As Americans around the world commemorated Martin Luther King Day, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk took to X to mark the occasion by condemning the civil rights activist — and those who honor him.
"Who was MLK? A myth has been created and it has grown totally out of control," he wrote. "While he was alive most people disliked him, yet today he is the most honored, worshipped, even deified person of the 20th century. Today we are going to tell the truth and explain how this myth was born. Happy Monday."
Dr. King, a Southern Black minister, became one of the nation's most prominent civil rights activists in the 1950s and '60s through a doctrine of nonviolent civil disobedience inspired in large part by the liberation movement of Mahatma Gandhi in India, with boycotts, strikes, and demonstrations breaking unjust segregation laws and voting restrictions. As Kirk suggests, King actually was controversial in his day. Supporters of segregation often painted him as a communist, and many other critics disapproved of his opposition to the Vietnam War and wealth inequality.
In modern times, his activism to advance equal rights is broadly revered, although some commentators cherry-pick his speeches to imply his vision is at odds with more recent social justice activists.
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Kirk's pro-Trump student organization, Turning Point USA, has often faced allegations of racism, including a chapter president at the University of Missouri who was caught using racial slurs on Snapchat, and a conference the group held in Phoenix where attendees surrounded and lobbed slurs at a Black, gay Trump supporter. This also comes amid reports that Kirk is planning to launch a campaign against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark equal rights bill passed with King's organizing efforts.
"So moronic. So, so, moronic," replied conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg in response to Kirk's remarks. "This is not going to end well," agreed fellow GOP pundit Erick Erickson, who added it's probably for the best that Salem Media — the company that syndicates his show — withdrew from the NASDAQ exchange.
"Sadly, Charles Kirk and extremists like him are attempting to tarnish Dr. King’s heroic legacy by targeting young people with disinformation. Charles says ‘MLK was awful’ and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a ‘huge mistake,’ but here’s the truth: They made our nation stronger," replied the account for the youth group Voters of Tomorrow.
"Charles’ rhetoric is libelous, alarming, and directly endangers the fight for civil rights."
