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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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I'd be happy to double down on "he was destroying the fabric of our society", in that he was a major player in the campaign to delegitimise the 2020 election by telling blatant lies to his gullible co-partisans. I think the full adoption of his political programme (which was not moderate) would have done a lot of damage to the fabric of American society, but most people with strong, genuine political views think that about the other side. But I think the claim that Charlie Kirk was motivated by profit and fame is unlikely - there are a lot of pure grifters in politics, and they don't behave like Kirk.

The simplest explanation for Kirk's behaviour is that he genuinely believed that doing the work of politics (talking to voters, organising coalitions, training cadres etc.) was important and pro-social. I can snark about Kirk being the kind of Christian who thought that Republican electoral success was more important than the commandment against bearing false witness, but his faith was clearly sincere and was clearly driving his politics in a pro-social direction as well.

The world would be a better place if there was more room in politics for men like Charlie Kirk. The problem with Kirk's politics is that to make room for more men like Charlie Kirk, you need fewer men like Donald Trump.