By Matias Brule
Charlie Kirk a far right political speaker. Some people loved him for his views, and many people hated him for his takes. Some think he’s a master debater, others think he was a click bait rage baiter. But opinion isn’t what this is about. This is about his long lasting affect on American politics, and his unmissable presences in pop culture.
Charlie Kirk did many things; one of his biggest accomplishments was the creation of TPUSA, (Turning Point USA) His political organization aimed at getting youths’ voices into right wing politics. This undoubtedly helped Trump’s campaign in many ways.
It helped get younger voters, the biggest untapped voter base in the world, to go out and vote for Trump. He also found a loophole to bypass Campaign donations to help Trump’s campaign. Whether that’s legal or not is heavily scrutinized.
The reason why stuff like his support of the Trump campaign is so influential is that he certainly played a big role in the success of Trump’s campaign victory. And the policy Trump has enacted has changed American politics whether we like it or not. Now would this have happened without the help of Charlie Kirk is debatable, but Charlie Kirk helped secure the victory for Trump.
Charlie Kirk also helped pioneer the future strategy for campaign advertisement. Where instead of direct ads like in a newspaper or at the start of a youtube video. He pushed forward this new form of influencer advertising for campaigns. While yes, getting people to go speak for a movement in a city square has been a thing for a while. Moving it into a digital form helped Charlie Kirk push forward and reach new audiences that they otherwise would have never seen.
This new age of social media influencers pushing forward political agendas will over all change the stage for campaigning forever. And Charlie Kirk was the biggest pioneer of this medium. And this is probably one of the biggest things he has done. This is what got him the youth voter turn out, this is what allowed him to empower the voices of young political speakers and this is what will be hopefully his biggest impact on politics. I can see campaigns for years to come using his specific style of marketing to empower the voices of young people invested in politics.
Now it’s time to talk about the major controversy surrounding him. I am going to try and keep my own personal political opinions out of this as this is the hardest point to write about without my bias slipping through. But with that out of the way I feel like starting off with the least controversial of them when he claimed that George Floyd was a “scum bag.”
While yes off the gates it seems bad, when you read the whole quote it’s not as bad, “I am also going to offer some context and some nuance about the death of George Floyd that no one dares to say out loud. Which is that this guy was a scumbag. Now, does that mean he deserves to die? That’s two totally different things — of course not.” said Charlie Kirk, So while yes controversial, not the worst thing. Does this statement make him racist no. And people took it out of context and posted it online. But the next quote was not taken out of context.
“I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I’ve thought about it. We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.” Charlie Kirk said. This quote was a part of a debate Charlie Kirk did on whether it was okay for a transphobic social media post to have been taken down. He said this because he believes that the civil rights act is a weapon used against white people. He then continued to say that MLK was “A terrible guy.” Now Charlie Kirk in the past has said he loved MLK. He did not say anything about the reason for this change before his passing so that will stay a mystery.
Now If I wanted to talk about all the could be racist things he says, I would have a 13 page article. I simply highlighted what I believe summarizes half of his controversies. How either they are taken out of context and used in a bad light. Or they are something that most people would agree is absurd. If you want an article going over most of his controversies go check out FactCheck.Org’s “Viral Claims About Charlie Kirk’s Words” I personally fact checked all of these by emailing the journalist they claimed they have come from. And all of them are real.
Charlie Kirk is more than a political figure or a controversial person, he is also an influencer. And with influencers being a part of popular culture it tends to lead to memes being made of them. I would say one of the biggest portions of his legacy is his affect on social media via memes in our modern area.
There is a clear understanding that the majority of memes made about Charlie Kirk are disrespectful. Make fun of someone who was killed for his political views. It is wrong to make fun of someone for that. But the effect they have on his legacy and the internet as a whole is his biggest impact.
The scale at which the internet has made memes of Charlie Kirk is probably one of the biggest events in internet history for years. Memes such as Kirkification, and Kirkiversary. Have both broken the internet on their own occasion.
Kirkifaction which was a trend for months after Charlie’s death. Something so big I feel like I don’t need to introduce it, this was often paired with songs such as “We are Charlie Kirk.” which is also as big as Kirkifactation. These memes were made to make fun of the death of Charlie Kirk.
In the end of it all, Charlie Kirk was a controversial man. Whether he was racist or not is up to people. But certainly his impact on social media, and help of bringing youth into politics has changed the political landscape for years to come. The current state of popular culture today certainly would not have been the same today without the influence of this man. Whether that’s for the better or the worst is up to you to decide.
