We have seen protesters on the left around the country mocking the assassination of Charlie Kirk, even reenacting his murder. Hate traffickers like Jennifer Welch have even justified his assassination. It is all shocking and depressing, but none reached the level of Hasan Piker leading a huge crowd in mocking Kirk and his faith. Before he was murdered, Kirk debated Piker and called him a “socialist hypocrite.” What is shocking is not the utter depravity and cruelty of Piker, but the ecstasy of the crowd in relishing the death of someone with opposing views. It is part of the conditioning in what I have previously called an “age of rage.”
In the video, Piker leads the crowd in the meme song “We Are Charlie Kirk” at a stop of his “Fear& LIVE” tour, including such lines as “We are Charlie Kirk, we carry the flame. We’ll fight for the Gospel, we’ll honor his name.” His co-hosts and the crowd seem to be laughing with joy.
Joining him at this hatefest at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco on August 21 were reportedly Will Neff, QTCinderella, and AustinShow.
Hasan is wearing his now-signature Mao jacket as the young crowd and his co-hosts laugh hysterically. It is the very essence of this movement to desensitize people, particularly young people, to violence and hate.
In Rage and the Republic, I wrote about this national ragefest. It allows people to hate completely and without thought to the humanity of those being hurt. What people will not admit is that they like it. Rage is addictive, and it is contagious. Just look at the crowd in San Francisco, and you will see the addictive quality of uncut, undiluted hate:
Piker, Will Neff, QTCinderella, AustinShow, and these fans have every right to spread hate. It is protected speech just as KKK and neo-Nazi groups are allowed to promulgate their own hateful values.
What is exasperating is how hatemongers on the left want to enjoy hate speech while accusing others of hate and intolerance. They do so by excusing their actions or views by demonizing those who disagree. Democratic leaders continue the false claim that democracy is dying in America and that this may be our last free election. While made over multiple elections, this repeated claim of the imminent death of democracy (unless they are elected) does not appear to register with their supporters.
Recently the rhetoric has reached hysterical levels. Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon has compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to “modern-day slave catchers” and the government is “literally trying to kill us.”
It is a narrative that allows you to speak like a Nazi while claiming to be fighting Nazis.
Piker thrilled the crowd by mocking a murdered man over his faith and his death. It is more than being simply classless. It is commodifying rage. Piker is reportedly raking in a fortune as are other hatemongers like Jennifer Welch. They traffic in rage to a nation of rage addicts.
It is a scene that only reaffirms the work of Kirk who sought to expose the hate and intolerance of the left, particularly on our campuses. Kirk infuriated many by challenging them to debate. There is no room for reason in an age of rage. Those who try to introduce opposing views on campuses are cancelled or attacked.
Recently, a group of pro-life teenagers were kicked out of the Wydaho Roasters coffee shop in Idaho by an owner who found their presence intolerable. At universities, faculty members have attacked displays and even students in righteous rage. One professor who pleaded guilty to assaulting pro-life students was not only retained on the faculty but even honored by another school.
Civility, and even humanity, become signs of weakness in these times. They gravitate to figures like Abdul El-Sayed who has campaigned with Piker and promises to “choke out” Republicans and refers to moderates like Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) as ogres to have their heads cut off and put on pikes.
The American left has found their berserkers, the old Norse warriors who were known to fight in a virtual violent trance. The new berserkers offer the chance to hate completely and without remorse or reflection. Over time, supporters are conditioned to disregard even the murder of those with opposing views. As shown in San Francisco, assassination becomes nothing more than a sing-a-long in an age of rage.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
#. Piker is showing what fools your children are.
#. Piker is demonstrating his point. His point is people cannot be free. Look at what I can get them to do. Self incriminating behavior.
It’s not new. They mocked Christ as he went through the street to be crucified. There’s nothing new under the sun.
The results are Mangione, Robinson, Karmelo, and thousands more. It teaches hatred. Piker is correct. 20% of the population can be lead into atrocities. 80% cannot be lead into hate.
A question? How can these people take the oath of office if they win when they are anti – Constitution? Don’t they take the oath to uphold the laws of this country? If that is so, and they do not, what are the stop measures? Do we actively endorse our own demise?
Excellent question that I also would like to know the answer
Charlie Kirk On Civil Rights
Mr. Kirk believed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a destructive force in American politics, calling its passage a “mistake” that he said has been turned into “an anti-white weapon.”
He also blamed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the law and was highly critical of the slain civil rights leader, calling him an “awful” person. Mr. Kirk said he desired a colorblind society but blamed the veneration of Dr. King for what he saw as America’s fixation on race.
Mr. Kirk was also a staunch opponent of affirmative action and was highly critical of the Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, calling her a “diversity hire” who wasn’t qualified to serve on the highest court.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/us/charlie-kirk-views-guns-gender-climate.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
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Rightwing media has made every effort to portray Charlie Kirk as a ‘civil rights leader’. And here we have Kirk dissing M L King while trying to tell us the Civil rights movement was ‘destructive’.
You write those things as if Conservatives will not support Kirk’s opinions regarding Black Americans.
Those messages were the ones that Kirk’s patrons paid for him to say. A millionaire hired by billionaires to convince the middle and lower class to be minions to the oligarchs.
Not one event that Kirk was center of was in line with Christ’s teachings.
Obviously, America has raised a country full of ghouls.
I think America is running out of chances to vote on mayhem in the streets. The mid terms are a sample test to see if these new democrats will disregard the customs and laws, and work with foreign assess to further undermine the country.
Once Trump is gone in ‘28, where does the rage go? No where. It is here to stay. We have a generation coming up that hates America and couldn’t care less what the end looks like.
The American Left is not restrained by any moral, ethical or legal barriers to the acquisition of power over our entire society. People who stand in their way are subject to personal destruction. Consider: in the 1950s, they destroyed Senator Joe McCarthy who was trying to uncover Communist perpetration of our government in the 30s and 40s. They probably stole the 1960 Presidential election from Nixon. They drove Richard Nixon from office after an election in which he had carried 49 states. They tried to impeach Ronald Reagan for selling arms to rebels in central America, even though intervention in the affairs of other countries is the heart of America foreign policy. Then they invented the greatest political hoax of all time – Trump-Putin collusion – to prevent Trump from defeating H. Clinton. After Trump did win, they started two impeachment proceedings against him. After Trump left office, they waged unrelenting Lawfare against him to prevent him from running again, including an effort to bar him from the ballot. When Trump overcame the Lawfare project, they turned up the volume on the daily comparisons of Trump to Hitler, in the hopes that some confused teenager would try to assist him. The same demonization was used against Supreme Court justices, two of whom have been threatened with assassination, and against Charlie Kirk who was assassinated.
Can anyone really identify any barrier that the American Left would hesitate to breach in order to destroy their opponents?
edwardmahl writes:
“The American Left is not restrained by any moral, ethical or legal barriers to the acquisition of power over our entire society. ”
Were that true there would be mass killings of conservatives. As that isn’t happening and it is conservatives who use ICE and the police to kill people, it appears edwardmahl is wrong.