The Necropolitics of the American Right: A Death Cult - by HoodooBarbie
"I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new-age term, and it does a lot of damage." - Charlie Kirk
According to the brutal, self-fulfilling logic of the ideology he championed, Charlie Kirk would not have wanted anyone to feel empathy for him. On a stage in Utah, in the midst of a debate on the very gun violence that would moments later claim his life, the far-right commentator was the architect of his own philosophical prison. His murder, a grotesque act of violence witnessed by his family, is a profound tragedy. Yet, it is also the ultimate indictment of the modern conservative and Christian nationalist movement he representedโa movement that has shed the core tenets of its claimed faith to embrace a necropolitical worldview, a cult of death masquerading as a crusade for life.
Kirkโs dismissal of empathy is fundamentally at odds with the bedrock of the Christian doctrine he purported to defend. The Bible does not see empathy as a โmade-upโ modern concept but as an essential expression of God's character and a non-negotiable command for believers. It is the engine of compassion, the bridge to loving one's neighbor, and the glue of a unified community. The Apostle Paul commands it in Romans 12:15: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep." The Apostle John weaponizes it against hollow faith, writing in 1 John 3:17-18, "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."
This was exemplified by Jesus himself. Matthew 9:36 states, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." His empathy was active, leading to healing and advocacy. This extends to a mandate for social justice, as in Proverbs 31:8-9: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."
Kirkโs lifeโs work, however, was a systematic rejection of this biblical imperative. His platform became a safe space for hate, and his rhetoric consistently targeted the very people Scripture commanded him to defend. This reveals a chilling truth: for him and his movement, Christianity was not a faith to be lived but a tool to be weaponized.
ยท Un-Christian Attacks on CRT & Minorities: While preaching a gospel of "love," his movement demonized efforts to address Americaโs racial history (Critical Race Theory), directly contradicting the call to "defend the rights of the poor and needy" and seek justice.
ยท Un-Christian Attacks on the LGBTQ+ Community: Instead of weeping with those who weep or offering compassion, his rhetoric often dehumanizes a vulnerable community, the antithesis of the Good Samaritanโs active love for the "other."
ยท The Idolatry of the Gun: The movementโs core tenet is a fetishization of weapons that rejects any call for communal safety, placing an object above human life.
This active rejection of empathy is the hallmark of a death cult. It is anti-life. This ideology doesnโt seek to conserve or save; it seeks to dominate. Its end goal is not flourishing communities but a hierarchical oligarchy sustained by a diminished middle class, suppressed free speech, and the economic and social servitude of minorities, the poor or unworthy white, and non-conforming individuals. History is littered with its fruits: the atrocities of colonialism committed in the name of Christ, the violent oppression of the Jim Crow South defended by pious segregationists, and various modern injustices like denying healthcare to the vulnerable or separating migrant families at the border, all while waving the flag of faith.
Just moments before the trigger was pulled, Kirk was likely articulating the central dogma of this cult, a sentiment he and his allies have expressed countless times:
"GUN DEATHS ARE AN UNFORTUNATE BUT ACCEPTABLE COST OF PRESERVING SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS TO PROTECT OUR OTHER GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS. THAT IS A PRUDENT DEAL. IT IS RATIONAL." - also Charles Kirk
In a horrifying twist of fate, Charlie Kirk became the cost. He lived by the sword of violent rhetoric and an unflinching devotion to the instruments of death, and he died by it. In his own words, he rationally justified his own murder. This is the insidious psychological trap of the Conservative Christian Nationalist death cult: it convinces its adherents that the inevitable violence it cultivates is a noble, even holy, sacrifice.
Therefore, our response must be mindful. To guard our own souls from the spiritual death this ideology promotes, we must not mirror its lack of empathy with gleeful celebration. His death is a tragedyโnot for the man he was, but for the situation it reveals. It is the tragic endpoint of a poisoned worldview. We can, and should, feel empathy for the human terror of the moment, for his familyโs trauma, and for a nation so sickened by political violence that such events feel almost inevitable. This is not empathy for Kirkโs ideology, but empathy despite itโa crucial exercise in mindfulness to prevent our own empathy fatigue and moral descent.
Despite his unlikable and damaging qualities, Charlie Kirk was ultimately a victim. A victim of the very anti-life, unempathetic death cult he evangelized for. He truly believed its tenets were godly, but God, as defined by love, compassion, and empathy, was absent from his theology. His Christianity was the one corrupted centuries ago by hierarchical elitesโlike King James, who commissioned a Bible translation to legitimize his divorceโand modern grifters who twist scripture to serve power, not people. Kirk was a charismatic tool in this project, used to spread poisonous ideas that make people more fearful, more hateful, and more docile, easier to manipulate into supporting their own servitude.
Charlie Kirk was a mouthpiece for an insidious death cult, and it cost him everything. We must gather the facts of this terrible event and learn from his egregious mistakes. We must reject the necropolitics that values guns over life, power over compassion, and ideology over empathy. The only way to break this cycle of violence is to defiantly practice the very thing his movement rejected: a love that is not in word or speech, but in action and in truth.
