'US professor speaks out on Charlie Kirk: "I am on Charlie Kirk's hit list,"'

[Joinfortmill]

https://www.left-horizons.com/2025/09/12/us-professor-speaks-out-on-charlie-kirk/

My words: This is who Charlie Kirk really was.

'His so-called “Professor Watchlist,” run under the umbrella of Turning Point USA, is nothing more than a digital hit list for academics who dare to speak truth to power. I landed there in 2024 after writing commentary that inflamed the MAGA faithful. And once my name went up, the harassment machine roared to life.

For weeks my inbox and voicemail were deluged. Mostly white men spat venom through the phone: “bitch,” “c*nt,” “n****r.” They threatened all manner of violence.

They overwhelmed the university’s PR lines and the president’s office with calls demanding that I be fired. The flood was so relentless that the head of campus security reached out to offer me an escort, because they feared one of these keyboard soldiers might step out of his basement and come do me harm....'

Kirk’s Watchlist has terrorized legions of professors across this country. Women, Black faculty, queer scholars, basically anyone who challenged white supremacy, gun culture, or Christian nationalism suddenly found themselves targets of coordinated abuse.

Some received death threats. Some had their jobs threatened. Some left academia entirely. Kirk sent the loud message to us: speak the truth and we will unleash the mob!'

[Kid Berwyn]

1. How NAZIS Operate

THE ROLE OF ACADEMICS AND TEACHERS

Persecution of Jews and other groups was not solely the result of measures originating with Hitler and other Nazi zealots. Nazi leaders required the active help or cooperation of professionals working in diverse fields who in many instances were not convinced Nazis. Teachers and university professors were actively involved or went along with the ouster of Jews from their fields and cooperated in other ways with the Nazi regime in the implementation of racial policies.

Continues…

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-role-of-academics-and-teachers

[GusBob]

2. Don't mean to offend the pearl clutchers

Everyone in our household is glad he is dead

[RandomNumbers]

12. 2 things can be true at the same time

1. The death of Charlie Kirk is not a "loss" to most of the world. (Exception to his immediate family.)

2. The manner of Kirk's death was abhorrent, not the least (but not only) because it turns the jackhole into a martyr.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Enjoy your stay...nt

[Heidi]

5. Kick, kick, kick!

[yardwork]

6. He was an evil bigoted man killed by another evil bigoted man.

The whole thing is deplorable.

[yardwork]

8. lol.

[GP6971]

9. Bye, bye!!

[Random Boomer]

10. It was one of your own ghouls who killed him. Not us.

[Celerity]

14. bye bye troll

[RandomNumbers]

15. I was looking for the "all of the above" option

if you know what I mean.

They really should add that one. Or just "obvious troll is obvious"

[yardwork]

17. I know! I did the same with my alert.

I had to pause a moment to pick the best one. Where's the "DU house troll" option?!

[IbogaProject]

13. Don Jr and Fox claim Kirk was "the nicest most gentle" man

What a load of covering up his shady behavior.

[the nelm]

18. One needs only to consider the source of those opinions. Two vile a-holes calling another...

vile a-hole "nice". Who'd a thunk it.

[IbogaProject]

29. Yes I realized conartists are often real nice ane plesant

And that was basically his shtick softselling billionaire greed via misdirection.

[Lonestarblue]

31. Mainstream media has been canonizing Kirk for days.

Makes me ill to think that our media thinks it’s okay to spew hatred and bigotry if you do it with a smile.

[Martin Eden]

16. It sickens me that the media painted Kirk as a paragon of free speech and the peaceful exchange of ideas

Kirk had to know, at a minimum, about the harassment and threats against those on his Watch List.

Did he ever make an effort to call off his attack dogs?

More likely such assaults were his intent. "Movement Conservatives" (White Xian Fascists) know they can't win through honest persuasion. Their modus operandi is to lie, cheat, and suppress the opposition by any means necessary.

They utterly reject a pluralistic society with protected rights and opportunity regardless of race, religion, gender, or expressed views.

Ideologically, how are they different from the Third Reich or The Taliban?

[FakeNoose]

19. The author is Professor Stacey Patton

From the OP link ...

[peggysue2]

20. And this is the person being lionized by MAGA and the MSM

The reaction to Kirk's murder is as over-the-top as he was. I certainly don't approve of the killing. It was a gross and immoral act. But . . .the never ending eulogies, suggestions he should have a monument installed in the Capitol Building, his body being flown on AF2 as if he were a head of state, the rage postings I've read declaring everything from civil war to violent payback is beyond the pale.

He was a young man who sold hate and bigotry for a living, a very nice living at that. He sold his soul for ideology, money and influence.

As tragic as it is for Kirk's children, this is the House That Hate Built. I'm sure he thought he could surf above the anger and rage and delusions, that his bullet-proof vest would save the day and despite what he was churning he was above and beyond the fray.

He was wrong and now he's dead.

If there's any lesson to be learned from this senseless murder, it's about how raw hatred has poisoned the bloodstream of too many citizens and the body politic as a whole. The reaction to Kirk's murder is a reflection of who and what a large swath of Americans have become:

Loose cannons, rage addicts, performance artists all hustling for a moment of notoriety.

And sitting from his elevated perch, Donald Trump spews dollops of poison only to quickly move on to his next obsession--his grand, grotesquely expensive Ballroom.

This is craziness on steroids. The country's being fitted for a straight-jacket as I write.

The only glimmer of light is that we've been this way before in the 1960s and 70s. I lived it as well as many DUers here. We were children, then young adults. There were endless assassinations, war and civil rights protests, threats of nuclear annihilation, a growing gulf between the young and the old, distrust of government everywhere, confusion and chaos on a daily basis.

We managed to get through it with an eye on positive change for ourselves, our communities, our fragile world.

We did it back in the day. Now we need to do it again: survive, rebuild, rethink.

[EnergizedLib]

21. And this was what people were mourning?

These are why flags are half staff? This gets you a Medal of Freedom these days?

If that’s the criteria, I’d be remembered by no one at all when my time comes than my life to be celebrated as a right wing hatemonger.

[Dave Bowman]

22. The world is now a better place without that monster in it.

[NoSheep]

23. Man who accused others of indoctrinating college students

killed while indoctrinating college students

[jeffreyi]

24. Heather Cox Richardson is on the list, also.

According to her email today.

[JCMach1]

25. Meanwhile I am watching a segment on MSNBC about political violence

That is largely ignoring the main impetus and source of violent rhetoric over the past decade, the 🍊 🧩 of 💩 and the fascists that surround him.

[NoSheep]

26. there's no end to it

[JCMach1]

27. There is no bottom...

[wolfie001]

28. US corporations help fund these christo-fascists

Companies where we purchase items and use services. These companies are knee deep in this mess. Koch Bros. is a big one.

[OldBaldy1701E]

30. "Kirk sent the loud message to us: speak the truth and we will unleash the mob!'"

The 'mob' being a bunch of Meal Team Sixers with too much bandwidth and too much time on their hands.

Assuming that one of them could even climb the basement steps.

[róisín_dubh]

32. I know people on that list

They’ve been doxed by his disgusting followers as well and in one instance, a friend’s child accidentally heard voicemail death threats meant for her dad.
Fuck him and his followers.