape. Will they continue with their bold rhetoric? I think they’re desperate enough to keep on talking crap.
Sen. Schumer should have been investigating for threatening a sitting Supreme Court Justice. There are many more examples of left wing politicians saying similar things. Could a case be made to label the democrat party a terrorist organization?
We shall see.
The current madness was certainly raised and cultivated in the University, however it had its origins before creation and was birthed at the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. Opposition to God’s order in creation i.e. the reality of gender differences between men and women, the sanctity of life, and morality in all the earth, has been with us throughout history of the world. As of late, there has been an increase in public opposition to God’s precepts because the church and the godly value system has been apathetic and asleep. Only the Lord knows if an awakening is coming. But assuredly, the rejection of God will not ultimately stand, whether in this decade or centuries in the future. The battle is a spiritual struggle, and we must choose wisely for ourselves to be on the right side.
Charlie Kirk advocated for 2A right to own guns, not the right to misuse them. Human nature being what it is, he simply admitted misuse was inevitable. Examples abound of items of utility that can be misused with deadly consequences. As mentioned by another poster autos. What about the Leftist promotion of various drugs? The Left is surely tolerant of collateral deaths from an open border policy, yet they feel shameless. As for those who think his position on 2A and death by gunshot is amusing, would they think a pro-abortion woman’s miscarriage or child’s death equally something to ridicule? As a compassionate human being beyond my politics I would not.
At 5:31 AM John Humphries correctly observed that American college professors spew Marxist communist philosophy with no consequences. Somebody with power needs to come up with consequences for those folks when they do that.
What is the significance of the date of October 7? not just the murders of Hamas. I heard recently of another event on October 7 but cannot recall any details. I sure would like another reference for this
this date. It seemed to be an event that Hamas would of course celebrate.
I was born in 1943, and my father was in the US Navy. We were stationed in San Diego. I well remember watching the many ships anchored in the bay at the end of WWII. A scene from the film “The Longest Day” was a rerun for me. Your programs are spot on for me!
C. Edward,
It would be interesting to see what Brent Molnar thinks of all civil liberties, and not just the Second Amendment. If he believes the inalienable right to defend oneself is predicated on how many innocent people are murdered by criminals then shouldn’t he advocate for the abolition of automobiles which kill over 40k people on American roads every year? I think this is what Charlie Kirk meant when discussing the issue of gun violence, ie. we can’t abolish our 2A right just because somebody else has abused theirs.
Interesting, I tried to make an earlier post that stated conversation would not convince the radical left to change their rhetoric. It would take something stronger than that, I was not allowed to make that comment. If there’s anyone on the planet that knows something about the history of war it’s VDH. Wars are not won by talking, they are won by force. Be interesting to see if this post survives.
Thank you for your continuing voice of reason and clarity.
I’m an old man who has watched this crap develop over the years. None of the people fostering the terrible rhetoric that got us to this point will change their behavior because of conversation such as VDH’s or anyone else. Conservatives need to quit bringing a knife to a gun fight if they want to change the behavior of the left.
Brian Garrett is correct. We need to return to basics. As well, there are times when you have to act 180 degrees from current trend to bring attention to a problem or issue, as did Charlie Kirk. We can’t legislate morality, but Victor summaries many of those issues in his commentary.
P.S. For years, I have waited for someone to publicly point out that 3 percent of the population commits the majority of violent crime in this country, i.e., murder, rape & armed-robbery. People are afraid to speak out for fear of recrimination.
Dr Hanson,
Would you please speak to this recent op-ed by Brent Molnar who portrays, lambasts Charlie Kirk in such vitriolic, insensitive tones. Word forays that remind me of William F Buckley but the antithesis of
of what would have been Buckley’s stand on this issue.
The Price of Hate: “Charlie Kirk’s Death and the Ideology That Killed Him”
Just because he was killed does not make Charlie Kirk a saint. Death does not erase the damage he caused while alive. The canonization happening on the right today is not about honoring his life. It is about rewriting his legacy. A man who built a career punching down, vilifying minorities, and amplifying hate cannot be scrubbed clean by martyrdom. We must resist the urge to let his violent end absolve his violent words.
