I had the opportunity to briefly meet Charlie Kirk a few years ago behind the scenes of a Turning Point USA conference. During our conversation, he was incredibly gracious, and he told me that he held the University of Chicago and the Chicago Principles in high regard. He knew that despite having a moderately left-leaning student body, our school placed civil discourse at the forefront of its mission, and he praised us for it.
Indeed, Charlie was an outstanding exemplar of the Chicago Principles. His intellectual openness, winsome quips, and respect for his debate opponents exuded a profound level of class not otherwise found in today’s politics. He wholeheartedly rejected cynicism, vulgarity, and contempt towards his enemies, living out American and Christian ideals in a truly sincere and honest way. Most of all, Charlie had the courage to walk into the lion’s den over and over and face whoever found his way to the mic, without exception. I founded “TPUSA at UChicago” in 2022 based on Charlie’s example, and after an initial unprincipled rejection, the university recognized it as an RSO. I always admired Charlie, and without me even realizing it, he was one of my strongest personal role models.
On Wednesday, September 10th, 2025, Charlie was murdered by a deranged coward consumed by the nihilism of online far-left networks. Charlie died doing what God called him to do: bear witness for the Gospel to others and engage in discourse with them in pursuit of the truth. I can only hope to devote my life to the pursuit of truth, virtue, and human flourishing in such a courageous way.
Tragically, some UChicago students are indifferent to or even pleased by Charlie’s horrific killing, and a few have decided to make their disturbing thoughts public. The vast majority of these people have not watched more than 30 seconds of Charlie speaking, and are making disgusting statements about him solely on the basis of what they’ve heard from others. The fools calling him racist or sexist cannot point to a single remark of his to affirm such accusations, aside from deceptively selected quotes from online leftist liars. Furthermore, their absurd equation of Charlie’s rather mainstream views to outright Nazism and fascism reveals an unfortunate truth: they see us all as Nazis and fascists, and if they’re happy Charlie died, they’d be happy if any of us died.
A message to them: for your own sake, I pray for the softening of your hearts and your repentance to Christ. Your moral detachment is a product of the sickness imposed by a Godless environment and existence. You may feel empowered now, but I sincerely hope this despicable attitude does not cause this spell of violence to spill over to the other side. Ultimately, on Judgment Day, you will regret such wanton disregard for human life.
The cultural and institutional rot unmasked by this tragedy is exemplified by the UChicago Institute of Politics (IOP), which released no statement regarding Charlie’s killing. Sadly, the far-left extremist contingent of its student base that supports this killing holds the IOP hostage, preventing them from administering even the most shallow and nonpartisan of statements. Furthermore, I saw no social media posts on the subject from any IOP-affiliated students, and among the dozens of IOP staff and affiliated students whom I know, I received exactly one private message of condolence. The stated mission of the IOP is “fostering in our students a passion for… active engagement in our democracy,” but the deafening silence from the IOP’s students, staff, and leadership can only be interpreted as apathy toward this heinous attack on a young father, patriot, and advocate for civic engagement and civil debate.
Seeing this abandonment of institutional virtue, ordinary and decent men and women must step up to lead the way. The Chicago Thinker was founded under similar circumstances: in the midst of the COVID pandemic and radical leftist fervor in 2020, brave UChicago students publicly established the Thinker to “[challenge] the mob’s crusade against free speech by publishing thoughtful conservative and libertarian commentary, in addition to fact-driven reporting.” This has been our north star during my tenure as editor-in-chief, and Kellen and Akshay, our next editor-in-chief and managing editor, will continue this bold approach to truth-seeking.
I deeply value the Chicago Principles, and I will not abandon my commitment to free speech. But systematic free speech at the civilizational level is reliant on shared values, mutual personal respect, and strong moral norms. For bad ideas to lose out in the public square, the populace must be sufficiently morally grounded to actively defeat them.
As such, liberty requires order based on moral conviction. As stated by President John Adams, “Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by… morality and Religion… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Thus, our country, its institutions, and its people must prioritize the imposition of basic, foundational truths and understandings of virtue, as well as the intense stigmatization of such evil deviations from these as celebrating the gruesome killing of an ideological other.
To quote a recent post from Stephen Miller, “There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved… It is an ideology that leads, always, inevitably and willfully, to violence — violence against those [who] uphold order, who uphold faith, who uphold family, who uphold all that is noble and virtuous in this world… The fate of millions depends upon the defeat of this wicked ideology.”
We will remember Charlie’s life by advocating for the truth, speaking out for what we believe in, and standing up to immense evil with smiles on our faces, like Charlie did. We will not be silenced. We will not be deterred. Because we are all Charlie.
With Conviction,
Christopher Phillips
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, 2024 – 2025