Kevin: Thoughts for the Year

As it’s the end of the year I’d thought I’d do a ‘thoughts of the year’ post – a list of things and events that were important to me. So, in no particular order:

The Murder of Charlie Kirk

Here, it’s not so much his murder, which was a tragedy, but the reaction of his detractors: from outright mocking to lying and taking what he said out context. I really have no words for the staggering level of vitriol, although I’m not sure if even vitriol is the right word.

Toby Young: Why the Right Must Take the High Ground When it Comes to Free Speech

This is the text of the annual oration I gave at the Robert Menzies Institute in Melbourne, Australia on Wednesday, September 24th.

I’d like to thank the Robert Menzies Institute for inviting me to speak to you tonight and for giving my wife and me an opportunity to spend a few days in this wonderful city – and thanks to Angie Scanlon for letting us stay in her house.

Several British people we’ve bumped into have said Australia is like a version of England in which everything works, and that’s particularly true of Melbourne. Many of our cities look a bit like Melbourne might after a nuclear apocalypse. In fact, if anyone knows George Miller, tell him he could save a lot of money by setting the next Mad Max movie in Middlesbrough. He won’t have to spend a penny on set design.

Dr James Allan: In Defence of Cancelling the Left

This past fortnight has seen an explosion of interest in free speech in the United States. First there was the political assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA. Then there was the decision by Disney (owner of the ABC TV broadcasting network in the US) to remove late night host Jimmy Kimmel from the air. A lot is going on in the name of ‘free speech’ so let me start with some facts.

Dark Jester: The End of Civil Dialogue?

The tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk is definitely a turning point (no pun intended) for the state of politics today. It seems that polarisation has now come to a point where civil and respectful debate and dialogue are now no longer possible.

Penn Raine: How to make a martyr

Has it struck anyone else that US democrats and their global proxies who have been bending themselves out of shape blaming the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Trump in particular and social conservatives in general need to sign up for some serious PR webinars?

Their position is similar to the kid with all the Easter egg foil wrappers hidden under the bed and a chocolate-smeared mouth who burbles, ‘It wasn’t me, it was him!’

Jillaine Heather: Words, not witch hunts

We’ve said it over and over: censorship is a trap. The wind changes, and it blows right back in your face.

At the Free Speech Union, we’ve spent years defending the slim, uncomfortable space that lets bad ideas be seen and argued with, not buried to fester away.

Damien Grant: The response to the death of Charlie Kirk has become a phenomenon

The response to the death of Charlie Kirk has become a phenomenon in itself. The response is analogous with that of Lady Diana and John Lennon but the political nature of his assassination creates a very different cultural impact.

My background compels me to focus on the family of the suspect. From what we know they are good parents who raised their children as best they could. And in the face of what occurred the father persuaded his son to surrender. In a death penalty state.

Philip Crump: The Assassination of Charlie Kirk - Free Speech and Billionaire Media

The death of the conservative firebrand comes at a pivotal time for global media.

On September 10, Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated during a campus event at the University of Utah. The killing, carried out by Tyler Robinson who now faces the death penalty, has sent shockwaves through American politics and media.

The impact will no doubt be wide-ranging, and early signs are already emerging of the effect that Kirk’s assassination will have.

Ani O'Brien: When the Left decides violence is justified

Charlie Kirk’s assassination could have been a moment of unified horror bringing together anyone who values democracy, free speech, or civil society. That it was not is cause for great alarm and demonstrates that society-wide political animosity is at dangerous levels. Kirk was not killed in an accident. He was hunted, targeted, and gunned down in front of an audience because of his political views. His killer didn’t just dislike what Kirk said, he believed Kirk’s very existence was intolerable and he was justified in eliminating him. This is the culmination of years of rhetoric from the left that frames conservatives not as political opponents but as evil incarnate, “hatemongers” whose words are literal violence. Once you have convinced people that speech is violence, it is only a small step to convince them that real violence is simply “self-defence.”

Matua Kahurangi: A tale of two deaths

Yesterday, still reeling from the All Blacks’ embarrassing loss in Wellington, I scrolled through X and came across a video shared by
Bob McCoskrie. It exposed the raw truth about human behaviour in the face of death. The video compared the aftermath of two very different deaths. One was George Floyd, the other Charlie Kirk.

The difference could not be more stark…

John McLean: New Zealand left's extreme difficulty with violence

Radio New Zealand’s highly selective approach to violence

I’ve just listened to Radio New Zealand’s 6pm news. That news segment covered various items; flooding in Bali, the Maori Party disingenuously purporting to distance itself from Takuta Ferris’ brazen racism…other minor stuff.

What RNZ’s news bulletin studiously did not cover is the killing of a prominent American political and social commentator named Charlie Kirk, a decidedly newsworthy event in the Western world. Kirk has been shot dead within the last day.

Brendan O'Neill: Charlie Kirk was a better anti-fascist than most of the left

His rage against Hamas and its barbarous Jewphobia was moral clarity in action.

There was a clip doing the rounds a few months ago from Charlie Kirk’s clash with students at the Cambridge Union. It featured Kirk going head to head with a fidgeting posh oddball whose ginger bouffant defied gravity. Anyone who’s ever visited Cambridge will be familiar with this kind of kid: woke, pompous, his arrogance entirely out of proportion to his intellect. Tell me this, said Kirk: ‘In the conflict of Israel vs Hamas, who’s the good guy?’ His diminutive adversary twitched and stuttered, then finally spoke. ‘Both Hamas and the Israeli government are evil’, he said, giving perfect voice to that bourgeois pusillanimity that falsely calls itself ‘activism’.

Simon O'Connor: Violence is the resort for those without reason

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is yet another sad illustration that too many prefer violence to rational debate.

Charlie Kirk was a 31 year old, husband and father of two young children, and someone whose skills were to talk, debate, and discuss. For this, he was assassinated.

Ele Ludemann: Can we grieve for someone we didn’t know?

A friend asked if I’d heard that Charlie Kirk had been killed.

I said I had but I didn’t know who he was.

Since then I’ve found out: