Left-wing online streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker condemned a “culture of violence” in the United States following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“In less than two weeks, I was supposed to debate Charlie Kirk,” Piker wrote in a New York Times op-ed published on Saturday.
Piker said he was live-streaming when he learned about Kirk’s gruesome killing on Wednesday and was “shocked” by what he saw.
“It was the horror of seeing someone whom I know — not a friend or an ally, but a human being I know personally and have debated before — fall victim to what clearly seems to be a rising tide of political violence,” he wrote.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon)
As of Saturday, the motives of Kirk’s killer were unclear. Shell casings from the weapon used to shoot Kirk were covered in messages that appeared to reference internet meme culture and video games.
In the op-ed, Piker reflected on the factors he sees as contributing to the killing of Kirk, expressing his wish to debate these things with Kirk himself.
“I would have liked to ask Mr. Kirk about all these things,” he said, noting that the two “identified some of the same problems,” though they “clashed” on causes and solutions.
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The progressive influencer first noted the high rates of violent gun deaths in the U.S., coupled with “feelings of isolation and resentment” he described as growing amid issues like rising housing costs and inequality.
“Americans inhabit a culture of violence to which we have become habitually desensitized,” he wrote, before making a case that there’s a connection between that culture and U.S. foreign policy.
“Over time, our culture of violence has targeted people around the world — anywhere from Cuba to Iraq — people who serve as literal targets for American weapons and bombs, absorbing what I think of as Americans’ excess capacity for violence,” he wrote.
He later continued, “A foreign policy organized around punishing and killing our supposedly sworn enemies, diplomacy be damned, conveys the terrible message that we can only kill and maim our way to achieving the world we want to live in.”
Meanwhile, prominent right-wing figures have made references to being at “war” with liberals and Democrats in the wake of Kirk’s death.
