Free Speech Controversies Sparked Over Charlie Kirk’s Assassination, Subsequent Firings

Workers at various institutions were recently fired due to comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The firings have since resulted in free speech controversies across the political spectrum.

Opinion from the Left: An opinion writer for The Guardian (Left bias) claimed that Kirk’s discourses with liberals were a “mockery” of fair democracy. She wrote, “Many of those eulogizing Kirk want to paint him as a champion of free speech, as a man who peddled in honest inquiry, uninhibited expression and the open exchange of ideas. This is a laughably inaccurate picture of the man’s work; it is in these punishments of those who oppose him that we can see a truer reflection of Kirk’s values.”

Opposition from the Right: “Mockery” is how Jonathan Turley (Lean Right) for Fox News (Right) alternatively referred to the firings. “That is what [Kirk] died fighting against. To fire people on campuses for speaking out against Kirk would make an utter mockery of his work and his death… He was the victim, not the advocate, of cancel campaigns.”

Support from the Right: The firings are “not, as some maintain, a threat to freedom of speech,” according to an opinion writer for the Daily Caller (Right). “At the height of [the ‘cancel culture’] phenomenon, people were indeed fired for objections to insane left-wing assertions… ‘Cancellation’ is no more than punishment. It’s bad to punish people for proposing even vaguely right-wing ideas. It’s good to punish people for evil.”

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