A man wears a MAGA hat as people attend a vigil at the Montgomery Statue in Whitehall, to commemorate U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, in London, Britain, September 12, 2025. REUTERS/Jack Taylor

Influencer and streamer Hasan Piker tells the New York Times that he was scheduled to debate assassin victim Charlie Kirk in a few weeks, but America’s penchant for violence took that from him. Even before knowing the reasons behind Kirk’s murder, Piker admits that his and Kirk’s viewers have preconceived notions about murder that encourage even more bloodshed.

“[Kirk’s] shooting was not itself uncommon or extraordinary,” said Piker. “The victim was.”

Piker said Kirk liked to discuss the ways urban life has decayed in America, particularly in places like his native Chicago area.

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“In fact, his last words included answering a question about the frequency of mass shootings with a question … about whether ‘gang violence’ counted in that discussion,” said Piker. However, “any answer about civic decline in America also has to include a discussion about the failure of our political and economic establishment to reconcile with social challenges that have touched every place and aspect of American life. … [including] rising rents and homelessness, the destruction caused by climate change, titanic levels of inequality,” and others too numerous to cite.

“Our capitalist way of life — always accumulating, never evening out — leaves more and more people to deal with these problems on their own,” said Piker.

And while fomenting disparity and frustration, Piker said U.S. policy keeps setting its own example of “punishing and killing our supposedly sworn enemies, diplomacy be damned,” which sells the idea that we “can kill and maim our way to achieving the world we want to live in.”

“It suggests that, merely because we designate them as such, American enemies can be marked for death. Whether such rivals pose a legitimate threat, the ‘fire and fury’ of our military and our allies have clearly become the default answer for how we deal with a world whose interests don’t align with our own,” said Piker. “Pulling a gun or launching a missile has become part of our national character, a sad reduction of morality to the time it takes for fingers to pull triggers.”

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It does not help that younger Americans like Kirk’s alleged assassin feel “a sense of growing hopelessness as so many of those in power refuse to listen to their struggles, economic and otherwise,” said Piker.

“One side, Democrats, offers mostly platitudes, while the other, epitomized by [President Donald] Trump, frequently takes advantage of people’s resentments and redirects them toward vulnerable communities,” said Piker. “Mr. Kirk, an ally of Mr. Trump, was an expert at the latter.”

Read the New York Times report at this link.