“When empathy dies, the heart of humanity soon follows.” ~LMB
On September 10th, Charlie Kirk—a 31-year-old far-right political activist—was assassinated while speaking at a Utah college campus. He was shot at approximately 12:10 p.m. MST. Kirk leaves behind a wife and two very young children, ages one and three.
Two days later, his alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, surrendered to police. Robinson, a white male from a staunchly Republican family, has no publicly known political affiliation. As of this writing, there is speculation that Robinson’s views are “left-leaning.”
Fifteen minutes after Kirk’s shooting, another tragedy unfolded. At 12:24 p.m. MST, 16-year-old Desmond Holly opened fire at Evergreen High School in Colorado, wounding two students before killing himself. Reports describe Holly as a young white male, with neo-Nazi views, fascinated with mass shootings, and recently “radicalized by an extremist network.”
These acts of violence echo another attack just months earlier. On June 4th, 57-year-old Vance Boelter allegedly shot and critically wounded Democratic State Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife before killing Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. Investigators say Boelter, a father of five, kept a hit list of 60 Democrats and had become consumed by far-right conspiracy theories about “stolen elections” and “evil Democrats.” (See: New York Times, July 19, 2025).
Together, these acts of violence (and many others like them) paint a disturbing pattern—political extremism, radicalization, and a culture that glorifies aggression while dismissing compassion.
Charlie Kirk himself embodied that messaging. He was one of the most polarizing figures in American politics—praised by many, despised by many— for his messaging aimed at young men. Kirk did not believe in empathy, claiming that “Empathy is a made-up New Age term that does a lot of damage.”
Tragically, Charlie Kirk’s death has been met with little to no empathy from far too many.
That absence of compassion—toward his wife, now widowed, and his two children, now fatherless—is a devastating reflection of how far we’ve drifted from our shared humanity.
Not having empathy—for the Hortman’s family, victims of political violence on both sides of the aisle, and victims of violence in all its forms—is a tragic sign of how far from our inherent humanity our nation has fallen. Just last week, I wrote about the damage we inflict on boys and men with our toxic “toughen up, man up” messaging. These tragedies underscore how urgently we need another path.
Whatever one thinks of a person’s politics or beliefs, celebrating or excusing their murder reveals something broken in us.
This is the danger of a world without empathy. A society stripped of compassion doesn’t become stronger; it becomes angrier, more fearful, more violent. However you justify it, a lack of empathy always leads to loss—for yourself and for others. Harden your heart to others’ pain, and you disconnect from your own humanity.
Empathy is not “made up.” It is one of the most essential human traits we have. Without empathy or compassion, civil society cannot exist. The erosion of empathy is not just a cultural problem—it is a civic one, leaving us vulnerable to extremism, us vs them, and violence.
We should be very wary of leaders—on any side—who encourage us to dehumanize others. Differences are part of being human, not reasons for harm. The voices urging us to hate or destroy are often those who are the most wounded, unable to connect in healthy ways. Don’t let their pain become your poison.
Every person—regardless of religion, politics, race, gender, or any other label—is a human being worthy of empathy, compassion, and life. To believe otherwise is to accept a future defined by cruelty and loss.
Empathy does not excuse violence, nor does it mean agreeing with those we oppose. It means recognizing that grief is real, that children deserve their parents, and that families deserve peace. It means remembering that the humanity of our enemies is what preserves our own.
