National traumas can reveal our best instincts—and our worst. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was gunned down while engaging in political debate on a college campus, has done both. Many responded with compassion for his family and calls for greater civility. Others, disturbingly, cheered his murder.
As Matthew Continetti of the American Enterprise Institute observed, the shooting “struck at the ties that hold a free society together,” for it was an assault not just on a man but on the practice of open and civil discourse. The Free Press put it bluntly: “The principles we once took for granted in this country…feel endangered in a way they didn’t a decade ago.”
What explains the acceptance and celebration of political violence? It would be easy to blame overheated political rhetoric. But something deeper is at work. Surveys show that one in three college students today expresses some support for the use of violence to silence a campus speaker—a 50 percent increase from just a decade ago. This shift reflects more than partisan anger: It signals a corrosive set of ideas, nurtured in classrooms and amplified in public forums, that reject the foundations of Western civilization.
These corrosive doctrines—rooted in postmodernism and critical theory—deny any source of morality outside the self, dismiss the intrinsic worth of every human, and reduce politics and law to raw quests for power. In such a worldview, silencing an opponent—even through violence—can seem not only permissible, but virtuous.
The only antidote is a conscious re-engagement with the principles that built our free society: dignity of the person, freedom of thought and speech, rule of law, and the virtues of conscience, responsibility, and civility. This relearning must happen across three spheres—our institutions of learning, our public discourse, and our homes.
Academia is beginning to stir, as seen in new programs and universities dedicated to teaching Western civilization and reviving the liberal tradition of open inquiry and debate. But clearly, more is needed. Think tanks are launching initiatives—such as AEI’s celebration of the Declaration of Independence—to place our founding ideals back at the center of national conversation. And on campuses, some students are already asking the right questions and listening thoughtfully in the wake of Kirk’s death.
But the largest stage for reshaping our culture belongs to media—both legacy outlets and social platforms. Too often, newsrooms and networks have absorbed the corrosive assumptions uncritically, treating those whom they see as holding unfashionable views as immoral, unserious, or undeserving of respect. Some social media platforms, meanwhile, allow algorithms to reward outrage and division, amplifying sensationalism over reason. Media lives or dies on its ability to draw attention, leading some to accept content that corrodes.
Both can do better. Legacy outlets should recommit to the dignity and professionalism exemplified by Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. This is not about producing documentaries that few watch, but modeling in broadcasts and print the virtues of serious, respectful exploration of both disagreements and shared aspirations.
Social platforms, for their part, can harness their algorithms not only to maximize engagement, but to highlight content that reinforces dignity, reason, and civic responsibility. They should make it more likely for users to encounter differing perspectives—both on and off platforms—making it easy and attractive to listen to others and understand their goals, reasoning, and beliefs. Done well, this will increase engagement.
As our institutions of learning and of public discourse do their work, so will the rest of us, building homes and communities.
Western civilization has never been perfect. It’s made up of humans, after all. But its pursuit of freedom, dignity, and truth—no matter how elusive—remains the best foundation for a society in which political disagreements are settled with words that build, not with bullets. After Charlie Kirk’s killing, our media institutions face a choice: continue to unquestioningly reflect the ideas that corrode our culture, or begin the hard work of rediscovering and restoring the principles that allow us to live as a free people.
The futures of our children and our children’s children depend on the path we choose.
The post The Media’s Duty After Charlie Kirk: Help Rebuild Civil Society appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.
