What can I learn from Charlie Kirk?

Among all the talk of his legacy, I realized I hadn’t seen much of Kirk’s content firsthand. I wanted to better understand why some conservatives feel so strongly about Kirk’s political influence. So I decided to watch one of his most viewed videos to better understand his messaging. Here’s what I observed.

This is the video I went with. Kirk has done collaborations and features that have netted higher view counts, but this is one of the most viewed videos from his own channel. 6.5M views. 124K likes.

0:00 — Right off the bat, an inflammatory title. It meshes with what I'd assumed about Kirk's role in the content funnel that channels male resentment toward women, turning it into a politics of grievance. This clickbait title promises confirmation bias for men who believe women are fundamentally irresponsible or childish. Not a great start, but maybe Kirk's appeal will be in the video itself?

0:01 — Damn, this appears to be a cut from one of Kirk’s college campus popups. These twelve minutes have been hand-selected from among hours of footage. If this guy was so brilliant, why did he rely on this format?

0:12 — A student asks Kirk why his opinions matter more than hers. In classic conservative fashion, Kirk immediately pivots away toward one of his own talking points. He questions whether there is such a thing as objective reality, and whether murder is wrong. These are dumb questions because they’re obviously designed to avoid answering her question. They’re meant to (1) suggest that his own opinions are representative of objective truth and (2) elicit a predictable “yes” that he can build upon. Kirk comes off like an asshole here, but I’m sure it’s just a rough start and this video will get better.

0:55 — When the student acknowledges that murder is wrong, Kirk quickly claims that abortion should be illegal. I’m guessing that from here, he’ll feel a lot more comfortable having switched to something more controversial, for which he’ll have a million prepped talking points. I’m not gonna lie—so far this is pretty boring. I’m only a minute in, but I’m lowkey afraid that one of Kirk’s most viewed videos of all time will be nothing more than a basic demonstration in gaslighting college kids—where’s the appeal?

1:15 — “Prove me. Prove me wrong.” Kirk puts the onus on the student to prove him wrong about abortion. He knows that intangible morals can’t be ‘proven’ to someone who is ideologically committed to a different perspective. Kirk can’t prove anything, the student can’t prove anything… there’s no real conversation here… just rage baiting and a lazy edit. So far this video is making the case that if a random college student can’t define objective morality… then all women should lose bodily autonomy. But that’s just fucking dumb.

4:00 — We’re four minutes in and Charlie is running circles around these kids (not because they’re wrong, but because they’re kids). Kirk has transitioned the conversation to be about race. He uses false equivalences, strips away context, ignores history, embarrasses a student when she misspeaks, and makes racist claims. These college kids aren’t accustomed to engaging with someone so confident in their dishonesty. Real tough guy out here manipulating college kids for views....

4:08 — “Affirmative action is racism against white people.” Affirmative action has always pissed off racists, and they’ve always used it to claim victimhood. The truth is that knowledge and access to opportunity aren’t a zero sum game. The capitalist incentives of our institutions create the appearance of limited resources over which everyone must squabble… but in reality there’s room for us all. And even if that weren’t the case, shouldn’t Kirk follow the classic conservative advice here to pull oneself up by the bootstraps? Why is he whining? I’m still looking for the appeal here—so far this guy is a racist liar who bullies college students… surely that’s not the legacy that so many are valorizing?

7:50 — You’ll be shocked to learn that we’re completely off the rails. What was this video supposed to be about? In the past few minutes, not much has been said by anyone—but Kirk has managed to plant a callout to Black conservative economist Thomas Sowell. And of course, he’s criticized Lyndon B. Johnson. Kirk neglects to directly mention Johnson’s passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and his introduction of Medicaid and Medicare. Criticizing these advancements would reveal Kirk’s incentives as a racist and capitalist. But what if… this is the legacy that Republicans and establishment Democrats are talking about? A legacy of faux intellectualism that floods the zone with shit… and distracts the working class from ideas of solidarity…?

9:20 — When asked whether his perception of truth is the “ultimate truth,” Kirk says he thinks so and that he’s willing to learn…. I like the sound of that. But unfortunately I don’t believe him, since he’s spent the last nine minutes lying. Of course, I don’t actually know how much of his professed ideology Kirk genuinely believed—but I don’t really care. 90 seconds left… perhaps in that time, we’ll get to the part of the video where Kirk reveals himself to be a brilliant and positive force for working class people.

10:39 — Welp… we never got there. That’s it, I guess. The video ended with no outro. I’d expected more convincing content in this viewing experience. This has been super disappointing.

As with any public figure, it's important to think deeply about how and whether we should honor Kirk's legacy.

I have no respect for his years of effort to strip away my civil rights. Kirk is being widely praised right now, but this video has me wondering whether Charlie Kirk’s long-term legacy will amount to nothing more than regressive, self-serving slop content, lazily edited. I suppose time will tell.