The far-right infrastructure, racism, and the authoritarian threat to academic freedom

Note: At the onset of this blogpost, I express a sense of profound sadness in witnessing the violent attack on Charlie Kirk, the message that sends for political culture, and the broader culture of violence we witness in the U.S. This violence has become an infrastructure of U.S. culture, replete with an aggressive gun culture (school shootings, attacks on public spaces), attacks on politicians, and deep polarization brought about through disinformation weaponized on digital platforms. In the analysis that follows, I have attempted to offer contextual analysis rather than lifted quotes and also linked to the show materials for the readers to follow.

I have over the last two years Chaired the Taskforce commissioned by the National Communication Association on Threats to Academic Freedom and Tenure. 

As part of the work, our taskforce has documented systemic patterns of attacks on academic freedom and tenure.

One of the key players in this organized attack on teachers, researchers, and educators in tertiary institutions is a digital platform called "Professor Watchlist," curated by the far-right Turning Point USA (TPUSA).

Charlie Kirk and January 6 Capitol Riots  

Created by Charlie Kirk, TPUSA played a pivotal role in the January 6 extremist attack on the US Capitol. In a now deleted Tweet, Kirk wrote "The historic event will likely be one of the largest and most consequential in American history...The team at @TrumpStudents & Turning Point Action are honored to help make this happen, sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president.” 

Figure 1: Charlie Kirk's deleted Tweet

The Website of Turning Point Action (TPA), promoted the campaign as "March to Save America."

Prior to the January 6 attack, Kirk played a pivotal role Kirk, along with other key figures in Trump’s far-right orbit, concocting and disseminating debunked claims of widespread voter fraud. Moreover, he promoted conspiracies around the "Pence Card" (referring to Vice President Mike Pence). In the January 4, 2021 edition of The Charlie Kirk Show, he stated, "Despite what the media and certain weak intellectually-compromised Constitutional scholars are telling you, Mike Pence does not have to accept the results of polluted and poisoned electors. He does not." It is critical to note here that this rhetoric shaped the climate of violence around January 6, including threats to hang the Vice President.

Figure 2: January 4, 2021 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show (hyperlink above)

He called for violence, stating that former President Joe Biden should be “put in prison and/or given the death penalty for crimes against America.”

In 2023, Kirk told his audience “You have a government that hates you. You have a traitor as the president. Buy weapons, I keep on saying that. Buy weapons. Buy ammo. If you go into a public place, bring a gun with you…” Referring to Democrats as "maggots, vermin and swine,” he created panic around political opposition, "“...these are not good people, they're not even a little bit good. They are coming after our throats.”

Great Replacement Conspiracy, Extremism and White Supremacy

In addition to promoting the election-related conspiracy theory to his large, young audience base, Kirk regularly promoted the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory. 

The Great Replacement conspiracy peddles disinformation around the white race under attack from immigrants (particularly targeting immigrants of colour, and disproportionately Muslims) and is the ideological formation that is linked to multiple Islamophobic terror attacks, including the Christchurch terror attack of March 15 that witnessed the murder of Muslim devotees. 

In a March 1, 2024 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk states, "You believe in God, country, family, faith, and freedom, and they won't stop until you and your children and your children's children are eliminated."

Figure 3: March 1, 2024 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show (hyperlink above)

In another show in September 2021, he discusses the strategy of "the other side" bringing in voters" in "diminishing and decreasing white demographics in America." 

Kirk circulated the immigrant as a threat narrative through examples such as, "“Those are the men that will go into your communities and break into your homes and rape your women, take your children. But, hey, they're -- they're dreamers.” 

In 2024, crafting the disinformation climate that catalyzed hate around the election, he was one of the core promoters of obvious lie that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating dogs and cats. After sending a team to Springfield to interview white residents who had heard rumors, he peddled those rumors as proof to mobilize anti-immigrant hate. 

He continually fed the targeting of Haitian immigrants, suggesting that small towns were “unrecognizable to people who grew up there.”

Figure 4: September 23, 2021 The Charlie Kirk Show

On June 2, 2025, he tweeted, "Islam is not compatible with western civilization."

Figure 5: Islamophobic Tweet by Kirk

The xenophobia and Islamophobia peddled 24X7 by Kirk constructed a narrative of white culture and white demographics under threat, particularly by an Islamic culture of invaders. 

Here's an example targeting Indian immigrants:

Figure 6: Anti-Indian racist post by Kirk

The anti-immigrant hate turned into promotion of violence toward immigrants (especially directed at migrants at the Southern border, with articulations such as, “And at what point do we use real force? You have to be willing to do it," “you can start with firing next to them. Say, hey. We have weapons. We're willing to use them,” and “…of course you should be able to use whips against foreigners that are coming into your country. Why is that controversial?”

On the same March 21, 2024 episode, he stated:

"So, what can be done about it? What would happen if Texas started firing rubber bullets? Let's play this out. Let's just say rubber bullets. What would happen? And, by the way, I don't rejoice in this. I don't wanna have to use force, but these people are criminals. They're invading. They made the decision to invade. They made the decision to do a pincer movement into the United States of America. They are bringing force upon themselves."

Events organised by the TPUSA, including the annual AmericaFest, have featured or attracted white nationalists. For instance, in December 2022, Ryan Sanchez, a member of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement, attended AmericaFest. Another AmeriFest event in 2021 was attended by far-right extremists Greyson Arnold and Micajah Jackson. Arnold used his social media pages to post memes lauding Nazis as the “pure race.” Kirk has hosted far-right figures like the white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Promoting transphobia

The white supremacy, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric of the far-right ecosystem converges with its organizing around transphobia.

Worth noting is Kirk's promotion of anti-transgender hate.

In a 2021 post, Kirk stated: "The facts that there are only two genders; that transgenderism and gender 'fluidity' are lies that hurt people and abuse kids... these are all under official opprobrium."

The denial of transgender identity is juxtaposed in the backdrop of conspiracy theories exaggerating transgender violence.

Mobilizing targeted attacks on academics and universities

Kirk's rise within the right ecosystem was mobilized around the role of his "Professor Watchlist" in targeting academics, listing them on his website, and mobilizing the digital ecosystem to attack them. 

Academics targeted by the list became the subjects of viral harassment campaigns, replete with threats of violence. Pile-ons through sock puppet accounts and automated bots are mobilized to build digital swarms of hate. 

Systematically undermining the autonomy of academic institutions and the academic freedom of individual academics formed the political economy of the authoritarian ecosystem propagated by Kirk. 

This authoritarian ecosystem thrives on communicative inversion, turning materiality on its head. 

The projection of academics as authoritarian and Universities as anti-free speech becomes the ground for creating a crisis of freedom. This concocted crisis of freedom is a necessary ingredient in securing the authoritarian control of Universities that we are witnessing with the Trumpian infrastructure across the US, both federally and in the US states.

It is critical that Aotearoa New Zealand remain vigilant of the far-right infrastructure and its organizing attacks on academic freedom. For academics to perform our roles as critics and conscience of society, it is vital that we recognize the anti-freedom and anti-speech authoritarian agenda of the far-right. The far-right is of course deny vehemently any labeling of the organized harassment and racist tactics as far-right. As academics, it is critical that we speak out, label specific far right, white supremacist, and extremist actions and build public awareness.