On Sept. 10, the night Charlie Kirk was shot, The Water Tower posted to their Instagram feed an image celebrating his death.

“The Water Tower remembers Charlie Kirk and we can’t fucking wait to forget everything about him other than how ugly he was,” they stated in the now-deleted post.  

Despite The Water Tower’s satirical and alternative newspaper identity, I do not believe this post was satire. It was dehumanizing rhetoric disguised as humour. 

Their response paralleled much of what I see in person and in my media feed, which is concerning for three main reasons.

Dehumanization leads to extremism

I don’t support anything Charlie Kirk stood for. He is widely criticized for rhetoric that was Islamophobic, misogynistic, racist, homophobic and transphobic. By condemning the rhetoric around his death, I do not want to minimize the harm his statements caused.

I do, however, want to recognize that by justifying and celebrating the death of another human being, we risk becoming the extremists we so vehemently condemn. 

Kirk has spread false and discriminatory messages globally, fueling right-wing extremism and deepening the isolation of marginalized groups. This includes his denial of the Palestinian genocide. I do not suggest labeling him a martyr or downplaying his harm.

Sympathy may feel lost on a man who has spread so much hate, but stripping people of their humanity is dangerous.

Kirk infamously believed that a few annual gun deaths were a fair price to pay to keep our Second Amendment rights. This belief is at the forefront of arguments claiming he supported his own assassination, and deserved his untimely demise, but who deserves death is a complex philosophical debate.

In the end, we don’t know that Kirk’s death will even improve the political sphere. Extremists are still spreading his views — they existed before him and will continue to exist. 

In fact, Turning Point USA has grown at an exponential rate since his death. With 900 current chapters across universities, his brand has received over 37,000 new chapter requests since his death, according to a Sept. 15 New York Post article.

We should be exercising open discussion about the harm of his ideologies, instead of spreading hateful rhetoric about his humanity. There is more value in examining his current influence on American society.

The risk of a more divided nation

Many students seem to agree with The Water Tower’s position. Hundreds liked their post and 16 posted supportive comments. 

While four users dissented in the comments, two were deleted and one received this critical statement in response: “Not reading all that too busy frolicking merrily thru a world with one less fascist in it.”

A refusal to engage with dissent or have open discussions contributes to the growing political polarization in our country.

As people go to extremes to dehumanize Kirk, his sympathizers move further to the fringe in order to balance the scales. People continue to combat extremism with extremism.

Distraction and priority over other violence

On June 14, Melissa Hortman, the Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, was shot and killed in her home, along with all members of her household, according to a June 14 PBS article. 

Following Kirk’s assassination, President Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-staff and has stated he will award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, usually given to those who contribute to world peace, according to a Sept. 12 USA Today article.

A resolution creating a National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk on Oct. 14 passed the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, according to a Sept. 19 ABC News article.

Melissa Hortman was also assassinated, but no such orders were made after her death. In fact, when interviewed, Trump didn’t recognize her name and claimed that he would have lowered flags for her only if he had been asked by the Governor of Minnesota, according to a Sept. 15 New York Times article.

Let’s not give Charlie Kirk’s death any more attention than it deserves. 

Countless shootings have occurred due to a lack of gun control, but they haven’t gotten nearly as much news coverage as Kirk’s.

Likewise, 1 million people in Gaza are still starving. The first study conducted by the Palestinian Ministry of Health suggests more than 80,000 people, most of them women and children, died between Oct. 7, 2023 and February 2025 in Gaza, according to a June 27 Nature article.

Society’s response to the death of Charlie Kirk has highlighted problems in America.

The overwhelming hostility in our current rhetoric discourages people from engaging in conversations about our world’s issues. In the end, animosity only serves to deepen divisions, distract us, and keep us stuck in an endless cycle.

To heal our nation from its countless ailments, we need to converse and try to understand one another.