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I have been sitting with the news of Charlie Kirk’s death for a few weeks now. He was young. He was loud. He made waves. And his passing has stirred something in me beyond politics. What I want to talk about is the weird wave of money that is riding in his wake. How death becomes a spectacle and how it becomes a marketplace.
Because I do not think those two things have to go together.
Charlie Kirk built something big. He rallied young people. He made himself a voice. He stood for something you might agree or you might not. Either way the world noticed. And then he got murdered. It shook people. It broke the normal flow. And now his name is everywhere.
Why I feel uneasy:
It hits me like this: when someone dies we should feel sorrow. We should change. We should reflect. But what I am seeing is more: crypto campaigns. Special editions. Fundraisers popping up. Merch. Donations. Coins. A flood of financial branding around a life and a death.
It is not just tribute.
It is transaction.
It feels wrong when the machinery of marketing kicks in while grief is still raw. When the question becomes not what does this death teach us but how do we turn it into something profitable.
I see this and I wonder: are we honoring someone or are we harvesting attention?
And especially when crypto comes in. Because crypto is slippery. It promises autonomy and promise but sometimes it is all risk and hype. When the grief economy crosses with the speculative economy, things get messy.
Donation becomes investment. Memory becomes token. Emotion becomes ledger entry.
Why It matters to Me:
Because if we keep letting death become a branding moment then mourning loses its meaning. Legacy loses its depth.
If every public figure’s passing becomes another revenue opportunity then what do we believe in? What kind of culture are we building?
I don’t want cynicism to win. But I worry it will if we don’t stop and ask the question: is this right? is this ethical? is this human?
What i’d prefer:
I’d like to see honesty.
I’d like to see space.
I’d like to see actual respect.
If someone wants to carry forward Charlie’s work fine. But let that work be genuine.
No rush to market. No immediate merch drop. No glib crypto pitch.
Let reflection happen. Let mission matter. Let supporting people matter. Let the memory of a life be more than a brand.
I am not here to pass judgement on everything Charlie did or did not do. I am here to pass a thought. A question.
When life intersects with death and commerce and politics all at once what do we choose?
I choose something quiet. Something serious. Something real.
Not the product of grief. But the practice of memory.
May he rest in peace.
Comments
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Dana Scully
Great post, I completely agree. It has been great to see the respect and mourning for Charlie all across the world with things like vigils, memorials and even peaceful marches. But the capitalization I can't stand, on either side -- because we have both people making memorial shirts and people making shirts mocking it, and the cryptocurrencies, and the people who slap together AI designs who don't really give a shit about him one way or the other, they just see an opportunity to make a quick buck.
I do think donations to TP are okay, because that's directly supporting the continuation of his work and also supporting his wife who now runs it. But I don't trust anybody selling stuff who claims that the proceeds are going there.
Exactly. 👏🏻
by Evil Queen; ; Report
Raquel
I don’t side with Kirk, I think he was a horrible person, and heavily disagree with his takes. But one thing for sure is that he did not deserve to die the way that he did, regardless of whether or not he advocated for it. I see people on TikTok laughing at the way that he died because of the pure irony of it. Even though I do see it, it still doesn’t mean that he wasn’t human. I personally see him as a victim of what he did to himself. He knew how much people hated him and didn’t care, he continued to hurt people with his words and that ultimately led to him dying. The fact that people on his political side are glazing the hell out of him and his death instead of honoring him in the appropriate way is absurd though. Death shouldn’t be profitable.
Lyy
I really enjoy the way you expressed your thoughts here. I’m still somewhat unsure how I should feel about this situation.
In my opinion, Charlie wasn’t a good person. He criminalized abortions, compared them to the Holocaust (even saying it was worse), and defended the legalization of guns. I must admit I don’t feel much pity over his death, considering the kind of person he was. But I still have something called empathy, and I’m not sure whether I should feel empathy for someone like him, someone who clearly wouldn’t have felt any for someone like me. Even though his beliefs were harmful, he was still a person, and that’s why I’m so confused.
Yes I understand.. but he was still a person, death should never be celebrated as hate, or made profit from. Only the highest being can judge.
by Evil Queen; ; Report
Yes ofc. I would never celebrate someone's death like that. But I just dont simply understand the people who "cried" and still mourn his death till now, when Charlie couldnt care less about their deaths
by Lyy; ; Report
I simply don’t know, they might have felt connected to him. Or like went through similar situations, with their close ones. It’s always good to remember the good in one another.🤷♀️
by Evil Queen; ; Report
Sluice
And you sent me a friend request. FUCKAWFF brah XD
Yes, I sent the friend request. I share my blog because I like connecting with people who are interested in these topics. If you’re here to actually discuss ideas, that’s great. If not, feel free to scroll on. 🧝🏼♀️
by Evil Queen; ; Report
Well, i'm not interested so sorry man, no ball for me.
by Sluice; ; Report
sudofry
I wish more people could see the bigger picture like this. I was more upset by the amount of people celebrating it than anything else.
It’s crazy to celebrate someone’s death. We may not like or support a person but, the toxicity of rooting for someones death is beyond me. That was a human, a father and a son.
by Evil Queen; ; Report
BULLET
You gave a human approach while writing this blog in such a respectful way to honor his death while calling out the way Charlie's death was also used as a cash grab. Well done.
Thank you, I appreciate that. It’s important to me to write in a way that respects the human loss while also calling out the uncomfortable reality of monetizing tragedy.
And yes, thinking about Charlie alongside Irina, who was murdered, makes this even more poignant. Both lives taken too soon, both leaving behind grief, but in Irina’s case there has been similar exploitation of her story in ways that feel more like spectacle than remembrance. It reminds us that behind every headline and fundraising push is a real person, and that honoring their memory should never be turned into a transaction.
We have to hold space for their lives, their stories, their humanity first, before anything else. That is the only way to truly respect them.
by Evil Queen; ; Report
Iryna Zarutska*
by Evil Queen; ; Report
This
by MarmotMeatSammich; ; Report