I think yelling at Charlie Kirk is a rather reasonable thing to do, and I encourage you to do so as well. Here’s a guy coming to your campus to get under your skin, with a face like those square gargoyle-looking things that slam down on you in Mario Kart. It is a pathetic cope to think that by yelling at Kirk, we will incur any “damage” to our reputations because Kirk is already preparing to make landfall in San Diego to meet with a bunch of radical genderbending communists.
While yelling at Kirk won’t damage your reputation, getting rage-baited and shouting cringe things always will. There’s never been anything wrong with a little disruption and Nicholas Reason takes the easy way out by suggesting that you would be helping Kirk by yelling at him. In 2019-20, Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA received $985,332 from a “troll farm” firm called Rally Forge, as put by the Washington Post. Stanford Cyber Policy Center studies uncovered astroturfing and fake accounts associated with Rally Forge on various social media sites. So it would seem that not yelling and having fun at Kirk’s expense wouldn’t really do anything except make for a more boring afternoon to kick off May.
Kirk, an intellectual terrorist, promises UC San Diego a terrific opportunity for a bit of trolling. He argues “13-50” against flustered college students and expects us to take him for a provocative instigator, in 2025. I have never once heard Kirk produce a genuinely inspired thought or unique take. I have even encountered racists I found far more charming and a great deal funnier than Kirk, who sports the personality of a tree shrew, has the visage of a bug, and takes himself way too seriously for a guy who repurposes right-wing talking points to “destroy” annoyed college kids with questions on the level of r/Showerthoughts. This, instead, makes him a conservative media darling. His organization is buoyed by heaping moneybags from the right, which Kirk secures by venturing out and nestling alongside the far or extreme right, just out of reach of several more nefarious aspects, such as the white nationalism and populist-infused fascism that thriftily roll alongside Turning Point USA’s agendas like the shiny spokes on Madison Cawthorn’s wheelchair.
I suggest that instead of scoffing and shuffling past the blue booth of sighing, somber-faced guys and squawking girls who have fallen for the ragebait, go up to the mic and ask Chuck what he thinks the most Maoist fruit is. Or ask him how many little dots are on Morgan Freeman’s face. There’s no need to be preachy — just be stupid. The best way to treat a fool is to laugh.
Signed,
Vishnu Vijayakumar
April 30, 2025
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