Was Charlie Kirk a martyr? Many on the right have declared him a martyr for freedom of speech, but they use his tragic death as if it were a final, irrefutable proof of their beliefs and a call to take radical action — ironically including suppressing free speech if it’s leftist.
Not to do what Kirk would want would be a moral and even religious failing. My language isn’t hyperbolic. A lot of people on the right really believe it, or speak as if they do.
“But Charlie Kirk!” is thrown out as if it settled the question. So who was he? Was he a hero and a martyr?
I think the question is whether he was the idealist his supporters believe him to be — and need him to be — or a hugely successive political operative, or some mixture of both.
Typical of the praise was an article by Josh Hammer, Newsweek’s senior editor at large, who declared Kirk “the living embodiment of the First Amendment,” who “died as a (literal) martyr for free speech.”