On Political Violence, Charlie Kirk, and the Inherent Grace of Shutting Up
Following the murder of Charlie Kirk, let’s once again push back against the impulse that public figures and brands have compelling them to weigh in on the news cycle.
Yesterday, Utah Valley University and the political world at large was rocked by the very public, very graphic assassination of conservative YouTuber and political organizer Charlie Kirk. Beloved on the right, reviled on the left, Kirk leaves behind a legacy of influence along with a wife and two children.
Let’s get the obligatory disclosures out of the way: I’ve been called a liberal, a Republican, a leftie, a socialist, a tyrant, a libertarian, and many other things in my life, but whatever my politics are, they are diametrically opposed to Charlie Kirk’s.
(I believe disclosures like this are important when discussing these topics, if only to foster trust with your readers and lend proper context to the font of the opinion they’re reading. Consider the source, and all that...)
A Perfect Media Storm
The killing has created a perfect storm of all-encompassing outrage and reaction across social media that will probably take up all the air in the room for the foreseeable future. It’s the kind of discourse that would be easy to lament or ignore if it hadn’t, sadly, become as mainstream in culture as an argument between Yankee fans and Red Sox fans. I’m far from the first person to make the observation that politics is the new American sport.
Other Substackers will have no shortage of political hot takes and somber remembrances, criticism, threats of violence and calls for civil war, tongue-in-cheek jokes or outright mockery of Kirk. I’ll leave that to them.
I’d rather take this opportunity to remind all communicators, guardians of brands, public figures and others with significant social media followings – you don’t have to post about this story. Posting is not compulsory. In fact, it’s likely that nobody is waiting with bated breath to hear from you about Charlie Kirk’s death.
I mean this in the most respectful and constructive way possible: you can – and likely should – just shut up.
This isn’t a partisan opinion. If you’re on the left, understand we are post-vibe shift. Whatever anti-right wing opinions felt safe to post 2 years ago are today the stuff of boycotts and lost employment. Conservatism in the US is ascendant, and Kirk’s fellow conservative influencers like YouTube prankster/right-wing provocateur Joseph Saladino (“Joey Salads” online) are obsessively on the hunt for people who post disrespectfully about Kirk’s death.
I mean this in the most respectful and constructive way possible: you can – and likely should – just shut up.
Here’s Saladino, best known by some for his infamous fake social experiments, yesterday urging his hundreds of thousands of followers to get people fired, evicted, or worse.
There’s no telling whose radar your celebratory shitposting might land you on. Don’t embroil your brand or even yourself in that morass. If you manage an apolitical brand account, resist the urge to engage in any “this should be a lesson for us all”-discourse or post any entreaties to high-minded, good faith discussions. We just aren’t in that world anymore.
And heaven help you if you have a public position and do a snark-post. Just ask Laura Shosh-Lightsy, who was an assistant dean at Middle Tennessee State University from 2004 until today, when she was fired for posting an Instagram Story that got the attention of Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). Blackburn reposted it, tagging MTSU and calling for the assistant dean’s removal.
I’d also give a word of caution to those seeking to use their accounts to express sympathy for or solidarity with Kirk. For example, if you are the second-longest tenured member of the Miami-Dade School Public School board of directors, an apolitical position that puts you on the frontlines with many parents who find Kirk’s retrograde views abhorrent, maybe keep your thoughts off your official government social media channels.
My local board member, Mari Tere Rojas, got some well-deserved heat for this post today. And that makes sense honestly. Not to do the whataboutism game, but she has not posted any sympathies during any one of the myriad school shootings or public acts of mass political violence afflicting Florida or the country. Posting this gives an insight into her priorities, her politics, and her media diet. Honestly, it’s not very surprising that a wealthy, elderly Cuban woman in Miami is tuned into conservative media figures like Kirk. But maybe let that part of your ideology remain a mystery.
Ok, a local politician might not be the most impactful example of this. But how about a K-Pop idol with 8.7 million followers?
Choi Siwon lost a chunk of his large following after posting remembrances for Kirk, and eventually shut off comments on his page and deleted the stories. You can argue about whether it’s fair or not, but it is reality, and if you’re that big of an celebrity to that wide of an array of fans, you have to understand that this will be divisive.
Again, posting is voluntary. You do not have to comment.
Once upon a time, being aware of a figure like Kirk would be grounds for being labeled “too online”, which, sure, guilty as charged. This is the first time I remember thinking to myself, am I too online, or are these people not online enough?
What I laid out above here is, I think, standard brand-management practices. Don’t wade into these waters, it’s not worth it, even if you think you are defending some high-minded principles. You’re not. No matter how well-intentioned, it’s just more toxicity in a zone flooded with poison.
Some will call that self-censorship, but it isn’t. It’s a rational response to a hyper-politicized population of media literate, too-online consumers reading you for what you are. And like any other public political statement in 2025, half of them will love you for it and half of them will hate you.
If you work in social media brand management and you were repelled by what Kirk stood for, take the day off and go shitpost on your alts. If you revered him, join the rest of the voices on the right calling for civil war or death to all Democrats or whatever.
But before you do it, log off the main. You’ll be glad you did.
I don’t often find myself aligning politically with the famously conservative rapper 50 Cent, but I’ll leave you with a bit of his wit and wisdom from a post he eventually deleted: “It’s a good time to shut the fuck up.”
