Following the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem last month, academics from across the United States have taken to social media to voice their criticisms of the conservative leader, labeling him as a dangerous figure.

Matthew Reznicek, an associate professor specializing in medical humanities at the University of Minnesota, has been vocal about his concerns. On September 13, he expressed on the progressive social media platform Bluesky that, “Professors have faced political violence due to Kirk and the culture he fostered, a culture that many are now attempting to sanitize.”

This reaction comes after a significant incident where law enforcement cordoned off the scene following the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

Reznicek and many of his peers have been particularly concerned about an opinion piece by Ezra Klein, titled “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way,” which was published in the New York Times, sparking further debate among academics and the public alike.

Reznicek’s objection, like that of many of his colleagues, stemmed from an opinion piece called “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way,” by Ezra Klein, published in the New York Times.

The Minnesota academic later insulted Kirk’s intellect. 

“The thing about memorializing Kirk as the Socrates of our era, willing to debate me bro anywhere anytime, is how he was also a know-nothing,” said Reznicek. 

Chris Lamb, a journalism professor emeritus of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, who brags about being on Turning Point’s “Professor Watchlist,” also made claims that Kirk and Turning Point caused violence. 

“I’m on Charlie Kirk’s professor watchlist. I know professors who were harassed and threatened after appearing on the list. Others were physically assaulted. Kirk’s murder is a tragedy – as is any murder. But let us not praise Charlie Kirk. He was a SOB,” he said on Bluesky. 

Lamb declined to provide evidence of this claim. 

Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

“I am not going to give you the name of a college professor or instructor who was harassed and threatened after being targeted by TPUSA, and, in giving you that name, put the person in harm’s way (again),” he told Fox News Digital. 

He pointed Fox News Digital to a documentary called “Surviving Turning Point USA,” produced by an Arizona academic. Lamb is interviewed in the film, and refers to Turning Point as “the Hitler youth.” 

Other academics who are on the Professor Watchlist are interviewed in that documentary, but none provide proof of threats or violence stemming from the list. One professor in the film says she didn’t even know she was on the list until the filmmaker reached out to her. 

The film covers the story of Ken Storey, a former professor at the University of Tampa who was fired in 2017 after Turning Point USA and the national media highlighted a post he made on X, then Twitter, celebrating the devastating Hurricane Harvey that hit Texas that year.

“I don’t believe in instant Karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesn’t care about them,” Storey’s post said. He later doubled down, suggesting that residents of Florida who voted for President Donald Trump deserved the same fate. 

Attendees hold up posters of Charlie Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minn.  (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The University of Tampa fired Storey. He received threatening voicemails that are played in the film. 

Lamb doubled down on his disdain for Kirk in his response to Fox News Digital. 

“I am saddened about Charlie Kirk’s murder,” he said. “I didn’t like him. I found him offensive. He was a bigot who perpetuated bogus conspiracies. This is confirmed by his own words. He exploited the politics of hate and division.”

“But there was more to him than other provocateurs. He was married with two small children. Maybe that would have motivated him to become a better version of himself if he had lived,” Lamb said. “It’s happened before. He was not afraid to engage with people who disagreed with him. This set him apart. America really needs someone who can engage us—rather than further divide us. Maybe he could have become one of those people. We’ll never know.”

Jeremy Littau, who teaches journalism at Lehigh University, also shared the sentiment of his colleagues in response to Klein’s think piece. 

“I have two professor colleagues who have faced threats and harassment due to the organization Charlie Kirk built, and they were not alone,” he said on social media the day after Kirk’s murder. “We can denounce and loathe political violence without hagiography for its victims. This is dangerous nonsense.”

Erika Kirk speaks during the memorial service for her husband, political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025, in Glendale, Arizona. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

“The big problem is that a large swath of America had never heard of Kirk until yesterday,” he continued. “Every piece in major media about him is an introduction for many, and so conferring the sense of sainthood on him in the long run creates permission for the dangerous response I fear is coming.”

Reznicek and Littau did not return requests for comment seeking proof of their claims of threats, violence and harassment. 

In 2023, an Arizona State University professor named David Boyles was confronted by two Turning Point activists on campus. One was filming and the other was asking questions about the LGBTQ content in his coursework. Boyles eventually swatted the camera from his face, leading to a physical confrontation. 

Stacey Patton is a communications professor at Howard University. In the five weeks since Kirk’s death, she has trashed him multiple times on her personal blog. 

A photo of Charlie Kirk, his children and wife, Erika, is seen after an all-member memorial service in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In one piece called “‘I Am Charlie Kirk’ Is the New Way to Confess You’re a Racist. Thanks for the Warning,” she compared people who use that phrase to the head of the Nazi youth Baldur Benedikt von Schirach, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi SS leader, George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of America’s Nazi party, as well as segregationists and KKK members. 

The phrase “I Am Charlie Kirk” has become ubiquitous among his millions of supporters since his death. 

Patton explained that her piece wasn’t meant to be taken literally. 

“The piece is a layered rhetorical essay, not a headcount of fascists,” she told Fox News Digital. “Saying ‘I am Charlie Kirk’ is a literary device, an historical analogy tracing the ideological lineage of fascism, not a literal equivalence.”

An image of slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk is placed at a memorial in his honor, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The State Department said it has revoked the visas of several foreigners over negative comments about Kirk’s assassination.  (Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

She further explained that she “drew a historical throughline between Goebbels’ techniques and the rhetorical tactics of modern demagogues.” 

Patton declined to comment when asked if she thought rhetoric similar to hers could have contributed to Kirk’s assassination.