Against Bluesky (and Blueskyism)

Shortly after Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination, Ezra Klein published the following thoughtful and magnanimous remarks:

“You can dislike much of what Kirk believed and the following statement is still true: Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him. He was one of the era’s most effective practitioners of persuasion. When the left thought its hold on the hearts and minds of college students was nearly absolute, Kirk showed up again and again to break it. Slowly, then all at once, he did. College-age voters shifted sharply right in the 2024 election.”

Although Klein acknowledges that he is not the right person to eulogize Kirk, he notes that he still

“envied what [Kirk] built. A taste for disagreement is a virtue in a democracy. Liberalism could use more of his moxie and fearlessness. In the inaugural episode of his podcast, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California hosted Kirk, admitting that his son was a huge fan. What a testament to Kirk’s project.”

In some ways, Klein’s remarks are too magnanimous. One can and should condemn Kirk’s murder, and political violence more generally, whilst acknowledging the truth: that in some ways Kirk was simply a MAGA apparatchik and propagandist. To take only one example, supporting Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election was not exactly “practicing politics in exactly the right way.”

At the same time, Klein is undoubtedly correct that Kirk’s actions exhibited both courage and an admirable focus on political impact. Unlike many who treat politics as a largely inward-looking, masturbatory indulgence of tribal instincts, Kirk turned up at hostile college campuses and sought to change people’s minds through persuasion. And to at least some extent, he succeeded.

Klein is right that liberalism—more precisely, liberals—could use a lot more of this moxie and fearlessness.

There was no better vindication of this than the characteristically hysterical reaction to Klein’s remarks on Bluesky.

Contrary to prominent falsehoods spread by conservatives, it’s simply not true that every post on Bluesky celebrated Kirk’s murder. Although there was some celebration, and any celebration is too much, most prominent accounts categorically condemned the assassination, as did almost every prominent liberal politician and pundit more generally. In so doing, they exhibited a commitment to liberal-democratic ideals not mirrored by most prominent right-wing