Who Really Owns Free Speech After Charlie Kirk’s Death?
Written by Peter Boykin on September 22, 2025
Who Really Owns Free Speech After Charlie Kirk’s Death?
#GoRightNews Shared by Peter Boykin
American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist / Activist / Constitutionalist for Liberty
Who Really Owns Free Speech After Charlie Kirk’s Death?
A Strange New Silence: Cancel Culture’s Double-Edged Sword
A friend of mine once said the measure of a society isn’t how it treats the people it loves, but how it handles the ones it can’t stand. In the weeks after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, that wisdom has been tested and exposed.
The public grieving was immediate. Vigils, hashtags, and tributes poured out across the country. But almost as quickly came the ugliness: memes mocking Charlie Kirk’s death, jokes tasteless enough to make a hardened cynic cringe, and voices on the left taking open glee as if tragedy itself were a political victory. America began writing two very different stories. On one side, a nation honoring a man who built his name on open debate. On the other, an avalanche of cruelty that revealed just how toxic politics has become when even death is treated like a win.
But then came the cancelations. The same crowd that had no problem deplatforming conservatives like Roseanne Barr, or blacklisting Trump supporters for nothing more than their vote, suddenly found themselves on the chopping block for being too cruel about Kirk. Jimmy Kimmel, once untouchable in late-night comedy, saw his career cut short. Comedians, influencers, and media personalities discovered that their “jokes” about Kirk could cost them ratings, contracts, or even their livelihoods. What began as an outpouring of grief had quickly turned into a mirror, showing how cancel culture doesn’t stay confined to one side of the aisle.
The Cancel Culture Paradox
This raises a complicated question: when does criticism fall under free speech, and when does it cross the line into something that justifies discipline?
The internet filled with voices. Some mourned, some mocked, and others weaponized his passing for their own agendas. What caught many by surprise wasn’t just the nastiness from Kirk’s critics, but the backlash against them. Insensitive jokes about Kirk? Memes mocking his death? In this new climate, those weren’t just “free expression,” they became fireable offenses. Major employers acted swiftly, citing “reputational damage” and “insensitivity.” Platforms tightened rules. Some voices were silenced not by mob outrage but by corporate calculation.
Here lies the contradiction: for years, the left weaponized cancel culture against the right. Businesses, schools, and Hollywood declared dissenting opinions unacceptable. If you supported Trump, you could lose your livelihood. If you questioned the “woke” line, you risked exile.
Now those same people are facing the same blade they once sharpened. Employers, perfectly within their rights, are firing those who bring shame or backlash. Corporations chase ratings and brand protection, not principle. And in a free market, they can do that.
The Line Between Free Speech and Consequences
Let’s be clear: employers absolutely have the right to fire employees who embarrass their companies. That’s not the same as the state stripping someone of their ability to speak. But when social media giants are hauled before Congress and accused of “letting right-wing violence thrive,” we’re no longer talking about private discipline, we’re talking about government-driven censorship. But there’s a darker undercurrent. When the President of the United States, Donald Trump, himself weighed in. Not just with words of grief for a fallen ally, but with threats of boycotts, calls for license reviews, and pressure campaigns against media companies, and leaning on platforms.
Supporters cheered. Critics warned: that is not free market accountability, that is government coercion, and this isn’t just cancel culture, it’s creeping state pressure. If government officials can lean on private platforms to silence speech, and once Washington gets to decide what is acceptable speech, the First Amendment becomes a suggestion instead of a shield.
This creates a dangerous paradox, in the chaos, one truth gets buried: Kirk himself would never have cheered a mob shutting down speech, left or right. He believed debate, even the messy, uncomfortable kind, was the only path forward. Kirk was a man who built his career on the belief that ideas should clash in the open, not be smothered in the dark. Yet his death is now being leveraged to justify precisely the kind of speech-policing he fought against.
