Charlie Kirk Was Not Divisive, But MSNBC Is

Charlie Kirk Was Not Divisive, But MSNBC Is

If we want to honor Charlie Kirk, we must carry his legacy of peaceful dialogue forward.

Quoth the Raven writes on Substack…

MSNBC found itself in crisis tonight after political analyst Matthew Dowd suggested that Charlie Kirk — the conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder who was assassinated on Wednesday — had somehow “brought it on himself.”

Dowd told anchor Katy Tur that Kirk has “been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups.”

He continued, suggesting somehow Kirk brought the killing on himself and had contributed to a climate where violence was inevitable: “And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”

The backlash was swift. MSNBC’s own president, Rebecca Kutler, apologized on air and on social media, calling Dowd’s remarks “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.” Even Dowd himself walked them back. And rightly so. Because here’s the irony: if anyone in this story was being divisive, it was Dowd.

Charlie Kirk wasn’t divisive. He was the opposite. And it’s more important to make sure that message — also known as the truth — is conveyed now, more than ever.

Kirk’s life work was built on the idea that violence happens when people stop talking.

He was relentless about creating spaces for conversation — not just with those who agreed with him, but with those who disagreed most fiercely. He gave everyone a chance to speak: all ideas, all faiths, all backgrounds were welcome. While so many voices in politics thrive on shutting opponents down, Kirk insisted on the opposite: sit down and talk it through. Debate. Challenge. Use words, not fists.

From reading accounts today, it’s clear that anyone who traveled with Kirk saw it firsthand. He was not just a media figure; he was a husband, a father, a man of faith, and an entrepreneur who took his convictions seriously. He debated students on campuses across America in good faith, and he often repeated his personal motto: “Prove me wrong.” That’s not division. That’s democracy manifest via freedom of speech.

Kirk knew the risks of speaking boldly in an increasingly hostile environment and had the courage to continue doing so.

He often warned of the dangers of rising political violence, and yet he pressed forward — because he felt a responsibility to future generations. He was willing to stand on stage, extend olive branches, and engage his opponents, even knowing that violence could one day come. And tragically, it did.

Charlie Kirk’s assassination is not just an attack on one man. It is an attack on everything Western civilization depends on: open discourse, robust debate, peaceful dissent. He represented the idea that the way to resolve disputes is through words, persuasion, and reason — not through silencing and bloodshed.

That is why it is so shameful to suggest that Kirk “had it coming.” The man who was killed was the one most dedicated to keeping dialogue alive when others abandoned it. He should not have died for practicing peaceful debate.

We cannot allow his murder to scare us into silence. Nor can we let voices like Dowd’s twist his legacy into something it was not. If we want to honor Charlie Kirk, we must carry his legacy of peaceful dialogue forward.

We must meet ideas with arguments and truth. We must choose courage over fear, debate over division, and speech over violence. Charlie Kirk showed America what it means to argue without hate, to disagree without destroying, to stand firm without turning to bloodshed. That is not divisive. That is unifying.

And it’s exactly what this country needs now more than ever.

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

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