The Death and Transmogrification of Charlie Kirk
Definitely not a transfiguration
First, the obligatory disclaimer: I am sorry that Charlie Kirk was shot and killed, a fate that ought not to befall anybody, but the conservative theater in the aftermath of his death, and the bullying to coerce the mourning of a person who I thought was odious, is too much. I won’t do it.
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A ‘transfiguration’ is the revealing of the divine, as when Jesus was shown in the heavens with Elijah and Moses or to the disciples after his crucifixion.
A ‘transmogrification,’ on the other hand, is a transformation of something into something else, perhaps delightful or grotesque. I will let you decide which in the case of Charlie Kirk.
The hagiography of the last several days is clearly an attempt at a transfiguration: political and maybe spiritual sainthood. At Kirk’s funeral, Donald Trump called Kirk a ‘martyr.’
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, former archbishop of Milwaukee, called Kirk “modern-day St. Paul,” which provoked gasps of horror. Perhaps the cardinal was reflecting on the fact that Paul was only gay basher in the New Testament, who also told slaves to obey their masters. Antebellum slave owners in the South used to love St. Paul.
Congress member Anna Paulina Luna said that George Washington, President John F. Kennedy, and Charlie Kirk should be mentioned on the same breath.
This is grotesque transmogrification.
Charlie Kirk is the only three-time winner of Left.MN’s Fatuous Bastard™ award, all awarded before he died. Kirk was known for his ‘prove me wrong’ shtick on college campuses, resembling Punch puppet shows where he beat up on callow undergraduates buried by Kirk’s unsourced rapid-fire bullshit. I don’t think he ever tried it at first class law or divinity schools.
[Update 9/24: I recommend this TechDirt article on Charlie Kirk ‘debates.’]
There have been several published articles recounting Kirk’s statements and positions about the the primacy of the Second Amendment over the lives of persons, calling the ’64 Civil Rights Act a mistake, slandering LGBT+ communities with special contempt for transgender persons, immigrants, and Muslims, just to name a few. I like this one from Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing in Vanity Fair. Coates says this in kind of a summary:
Kirk’s politics amounted to little more than a loathing of those whose mere existence provoked his ire.
Nekima Levy Armstrong also provides a bill of particulars in a Strib opinion piece with the subhed:
That he was assassinated does not make him a saint.
Nobody should be bullied into thinking Kirk was a saint or punished for saying he wasn’t.
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Update: And Wally Hudson intones the benediction:
He is risen indeed. pic.twitter.com/OpZ92QfADT
— Walter Hudson (@WalterHudson) September 21, 2025
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