Charlie Kirk's killing was a tragedy. But we must not rewrite his life | Moira Donegan

"The horror and shock of Kirk's assassination prompted some to offer their generosity, and their sympathy, to the dead man. Perhaps it was these noble gestures toward generosity and sympathy that led some commentators to be more laudatory to Kirk's memory than an honest recounting of his life would allow. In the days following Kirk's death, several bewilderingly inaccurate postmortem hagiographies have appeared,"

"In a piece published the morning after Kirk's death, titled Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way, Klein made a series of strained, bizarre and outright untrue assertions about Kirk's career and character. Kirk, Klein argued, was, if anything, an example of civic virtue. Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way, Klein said. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him. He was one of the era's most effective practitioners of persuasion."

Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old rightwing influencer, was shot dead at a college campus appearance in Utah, prompting widespread condemnation of political violence and warm tributes. The horror prompted gestures of generosity and sympathy toward the dead man. Some tributes became more laudatory than factual accounts of his life justified. Several bewilderingly inaccurate postmortem hagiographies appeared across the political spectrum that seemed to imagine the tragedy retroactively ennobling his career. One prominent center-left voice offered notably misleading praise, portraying him as practicing politics correctly and an exemplar of civic persuasion.

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