Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]

The murder of Charlie Kirk at the hands of a 22-year-old young man who was deeply steeped in the culture of trans activism and deviant pornography has shed a light on advocacy of violence that has become endemic in leftwing campus activism.

“When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts,” Kirk told a crowd of students during one of his quintessential campus visits. “When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with it becomes a lot easier to commit violence.”

Consider then what it means that Students for Justice in Palestine insists on an “anti-normalization” strategy in discussing issues relevant to Israel and Palestine. The Hamas-backed campus hate group refuses to participate in dialogue or debate with Zionist organizations or individuals claiming that such activities can only serve to bolster Israel’s claim to legitimacy and to be used by the “oppressor to colonize the mind of the oppressed.”

And just as Kirk warned, the vile consequences of this strategy are borne out by the rhetoric and actions of its campus adherents who preach that violence is an acceptable political tool.

Consider Columbia University student Khymani James who proudly broadcast his view—and defended it under questioning by administrators—that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and that people should “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

Fellow Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil is likewise on record saying that October 7th “had to” happen in order to “break the cycle” and change the fact “that Palestinians are not being heard.” The radical adherent to Hamas is also known for his pivotal role in organizing the illegal encampment at Columbia University which resulted in threats to the safety and free movement of Jewish students on campus and with the subsequent takeover of Hamilton Hall and the temporary imprisonment of janitorial staff. Khalil is continuing to fight a federal order for deportation due to his statements in support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations which the Trump administration reasonably judged to post a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

And who could forget the case of Jena and Noor Chanaa, the sisters who were students at George Mason University and who both served in turn as president of its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The pair were charged with desecrating the George Mason student center with spray-painted warnings of a coming “student intifada” resulting in thousands of dollars in damages to university property. When the police raided their family home they found “firearms—modern weapons, not antiques—as well as scores of ammunition and foreign passports, all of which sat in plain view” according to the Free Beacon as well as “pro-terror materials, including Hamas and Hezbollah flags and signs that read ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Jews.’”

This predilection for violence over dialogue is the same strategy adopted by much of the radical campus left which celebrates when conservative speakers are disinvited from campus or when their events are forcibly halted due to their own violent tactics.

When Riley Gaines attempted to speak at San Francisco State University in 2023 on the dangers of allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports, she was surrounded by a screaming mob of hysterical trans activists who physically assaulted her and then forcibly imprisoned her in a room for four hours while demanding a ransom for her release. The SFSU police department claimed that her accusations of battery, assault, and kidnapping were “unfounded” and dropped the investigation despite video evidence proving the contrary.

Dr. Asaf Peer, a professor of physics at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, attempted to give a scientific lecture on black holes at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas but was prevented from speaking by a mob of pro-Hamas protestors screaming about genocide in Israel and starving children in Gaza.  Campus police capitulated entirely to the rioters, shutting down the event and escorting Peer off campus over his own protests.

And that was all before we witnessed students and faculty glorifying in Charlie Kirk’s murder.

“I will 1000% wish death on people like him,” Southern University Law Professor Kelly Carmena posted of Kirk on Facebook. “He is the epitome of evil, and I have no compassion, not even a minute ounce of it for people like him who go around spewing hate the way he does.”

Carmena’s Facebook profile urges her readers to “protect trans kids” and “show love.”

University of Michigan School of Education Assistant Professor Charles H.F. Davis likewise defended the use of violence in response to speech after Kirk’s assassination, posting “Even if you believe violence isn’t the answer, it is a solution, especially to the violent conditions and violent rhetoric spewed by empowered people that create them.”

UCLA’s Director of Race and Equity Jay Perk gleefully celebrated Kirk’s murder, posting on Bluesky “It is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people’s death dies—even if they are murdered.”

At Fresno State, biology professor Shannon Sheath was caught on video apparently commenting on Kirk’s shooting in class, stating “I hope every one of his family dies. And their children, and their grandchildren, and their grandchildren, and their grandchildren, to eternity.”

A planned vigil organized for Kirk by conservative students at Bowdoin College in Maine was cancelled due to what the police termed a “credible threat.”

And at Texas Tech, 18-year-old student Camryn Booker was arrested and charged with assault after she hit a man holding a sign reading “Rest in peace Charlie Kirk” at a vigil to honor the conservative activist. Booker was caught on video singing “F— y’all homie dead, he got shot in the head,” while dancing amidst the crowd of mourners.

In a piece for the City Journal reflecting on the campus culture that enabled Kirk’s death, Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald decries what she terms the “ideology of totalitarian safetyism” that has been allowed to flourish on American campuses.

“It was grimly fitting that Kirk was murdered on a college campus, the source of the ‘hate speech equals violence’ ethic that demonizes philosophical opponents and creates a presumption that those opponents must be silenced for the good of America’s endemic victims,” she writes. “Kirk was breaking the stranglehold of that pitiless ideology over its intended targets—college students—giving them the courage to speak their minds in the face of institutional power.”

We have reached a dangerous moment for both our nation and our universities. Leftists can feel the changing of the tides. They sense their weakening hold on our institutions and the erosion of their threadbare Marxist narrative that pits the oppressors against the oppressed. They do not have the mental and psychological acuity to respond effectively with words and debate when their sacred worldview is challenged; therefore, they resort to threats and violence. We must remain ever alert to stem these threats emerging from the dying void of wokeism.