It took me a while to think about this. I was speechless with all the latest events. I needed time to sit with it, to feel it, to decide what I wanted to say. But I also knew I couldn’t stay silent.
I wasn’t following Charlie Kirk every day. I didn’t watch all his videos, but like anyone online, I saw plenty of clips in my feed. Honestly, there were probably 50% of things I agreed with him on, and 50% I didn’t. I took the good, ignored the bad, and I do that for everyone, no matter who they are. I invite you to do this, it's amazingly healthy.
I’m not a super fan of anyone. There are things I appreciate and things I disagree with in anyone. What matters to me are my own values, my own thoughts. If Putin says something I agree with, it doesn’t make me a fan of him. Ideas are ideas. They should stand apart from the people who say them.
But none of that matters right now.
What does matter is this: I was glad Charlie Kirk existed. He debated. He argued. He put a mic on the table and invited people with opposing views to speak for fifteen minutes. Simple, human, powerful. That’s how ideas grow. That’s how societies move forward.
But today, the second you share an idea, people rush to brand you: bigot, racist, fascist. Wtf is that?
And that’s why what haunts me isn’t his beliefs. It’s the reaction I saw when I opened my phone: people celebrating his death.
“The racist, fascist, Hitlerian, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, Islamophobic, climate-denying, anti-science, big-oil-funded, right-wing extremist, conspiracy-spreading, democracy-hating, anti-immigrant, anti-woman, Bible-thumping, cult-leader, nationalist Charlie Kirk is dead, yayyy…”
But if he was really all that, where are the burning cities? The civil wars? The neighbors turning on each other in his name? If he was truly the monster people painted him to be, wouldn’t the world look a lot different?
Instead, here’s the reality: while a loud mob online cheers, hundreds of millions around the world are singing, lighting candles, praying, and paying respect. Churches are full. Families are gathering. Even people who disagreed with him are mourning, because deep down they know, this isn’t politics anymore.
It’s humanity.
That’s the contrast: one side screams hate behind a screen, the other bows its head in silence. One side mocks, the other remembers. Maybe that’s all we need to know about who’s still connected to their humanity… and who’s lost it.
Charlie Kirk was shot in front of his wife and two children. He was a husband, a father, a son. And yet, I saw people laughing. Posting “good riddance.” Sharing the clip of his death like it was entertainment.
That broke me.
It took me an hour to come back to myself after watching it. I sat in shock, asking: How did we get here? How did we get so cold that we cheer when someone is executed in front of their family?
Agree or disagree, Charlie Kirk used words. He debated. He defended. He pushed his beliefs hard, yes, but with words. And almost every debate ended with: “Thank you for the debate.”
And what keeps you from doing the same if you disagree with his ideas? The guy started with nothing more than a chair and a table on a campus, inviting people to debate. What’s stopping you from doing that? From defending your ideas with words, with courage, with honesty?
Instead of celebrating like a coward behind a computer screen, stand up, sit down across from someone, and prove your point.
That’s how change is made. Not with bullets. Not with cheers for death. But with words.
You can’t hate the extreme. The extremes draw the lines. Without them, there’s no middle ground to meet in. Disagree fiercely. Argue all day. But do not celebrate death. The moment we do, we lose our humanity.
The worst thing I saw wasn’t strangers celebrating. It was a video of a mother telling her children there was “good news.”
“Is Trump dead?” they asked.
“Is Elon Musk dead? JD Vance?”
She smiled: “No. Charlie Kirk.”
Think about that. A parent teaching their kids that someone else’s death is good news. What kind of seed are we planting in the next generation?
It doesn’t matter if you’re left or right, Christian or atheist, rich or poor. The moment we accept that someone “deserves” death for speaking their beliefs, we’ve opened the door to a world where none of us are safe.
This isn’t a video game. This is real life.
My biggest fear isn’t war. It isn’t politics. It isn’t even the next crisis. It’s silence. Because when words are replaced with bullets, when people destroy instead of debate, civilization collapses.
Behind any person you disagree with are fathers, mothers, children. Humans. Instead of wishing for one side to win, maybe we should wish for them to talk.
And the same is true here. Left vs right. Neighbor vs neighbor. Person vs person.
We don’t see humans anymore. Only labels.
I’m not writing this because I agreed with Charlie Kirk. I’m writing this because I believe in something bigger: that every human life matters.
Disagree passionately. Debate fiercely. But don’t ever cheer for death. That’s the line we must never cross if we want a future worth living in.
So if you cheered his death, maybe it’s time to recenter, because if you’ve lost the ability to see the humanity in someone you disagree with, then the problem isn’t them. It’s you.
Rest in peace Charlie Kirk
-Marc, Co-founder of Innertune