Kirk famously preached that some amount of death was “worth it” to preserve gun rights. He told audiences that zero gun deaths was not only unrealistic, but unnecessary. “I think it’s worth it,” he said, as if the corpses piling up were acceptable collateral damage. That ideology is not freedom. It is fatalism. It is an open permission slip to kill, wrapped in the Second Amendment.
The goal should always be zero. Will we ever get there? Maybe not. But our attitude must be to strive for it, to push relentlessly toward fewer deaths, fewer tragedies, fewer families shattered. If you start from the premise that death is inevitable and justified, then every bullet fired, every child killed, every mother buried becomes p
Very well put Mr. VDH. The communist infiltration of the institutions and the government has been going on in earnest since the end of WWII and probably WWI, they are a patient group. It’s been eye opening to see the transformation in just the last twenty years.
Barry Saetoro.
The answer to all of your questions.
Thank you VDH for discussing the elephant in the room that everyone ignores. The breakdown of the nuclear family, most evident in African-American families, has been a major component in this wave of crime by young males, primarily African-American. Our current Vice President also discusses this breakdown in white families in his book Hillbilly Elegy. Somehow, someway we need to get back to the values we used to hold dear in America – faith, family, and individual rights. The Constitution, over 250 years old, wrote eloquently of this and then captured in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We as a nation and the world at large needs to once again get back to these values.
Victor, anyone who is celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder should be asked to consider why they are saying so. My bet is that most of them have not heard any of Charlie’s campus debates or his speeches….
John Humphries: an excellent comment and suggestion. Thank you.
John Humphries gives us our new, best mantra…”Now is a good time for a Turning point in our society!”
VDH, we cannot ignore the fact that Charlie Kirk appeared to be effectively eroding this influence. This logically leads to the potential targeting of Charlie that hopefully investigations may disclose? We also can not ignore that unless Turning Point successfully navigates beyond this and continues to visit campuses with same interest from students the erosion of this leftist indoctrination will advance.
Tyler Robinson snuffed out a young American’s bright future, tore apart his parents’ lives, doomed himself, and spurred teachers to an appalling celebration in the aftermath of a school shooting. That is some serious Kool-Aid.
I used to think that a person’s biggest failure was their failure to learn from your their mistakes and the mistakes of others. But the failures of our learning institutions from kindergarten up have exalted failure into a form of perverted success. The overweening attitude of America’s young people has morphed to this: If I cannot be a success, then I will become an infamous ‘bad example’. But they eventually learn too late that “the flame of fame is tenuous and cored with a tinge of blue”.
The question of where the madness comes from is answered simply.
Yes. To all of the above. There isn’t one enemy, they are innumerable. Freedom has allowed them to cover everywhere. The lack of real education is harboring and propagating that madness. The cult that is passed as a religion has for millennia been waging conquest after conquest.
So the answer is, yes. All of the above.
Where do we find the desperately needed teachers and professors with their heads on straight? We can talk all we want about an alternate academia, but it needs staff. The Trump administration can decree all sorts if good things in education, but it can’t rely solely on coercion to make them happen.
As Thomas Sowell said, “It is a tragedy that we have raised a generation that can tell the difference between 85 genders but not the difference between right and wrong.”
Thank you VDH for speaking the truth about these things. Charlie Kirk was murdered for his Christian beliefs. Ms. Zarutska was murdered for being white race. American college professors hide in their ivory tower spewing Marxist Communist philosophy with no consequences. Now is a good time for a Turning point in our society.
4 legs good. 2 legs bad. All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal than others.
See, it’s simple once you use the correct filters
Why do universities/colleges push “4 year” degrees? Students could finish their degree program in much less time and cost. Professors teach maybe 2-3 classes a week. Tenured professors can’t be terminated. Write/edit books that are required $$$ for their classes. I think, besides the money, it’s the time for more indoctrination.