Political violence is woven into the fabric of American history.
The early republic faced uprisings like Shays’ Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion, alongside the fatal duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Then, a period of intense civil unrest spawned the Civil War.
CHARLIE KIRK AND THIS WATERSHED MOMENT FOR AMERICAN RENEWAL
The Ku Klux Klan then unleashed terror while labor clashes escalated. In 1901, an anarchist assassinated President William McKinley, targeting him as a symbol of capitalism and oppression.
The 1960s saw political assassins claim Martin Luther King Jr., John and Robert Kennedy Jr., and Malcolm X, while the 1970s Weather Underground detonated bombs to spark revolution. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh’s anti-government ideology inspired his Oklahoma City Bombing.
Recent decades have seen members of Congress targeted for assassination, frequent deadly political riots, and two assassination attempts on a president.
And yet, there is something uniquely unsettling about the spate of politically motivated killings in America of late: namely, the involvement of children and young adults. Until very recently, political violence had been committed almost exclusively by adults.
22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination, is only the latest example. According to Utah County Attorney Jeffrey S. Gray, who spoke at a press conference Tuesday, Kirk’s conservative activism motivated Robinson to carry out the shooting. In a text message to his transgender romantic partner and roommate, Robinson wrote, “Why did I do it? I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Robinson’s mother also pointed to politics as a catalyst for the assassination, telling authorities that “over the last year or so, [he] had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro gay and trans rights oriented.”
This places Robinson within a disturbing trend of younger perpetrators of political violence. The same day of Robinson’s alleged act, Desmond Holly, a 16-year-old in Evergreen, Colorado, allegedly shot up his school, injuring two fellow students before taking his own life. Holly’s social media accounts contained white supremacist and neo-Nazi symbols, and he appeared to express right-wing views.
Weeks earlier, Robert Westman, a 23-year-old man who went by the name Robin, slaughtered two young children and injured at least 17 others at a Catholic school in Minnesota. Westman scrawled far-left, anti-Christian rhetoric on his weapons, including “Kill Donald Trump” and “Where is your God now?” In his manifesto, he wrote, “If I carry out a racially motivated attack, it would most likely be against filthy Zionist Jews… FREE PALESTINE!”
Scores of younger Americans flooded social media to celebrate Kirk’s brutal death after viewing it online. Numerous videos featured college students with a standard woke aesthetic, dancing gleefully in dorm rooms, chanting slogans like “Karma’s a bitch” in group settings, and posting ironic memes overlaid with news footage of the shooting.
While some of these videos expressed jubilation, others demonstrated seething hatred. In one video that surfaced Sunday evening, a college-aged man played acoustic guitar in the direction of a candlelight vigil at New York University, singing, “I want you to f****** die. We’re not going to give you a second chance, even when you beg for it on your knees, begging and pleading.”
In another, a student at Texas Tech University mocks a student-led memorial for Kirk, shouting, “F–k y’all homie dead, he got shot in the head.”
At Texas State University, a student mimicked Kirk getting shot, pretending to be shot in the neck, gyrating and falling backward, while others laughed.
These instances are not outliers but part of a well-established trend among the youth that justifies and even celebrates political violence. According to The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, more than one-third of students now say it is acceptable to use violence to stop a campus speech. Meanwhile, a YouGov poll released last week found that 22% of people aged 18-29 believe political violence is justifiable, far higher than older generations. Only 51% of that cohort believes violence is “never justified.” Young progressives are particularly open to the use of political violence.
Of course, it’s possible that Gen Z will shed these attitudes with age. But for now, at least, American political violence seems to be evolving into a disturbing new phase, where young people, shaped by online echo chambers and extremism, are not only perpetrating but also glorifying violence.
AFTER KIRK’S DEATH, SCALES FALL FROM AMERICA’S EYES
It’s past time for serious efforts to de-radicalize America’s youth. Cracking down on social media companies, removing phones from schools, and prioritizing the eradication of ideological indoctrination from public school curricula are good starting points. Mandatory national service for high school graduates could foster gratitude and unity through community or military work. America’s spiraling youth political violence problem demands bold solutions.
The sudden and alarming involvement of youth in political violence demands urgent action. The rising wave of youthful rage has the potential to erode the very foundations of our republic for generations to come.