Kirk's Turning Point USA Was The Sharp Tip Of White Supremacy

It was based on such campaigns of intimidation that Kirk made his name as a GOP political strategist-and made millions of dollars. According to Associated Press ,“top Turning Point officials collected pricey salaries, enjoyed lavish perks and steered at least $15.2 million to companies that they, their friends and associates are affiliated with.”

“People like Charlie Kirk really poisoned political discourse in this country,” says Khan, because“they were using these attacks on people like me and hundreds of others to build their careers to get hired in Republican politics.”

Yet, so-called liberal, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein pronounced that Kirk was“practicing politics the right way ,” in an op-ed soon after his assassination. And, California Governor Gavin Newsom decided that“we should all feel a deep sense of grief and outrage” at Kirk's killing and that“the best way to honor Charlie's memory is to continue his work.”

“The idea that he was just somebody who wanted to debate is simply false,” says Khan. The only reason the historian was able to withstand many months of TPUSA's traumatic harassment was because his history department refused to give in to the relentless pressure campaign to distance itself from Khan.

Additionally, he garnered a huge outpouring of community support and the unequivocal backing of his labor union, the Graduate Employees' Organization. And academics from all over the world signed petitions in support of Khan.

Many others targeted by Kirk and TPUSA on their ominous and Orwellian“Professor Watchlist” who didn't have such support simply lost jobs, livelihoods, and peace of mind.

Today, journalists and academics from MSNBC's Matthew Dowd to the Washington Post's Karen Attiah are being fired for failing to adequately bow down at the altar of Kirk's faux martyrdom.

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was abruptly dropped by his network for a sober analysis of Kirk's legacy that the media conglomeration Nexstar deemed“offensive and insensitive .”

Liberals like Klein and Newsom have long fallen prey to the idea that treating fascists with respect is the way to win them over. There is no winning over a person or a movement whose ideals are rooted in dehumanization. On the contrary, it is a dangerous validation of an ideal that has no place in a democracy.

Khan says,“Your liberal centrist type people, they want to show that, 'Hey, we're reasonable. We can come to a compromise. If we show you that we're going to be reasonable and compromise, on your end, you'll do the same.'”

But“that doesn't happen with fascists,” he concludes.“At heart, they're bullies. And any small concession to a bully only emboldens them more.”

Trump's recent announcement that he would be designating“antifa” a“terrorist organization” is a perfect illustration of such emboldened responses in the wake of liberal appeasement. Never mind that antifa is an umbrella term for“anti-fascist,” and hardly an organization-just as facts don't matter to TPUSA, they don't matter to Trump.

“The way that we deal with fascists is no tolerance,” says Khan.“Don't give them any concessions whatsoever. And absolutely don't capitulate to any of their demands. Don't treat any of their demands as reasonable. Simply don't even give them the dignity of a debate.”

This is sometimes a difficult point for white liberals and especially free speech absolutists to accept. In a powerful analysis of Kirk's legacy, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates delved deeper into the late influencer's virulent anti-Black racism, antisemitism (not pro-Palestinian sentiment, but the real sort that denigrates Jewish people), and misogyny.

Coates drew a line between the rhetoric of enslavers and those prominent thinkers who fell over themselves to legitimize ideas rooted in the dehumanization of Black people.“In the late 19th century and much of the 20th, this country's most storied intellectuals transfigured hate-mongers into heroes and ignored their words-just as, right now, some are ignoring Kirk's,” wrote Coates.

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Liberals who are free speech absolutists worry more about curbing the freedom of fascists to spread their violent bigotry than about the very real impact of that bigotry on the lives of people like Khan-and more broadly, speaking for vulnerable communities who live under the threat of racist, anti-immigrant, transphobic violence from those whom Kirk radicalized.

“We've debated fascism already,” says Khan.“It's called the horrors of the 20th century. They've already lost that debate, and yet they're still pushing and pushing and pushing. And we have to say, you know what? That time is over, no more tolerance for this kind of maliciousness.”

Failing to curb white supremacist fascism is what has given rise to today's sorry state of affairs. But there is an easy litmus test for what ought to be debated-let's debate anything other than the dehumanization of people.

The right of all human beings to exist and live with dignity ought never to be up for discussion; even agreeing to consider it as a valid question is a win for fascism.

Sonali Kolhatkar is an award-winning multimedia journalist. She is the founder, host, and executive producer of“Rising Up With Sonali ,” a weekly subscriber-funded television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. Her books include Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World Is Possible (Seven Stories Press, 2025) and Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights Books, 2023). She is a writing fellow for the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute and was a senior editor at Yes! Magazine covering race and economy. She serves as the co-director of the nonprofit solidarity organization Afghan Women's Mission and is a co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan . She also sits on the board of directors of Justice Action Center , an immigrant rights organization.

This article was produced by Economy for All , a project of the Independent Media Institute, and is republished with permission

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