[Product Review]
MAGA Is Mourning Charlie Kirk With Ridiculous AI Slop Merch
Charlie Kirk is gone, but, in the world of MAGA politics and the related field of incredibly tacky merch and souvenirs, he is not forgotten.
Next Thursday marks the first anniversary of Kirk’s death at the hands of an apparently politically motivated gunman. Ironically, those dark circumstances have played into the disingenuous schtick that Kirk made his life’s work. Kirk presented himself as someone who just cared about free speech and dialogue. His main bit involved showing up at college campuses to “debate” young students and package viral clips. This conceit meant that, in death, Kirk’s far right allies could cast him as an open minded martyr whose efforts to foster dialogue led a killer to silence him.
All of this obscured Kirk’s role as a purveyor of hate with a massive platform. Kirk’s Turning Point USA focuses on radicalizing young people and deploying massive sums for the MAGA agenda of mass deportation, transphobia, and white rage. Away from his more polished clips, Kirk mainstreamed some of the same ideas espoused by white nationalists, declaring that “America was founded by Anglo-Saxons and based upon Anglo-Saxon laws and traditions.” In one 2023 tweet, Kirk managed to simultaneously defend South Africa’s apartheid regime, the racist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, and even the internet code for “Heil Hitler.”
“Multiculturalism is un-American,” Kirk wrote in another screed, adding, “If you don’t assimilate you are disgracing this country and you can kindly leave.”
Another lowlight was this bit of anti-trans paranoia that feels like a bigoted fever dream take on the “Ghost In The Shell” anime franchise.
“The Trans Agenda is being used to condition people to eventually merge with machine and abandon their humanity,” Kirk wrote.
Political violence is simply abhorrent. However, the awful facts of his death don’t erase his hateful words. All of which make the post-assassination canonization of Kirk, which will once again take center stage next week, especially ridiculous. That absurdity is particularly apparent when you peruse the aisles of internet retailers and their offerings for Kirk’s MAGA mourners.
There are multiple t-shirts and other souvenirs casting Kirk as some type of Civil Rights icon. One shop is even selling “FREEDOM” shirts for $33.27 with a portrait of Kirk alongside Martin Luther King, Jr.. It doesn’t seem like a comparison that even the grandiose Kirk would have made. In his life, he referred to King as “disliked” and the leader’s legacy as a “myth” with “flaws” that needed to be exposed.
Over on TikTok, sellers have made a bizarre blanket featuring likenesses of Kirk and George Floyd, the man whose death inspired the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, as angels looking down from heaven. Here in the real world, Kirk called for the officers who were later convicted of federal civil rights violations for Floyd’s death to be “released immediately.”
Following his death, due to some mix of his own grossness and pure brainrot irony, Kirk became a Gen Z and Alpha internet meme. It can be difficult to parse some of the weirder pro-Kirk merch available online from the items meant to mock him. For example, there’s this “CHARLIE KNIRCK” shirt that evokes pop star Taylor Swift’s attention-seeking New York Knicks NBA Finals merch. That seems like an item that could appeal to Kirk fans and haters alike.
For the purposes of this story, we have tried our best to stick to the seemingly earnest pro-Kirk stuff. It’s all pretty weird and much of it seems to have been churned out with AI.
The worst of the Kirkslop includes another blanket featuring Kirk as an angel clutching American and Israeli flags. Kirk was indeed a staunch advocate for Israel, a position which separated him from the more blatant neo-Nazis who might otherwise have been his fellow travelers. However, in this case, the angel’s face looks more like a stock photo model than Kirk. This coloring book from Etsy that purports to tell the story of Kirk’s life and share the “Positive Reflections and Inspirations of a Great American” also seems to feature generic AI art that looks nothing like Kirk.
Prayer candles, which were a staple of cringey Trump Resistance activism, are now being lit for Kirk. You can also bake bread with a Kirk-themed mold or fill the cupholders of your car with coasters that seem to replicate the scene of Kirk’s killing.
One common thread through much of the Kirkslop is word art. There’s so much word art like this mug featuring FBI Director Kash Patel’s over the top remarks. The pro-Kirk word art also includes even more questionable quotes like this t-shirt that falsely attributes a line from the fantasy author George R.R. Martin to Kirk.
Much of the merch relies on familiar right-wing iconography. One particularly special piece is this hat, which basically combines three types of patriotic MAGA imagery in one hectic package. You have red, white, and blue flames, a gothic script Constitutional “We The People,” and, of course, a hint of Kirk word art.
Despite his efforts to sow hate and division, Kirk presented himself as a devout Christian. Religious elements are a major Kirkslop theme. While Kirk arguably did little to embrace the teachings of Jesus Christ, there are countless fantasy art pieces that picture him physically embracing the Christian savior, like this commemorative coin. Along with Jesus, it features Kirk alongside a somewhat disembodied fist and set of praying hands on the reverse side.
Not all of the Kirk memorial merch seems like mass-produced AI slop. Some of it is decidedly homespun, like this crochet pattern designed to help knitters make dolls of Kirk and Christ to sit side by side. The description for that item includes a note that could be read as offering an unintentional commentary on how the supposedly Christian MAGA base may be putting their various cults of personality before religion.
“You will get the patterns for both dolls,” the description says. “The Charlie Kirk doll is slightly larger than the Jesus.”
Amen.
