Who Was Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk was a political operative integral to Trump's fervorous support amongst white evangelicals and young white men. If he was not their favorite political influencer, whoever is their influencer of choice is likely walking the algorithmic path that Charlie Kirk paved. Kirk was the co-founder of Turning Point USA and its properties, as well as its core star in its programming. He was killed by targeted gunfire during an on campus event at Utah Valley University. Kirk was there speaking and livestreaming his popular political content. His content is a kind of “prove me wrong” debate where he regularly debates with mostly underclassmen at various colleges and universities in support of positions that range from typical conservative positions to those that have gained traction on the American far-right. In terms of the right-wing mediasphere, Charlie Kirk's role was to normalize far-right positions on social issues to make far-right economic ideas not only palatable but become the necessary next step for "taking their country back". 

In coverage of Kirk's untimely death, we see a pattern in the corporate establishment media and politics, that favors form over function. Kirk's debate content, organizational savviness, and power wielded over America's youth are being admired. His status as a martyr for the boss' politics is almost complete. There are even calls for statues to be made as candlelight vigils pop up in various communities across the country. As a variety of reactions to Kirk’s death and legacy are currently on display across social media, what the labor movement can learn from the organizing powerhouse that is Turning Points USA and Kirk is clear, people want a message to act on. 

The Fringe Normalizer 

Kirk was a bridge between the anger of wealthy Republicans and a new generation of right wingers who have explicitly married their understandings of Christianity, capitalism, and what America should look in the context of race and opportunity for white people, especially white men. Donald Trump successfully utilized this bridge between the conservatism of the post-Obama era and the ideas of internet fascists for 2 national electoral victories and 3 Republican nominations. Kirk was a big part of adding an appearance of respectability to the groundswell of far-right ideas from a significant portion of America’s youth. Kirk's basis for work was seeking to disrupt and provide an aggressive alternative to what he saw as educators and professors poisoning the minds of a generation with “liberal ideas”, which was a pejorative statement from him, and understandings of the world regarding things ranging from policing,  racial equality, the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic, the history and effects of economic systems, the role of women in society, corporate power, government oversight, and free speech. 

Many young men in this country have a view of this world that is haphazardly held together by the rhetorical tape Kirk and others like him have offered. Their view of the world goes something like this: the people with real power in this world are out to get them. These mega-corporations, academics, and governments the world over are trying to take from them what is rightfully theirs. Backlash against diversity is necessary. For these men, belief in the “Great Replacement” is real, even if they do not explicitly call it that. These ideas are a dangerous set of conspiracy theories that entail believing women, jewish people, liberals, feminists, socialists, and other groups associated with “the left” are weaponizing all sorts of social media trends, and business practices to take from the white man what is owed to them, a prosperous future. The  “The Great Replacement” or “White Genocide” theory is an essential component of the far right’s worldview that sometimes is communicated about as “demographic change” in more polite circles. Race is a factor here and is an ever present characteristic in the far right’s radicalization of young men, even some of those that aren’t white. 

Charlie Kirk's most notable quotes and contributions to the normalization of far-right politics do not solely focus on race, sex, and social issues. These tie into an economic argument for a type of capitalism that not only seeks to punish labor and leftist movements, but directly and explicitly subjugate people based on race, religion, and sex for the digital age. Kirk and crew have successfully convinced millions of men, a worrying amount, that there is no way to unify with people that seem different from you for a better future. Something has to give; some group will win in Kirk and the far-right’s worldview. Either the divinely ordained capitalist men, who are usually white, or the radical left which is made up of everyone else who does not agree that the aforementioned capitalist men are those that should lead us all will “win”. 

This gap in an actionable and motivating worldview for young men is the result of failures of American capitalism to address the real problems of stagnant wages, inflated costs of things like homes and education, and the race to the bottom for the working class we find ourselves in. The federal government, major corporations, civic organizations, religious movements, and even labor unions have all in some capacity failed here. Some of the aforementioned more intentionally than others. Radicalization or apathy is what it feels like as the likely outcomes for people feeling increasingly shut out from any semblance of effective advocacy. The right knows this, organizations from the unabashedly fascist to the aesthetically tamer, but necessary for spiral inducing like Kirk’s Turning Points USA have realized this as well. People want a future they recognize the abundance of the past in, the right redirects them from discussion of a base issue here, the actual economic factors that make you worse off today than past generations. 

What This Means for the Labor Movement 

The weak point in this radicalization and anti-labor pathway that many young men find themselves on is how class is understood.. It's no surprise that among poor and working-class white people, Donald Trump and his surrogates like Kirk are revered.  They successfully employ language that creates us vs them politics that requires action done by the right wing to stop the loss of what they believe they’re owed. In fact, Kirk at various times has used language that sounds a lot like the labor movement’s. Instead of a nuanced discussion and understanding of responsibility, Kirk used this language that acknowledges how people are exploited to blame different races, genders, nationalities, etc. instead of a class system. Kirk named the wrong culprit and thus, protected the boss by demonizing the migrant. I bring up class here, because the far-right approximates some understanding of class that feels right to a lot of people. 

Everyone understands the idea that the powerful can use and abuse systems to protect themselves while the vulnerable are at the mercy of the system of those elites. Kirk and others just used "class" without naming it or referring to it as anything economic, for them, race, sex, gender, sexuality, and religion are the defining characteristics that predict treatment in society. Depending on which group you are a member of, they are okay with better and worse treatment for you. The right argues that the elites that are in charge of our world are systematically seeking to harm and displace capitalist, christian men. Usually, this has a racial connotation as white, but not all the young men who buy into this are white. Most are, but not all. This is a point where race and class clearly intersect, and some complications arise for a sustainable far right. 

