New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Charlie Kirk was not assassinated.
Charlie Kirk was murdered.
Charlie Kirk was not a public official covered by assassination statutes. There is no suggestion that the killer was motivated by a contract. Charlie Kirk lacked the public prominence to merit "assassination" in common usage.
it's only an assassination if they work for this guy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasan-i... otherwise it's simply sparkling manslaughter
Charlie Kirk died, and he deserved it.
There, even simpler and more accurate.
Dog, language is malleable and getting caught up in semantics just makes you look like a fuckin jagoff. Doesn't matter if it was a 'murder' or 'assassination', dude's dead, he ain't comin back and his political legacy will haunt his festering corpse even after it joins the soil.
Why does it matter?
Describing the murder of Charlie Kirk as an "assassination" gives Kirk a status that he did not have and does not merit. It also makes this instance of death by firearm seem unique, rather than yet another murder of this type in a society that refuses to deal with the issue.
In common usage, we call people assassins when they target and kill significant public figures. This is so even when the victim doesn't hold public office, and it doesn't require that the killer is paid or expects to be paid.
Nor did his death merit the half masts etc
Bro it was absolutely an assassination this is so petty and stupid
Giving the part of the perpetually (performatively) aggrieved a rallying point - they‘ll take that dickweasel and turn him into a Soros funded ninja assassin
THANK YOU!
This has been driving me crazy too.
His killer seems to have been pretty much just a glorified schoolshooter, not unlike the kid who tried to shoot Trump. Like, shockingly little coherent motive.
I made this same point regarding language used to label this crime at the time. I don’t think there was ever credible information about the shooter’s motive. It seems like a coverup started immediately by Kash & things have become murkier rather than clearer over time. www.npr.org/2025/09/18/n...
A semantic debate between "assassinate" and "murder" isn't going to change anything. It's trite and meaningless to police word choice, particularly if you value freedom of speech.
Assassinations aren't defined by there being a contract.
Nah, unfortunately he had pretty big public presence.
