After conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was assassinated while peacefully debating on a Utah college campus, Maine’s radical left-wing college students took advantage of internet anonymity to celebrate political violence.
[RELATED: Bowdoin College Cancels Charlie Kirk Vigil, Claiming Maine State Police Alleged “External Threat”…]
“Closeted racists [emoji] they know what Charlie stood for but pretend he’s just a human being who peacefully spread his message. Don’t white wash his history like yall did with columbus [sic],” said one Bowdoin College student.
“Actually I think fascists SHOULD be afraid to go outside! The world is a slightly better place now,” said a University of Maine student.
Left-wing students took advantage of the anonymous Yik Yak social media site, designed for use by college students. The site allows users to send anonymous messages to others within a proximity radius, typically based around college campuses. Student users sign up with their university’s name, which is then displayed instead of a username.
Students from both Bowdoin and UMaine posted a wide array of celebratory statements upon learning about Kirk’s death, including numerous posts from both colleges referring to him as a Nazi or fascist.
“Oh no they shot mussolini [sic] bro what about his wife and kids bro this is a tragic death no matter how you spin it i swear bro,” said one Bowdoin student.
“If you’re debating about gun violence underneath a banner that says ‘prove me wrong,’ it’s kinda on you if you get shot,” said another.
That particular post, which seemed to say Kirk deserved his shooting, drew 117 likes.
One student suggested that he would attend the now-canceled memorial for Kirk that was set to be hosted by the Bowdoin College Conservatives to extinguish the candles lit in his honor.
“Who else is pulling up to museum steps at 7:15 with a fire extinguisher for those candles,” he said.
That memorial event was canceled by the college administration after they claimed that there were credible threats related to the vigil, though the school refused to clarify what those threats were when asked by The Maine Wire.
Some students appeared to call for more political violence.
“mmmm I actually think you hateful people do not deserve to breathe the same air as us,” said a UMaine YikYak user.
“Yeah I do think you should die if ur a racist or a fascist. why are we as a country ignoring history,” said another.
Another UMaine shooter claimed that “It’s a breath of fresh air seeing the Second Amendment being used for something other than school shootings,” though Kirk’s assassination was, in fact, a school shooting since it took place during a college campus event.
A UMaine Yik Yak user appeared to call for another assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in response to a post celebrating alleged Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson for having good aim.
The significant number of posts celebrating Kirk’s death from leftists at Maine’s schools, along with the even larger number of likes those posts received, suggests that, on the left, at least among college students, support for political violence is not just coming from a tiny fraction of radicals.
That radicalism has certainly infected Maine campuses. The radical ideas expressed by students could reflect the extremely left-leaning political biases found in Maine’s major institutions of higher education.
Last year, the Maine Wire conducted a review of the political affiliations of over 2,000 professors at Maine’s major universities, including Bowdoin and the entire UMaine System.
We found that, overall, just 5.5 percent of Maine college professors are registered Republicans. Across the entire UMaine system, that number was only seven percent.
At Bowdoin, just four professors, amounting to 1.5 percent, were Republicans.