The path to revitalizing the labor movement amongst young people, notably men, is not immediately and directly going after their ideas of race. That tactic is not going to be as effective as focusing on the bread and butter: class. 

The labor movement must quickly update and communicate its message to showcase how class is the crux of the issue for many young men about how they are treated. The message is they are going to be worse off than their parents because of how the capitalist class that dominates our politics and economy has sucked up every bit of wealth and power it can.  The leeching off the heart of workers will continue, unless workers stop it. Your money is not keeping up with a reasonable standard of living because the capitalists want you desperate and cheap. It is not the fault of other desperate people from other parts of the world, it’s the fact that the elites and the system they perpetuate want you all to compete for basic dignity that makes you angry. People just don’t assign blame there. 

We as a nation have enough prosperity and growth to go around. Many people work incredibly hard to just get by, so if you or your father are passed up for promotions or jobs, it's not the fault of some unknown South Asian man, or the Black woman. It's the fault of the boss' system that requires you to compete for the opportunity of decent living when all of you could have it if you just worked together. Young men, especially white men, are fed a lot of messages to make them angry. An element of that anger is reasonable. That is where the labor movement can and should jump in. We know why your job sucks, we have the only sustainable, practically achievable, and daily accessible way to make change in your life, and it doesn’t involve hate crimes.

Thinking about this issue for workers globally,  larger international trends in various nations to the far-right, race and what racists are going to be willing to do to achieve their goals is going to be a consistent concern for the labor movement. However, I argue that having a more “diverse” fascist movement is going to inevitably lead to infighting as the far-right’s worldview requires there to be exploiters and the exploiters based on characteristics like race. Racism is such an old and effective way for dividing and conquering, that I argue dealing with understandings of class is going to be the first piece to the puzzle of getting a nationally robust labor movement real effective messaging. 

You're not going to make initial headway with the young and right-wing accustomed white men by initially focusing on anything related to race and sex. That will go right over their head. You'd be surprised how closed off millions of people are. Especially when for years they have been primed to view discussions of race, sex, and gender as ploys to take things from them. While they may act polite, that belies their understanding of the world on a fundamental ethical and political level. The class discussion is something they will be more open and comfortable with because to them it seems more quantifiable and dynamic. It's a reality that is impossible for the people living in it to ignore. Some people have money, some don’t. Some people make decisions, others follow orders. This is a relationship of power they all experience and desire to have a place away from poverty and exploitation. 

Groceries cost more, good jobs are hard to come by and even harder to get an interview for, and home ownership to the extent your parents or grandparents had it is a pipedream. This trend has continued under Trump, Biden, and many prior presidents. Kirk and crew know this. They know how the stage is set; their job is to introduce new characters to be villainized. 

The narrative becomes, it's not the major fossil fuel companies' or republicans' fault for a hurricane that wrecks your small town in the south, it's the democrats and their elite backers who want to wipe out "real America" any chance they get. Unless the fossil fuel industry was bankrolling the democrats, then that company is a traitor. It does not matter if the state government which has been run by republicans for decades decided on infrastructure changes that resulted in the wreckage being so widespread, then it's the federal government's fault. Unless a proper right wing is in charge, then it's the bureaucrat's fault. The villains are on rotation, but a consistent thread is that it is someone's fault this stuff happens. 

The labor movement rather than a rotating cast of villains has the opportunity to take over the play and redirect the audience's focus. Rather than blame a person, the labor movement has the opportunity to provide a more comprehensive story for these young men that points out a critique of a system. Everyone understands there can be people who behave badly, but the labor movement’s messaging around class as the enabler for harm makes it so a worldview, rather than a witchhunt, is provided.  This is the playbook of the boss, it doesn't matter as much who the quarterback is, we have decades of experience in what plays they run. Class is how we teach people one of their most powerful ways of fighting back. 

These people are continuously experiencing difficulties they were not prepared for.  Name it by showing how it's not a matter of creed, but an essential function of the boss' way to keep you desperate and your labor cheap. The far right has already explained the fact that there is a fight going on for the soul of America. It has made sure the working class is fighting amongst itself. The way to effectively fight back based on decades of data is to organize your workplace in a union. You can't topple Amazon tomorrow, but your local warehouse can be organized. That’s practically better, especially because we have no alternative at present for the thousands employed by Amazon to make ends meet right now. There will be a fight, but it's not a guaranteed loss because they need you and your kind of people: workers, more than you need them. What Kirk's legacy, and the messaging vacuum it leaves should teach the labor movement is that young men want figures. They want someone or something to follow that offers not only an understanding of the world, but acknowledges their feelings. They feel overlooked and in some way like victims who have to do something about the harm done to them. 

Young people are justifiably upset about their economic stability; they are being unfairly disadvantaged.However, before a new, more explicit and destructive voice fills their timelines as robustly as Kirk and his crew were, the labor movement needs to redirect that anger to a concise and actionable class critique. As we find out more about the motives of Kirk’s alleged killer and his supposed ties to various strands of internet political communities, labor needs to be consistent. The biggest and most commonplace kind of political violence is that of the elites against the working class. The capitalists are only ramping up their capabilities when it comes to their utilization of new surveillance and military technologies like we see from Elon Musk’s ilk of technology owning fascists. Since people feel their vulnerability, labor needs to be a safe place to explore that and build up strength for them. This is the most encompassing and effective way for indoctrinated young men in America to begin to supplant their bigotry and make a better life for themselves, their country, and our world.