For most Americans, the most significant news in recent days was the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator who was shot while in the middle of an on-campus, open air debate with students. For University of Pennsylvania Dr. Michael Mann, last week mattered for the release of his newest book. Robbed of the news cycle by Kirk’s assassination, Mann took to social media to engage in his longstanding practice of belittling people with whom he disagrees – including the dead young father of two.
Dr. Mann retweeted on X (formerly Twitter) a post calling Kirk “the head of Trump’s Hitler Youth” and sneered in another tweet, “the white on white violence has gotten out of hand” with a picture of the suspected shooter. After encountering public backlash, he claimed that he was “simply agreeing with the (widespread) criticism of Ezra Klein's claim that Kirk was "practicing politics the right way". I do NOT approve of the inappropriate & inflammatory language used to describe Kirk (which I'd overlooked). Have deleted.”
This is merely the latest instance of Dr. Mann publicly condoning violence. In 2022, he posted a list of prominent conservatives and libertarians – Peter Thiel, Charles Koch, Rupert Murdoch, and Leonard Leo – and the comment, “It’s worth thinking about these men the same way we thought about Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda 9/11 assailants. The difference is these individuals are terrorizing the whole world.”
When someone as senior as Michael Mann is posting such drek, it’s worth asking: what exactly is being taught in those classrooms? Is it something that contributes to the great American experiment, or is it training students to tear it down?
This isn’t a theoretical concern. Just months ago, after UHC CEO was murdered by Luigi Mangione, UPenn Professor Julia Alekseyeva took to TikTok to declare, “I have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,” explicitly referencing that Mangione was an alumnus. That was not an isolated slip; it’s part of a larger culture that tolerates, and in some cases glorifies, rhetoric that legitimizes violence. I saw it as a student in the cheers for terrorist organizations, the calls for “global intifadas,” and the silence of administrators. And now, when faculty like Michael Mann broadcast their own political extremism, students watch, absorb, and some inevitably act on it.
We want to prevent future vigilante killers like Luigi Mangione, Charlie Kirk’s murderer, and any other young person who takes seriously the violent fantasies pushed by professors and influencers alike. That prevention does not start in the courts, or in PR campaigns after tragedy, it starts in the classroom. It starts with universities holding professors accountable when they glorify violence, and with administrations making it clear that the purpose of higher education is to foster critical thought, civic responsibility, and respect for human life.
Universities should be the strongest defense against radicalization. Instead, too often, they’ve become breeding grounds for it. Until schools like Penn confront this reality head-on, they will remain complicit in cultivating extremism, threatening Jewish students, and corroding the democratic values they claim to uphold.
Eyal Yakoby is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania who is dedicated to combating anti-Americanism. Eyal can be found on X at https://x.com/EYakoby.