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An opinion piece in The Atlantic on Thursday claimed that “MAGA has found its George Floyd” after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated last month — sparking outrage from conservatives on social media given the violent riots that engulfed the country after Floyd’s murder in 2020.
“In the feverish weeks since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the MAGA right is undergoing its own religious ferment, animated by a new martyr. Just as the left used Floyd’s death to justify and hasten all manner of political ends, the right is invoking Kirk’s name to advance illiberal aims and silence opponents,” The Atlantic’s Thomas Chatterton Williams argued. “In death, Kirk has become a cudgel.”
The writer claimed that Kirk, like Floyd, was a “controversial man” who had been “transformed overnight into a one-dimensional saint” — being used to fuel a culture war that defies reason.
“Once again, Americans are being asked to genuflect before an idol,” he added.
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Williams was critical of elected officials on both sides of the aisle who, in his opinion, used the deaths of Kirk and Floyd to advance their political and cultural agendas.
Williams took issue with conservative efforts to “purge their opponents” from schools and workplaces for “merely invoking” the TPUSA founder’s name.
“The week after the assassination, Vice President JD Vance guest-hosted Kirk’s popular podcast and encouraged listeners to snitch on anyone who profaned the dead. Other Republicans followed suit,” he wrote, also calling out Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., for his calls to report Floridians celebrating Kirk’s death to his office.
Williams argued that the right, unlike the left, used the power of the government to hold those cheering for death accountable.
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“Now blasphemy has once again become an offense — only this time, it is being punished by the government,” he wrote.
Following the publication of his article on Thursday, Williams posted the article to his personal X account — drawing backlash from conservatives who said the comparison of the two late men was unfounded.
Conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley slammed Williams’ “disgraceful comparison” of Kirk and Floyd, emphasizing that they led vastly different lives from one another.
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Benjamin Domenech, a Fox News contributor and editor for The Spectator, mocked the article for drawing similar conclusions about the impact Kirk and Floyd had on the world — before and after their deaths.
One X user said that William’s article “could be the most unbelievable thing I have seen put into words” since Kirk’s assassination, arguing that “one man inspired revival, the other riots & destruction.”
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Echoing a similar message, another user noted that there were no riots following Kirk’s murder, “even though he was killed in cold blood and on purpose.”
“Unlike George Floyd, Charlie Kirk was not a career criminal. This is a bad comparison,” Algemeiner Washington correspondent Corey Walker wrote on X.
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