The Case of Jimmy Kimmel and Disney
No figure captures the hypocrisy of cancel culture better than Jimmy Kimmel. Before he reinvented himself as a late-night political voice, Kimmel co-hosted *The Man Show* with Adam Carolla. The show was filled with beer-chugging antics, skits where women were treated as props, and comedy routines drenched in sexism that would be torn apart in today’s cultural climate. Kimmel even performed in blackface while impersonating NBA star Karl Malone, something that has destroyed careers for others.
Fast forward to his late-night career, and Kimmel became a loud supporter of cancel culture. He mocked conservatives who lost jobs, laughed when Trump supporters were silenced, and promoted boycotts when it suited the progressive narrative. The irony is unavoidable: the Jimmy Kimmel of late-night would have canceled the Jimmy Kimmel of The Man Show.
When Charlie Kirk’s death became a cultural flashpoint, Kimmel himself was caught in the cancel storm. He had cheered when right-wing figures were taken down, but suddenly the same system turned on him. His show was yanked by ABC, the very network owned by Disney, showing how quickly the winds of outrage can shift. Disney itself has been a central player in cancel culture hypocrisy. Marvel actress Tatiana Maslany, who starred in *She-Hulk,* publicly called for political boycotts while being shielded by the same company that had no problem canceling others. Gina Carano, a conservative actress from *The Mandalorian,* was fired by Disney for her right-leaning posts on social media. The company that claims to stand for creativity and inclusion has repeatedly acted as judge and jury, deciding which political views are acceptable and which are punishable.
This is the ultimate bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you moment. Kimmel thrived under the same culture that celebrated canceling conservatives. Disney profited while selectively punishing those with the “wrong” opinions. And now, the outrage machine is consuming the very people and corporations that fed it.
What Charlie Kirk Actually Stood For
The tragedy is how Kirk’s name is now being twisted into an excuse for the very things he fought against. Kirk built his career insisting that all voices deserve to be heard, even the harsh ones. He welcomed debate, because he knew conversation revealed common ground. He rejected cancel culture on principle. He warned against government overreach because he knew a government powerful enough to silence one side will eventually silence everyone.
And yet, in the aftermath of his death, people shouting “Stand with Kirk” are doing everything but standing with his values. They are using his name as a tool to justify silencing voices, pushing censorship, and demanding government control over speech.
Kirk would have despised that.
Never Justify Losing Freedom
#GoRight with Peter Boykin Commentary
Let’s talk plainly about the First Amendment and what it really means, because too many people today only seem to defend free speech when it benefits their side. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”
That is not fancy legal jargon, it is a firewall against tyranny. It means the government cannot decide which voices get heard and which voices get silenced. It does not exist to protect the comfortable or the popular. It exists to protect the uncomfortable, the offensive, the dissenting. Because the second you let the government decide what counts as acceptable speech, you have already given away your freedom.
And yet here we are, in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death, watching people twist his name to justify censorship and cancel culture, the very things he stood against. Kirk built his career on open debate. He believed all voices should be heard, even when they clashed with his own. He rejected cancel culture on principle. He warned against government overreach because he knew a government powerful enough to silence one side will eventually silence everyone.
So when I see people standing with Kirk while calling for cancelations in his name, I have to say it: you are not honoring him, you are betraying him. If you think canceling others in Kirk’s memory somehow protects his legacy, you are spitting on what he lived and died for.
Freedom is not tested by how we treat the voices we love. Freedom is tested by how we defend the voices we despise. That is the hard truth. You do not get to cherry-pick liberty. If you cheer when your opponents are silenced, do not be surprised when the same blade is turned against you.
The First Amendment is not a suggestion. It is the backbone of this Constitutional Republic. And once we start excusing its erosion, because “they deserved it” or because it feels convenient, we lose it for everyone.
Never justify losing freedom. Because once it is gone, it does not come back.
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A deep dive into the cancel culture paradox after Charlie Kirk’s death, exposing how his name is being misused to justify censorship and government coercion, with a spotlight on Jimmy Kimmel’s hypocrisy, Disney’s selective punishments, and the wider dangers of cancel culture.
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