TJ Walker’s YouTube commentary argues that a new form of right-wing cancel culture—which he dubs “right-wing wokeism”—has emerged following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Citing a Reuters investigation, Walker says more than 600 Americans were fired, suspended, or investigated for social-media posts that did not call for violence but failed to praise Kirk. He gives named examples (South Carolina kindergarten assistant Lauren Vaughn, Clemson climate scientist Joshua Breguehue), claims political figures like J.D. Vance encouraged employer pressure, and frames these actions as ideological enforcement that threatens free speech while acknowledging limited, traditional speech restraints (e.g., incitement, fraud).
Questions this video answers
More than 600 Americans.
Lauren Vaughn, a South Carolina kindergarten assistant.
Joshua Breguehue, a Clemson climate scientist.
"I think it's worth, it's worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God given rights. This is a prudent deal. It is rational."
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The Charlie Kirk purge and the new right wing wokeism is here. According to major Reuters investigation, the United States is witnessing a new and far more dangerous form of cancel culture and it's coming from the right. After the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which I abhor and everyone abhors, more than 600Americans were fired, suspended or investigated for social media posts that did not, may I repeat, did not call for violence. Their only crime was failing to celebrate a MAGA icon. Now one of these people was South Carolina kindergarten assistant Lauren Vaughn. Her post simply quoted Charlie Kirk's own words from 2023. I will quote those right now. Quote is from Charlie Kirk. I think it's worth, it's worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God given rights. This is a prudent deal. It is rational, end of quote. And those are words directly spoken by Charlie Kirk. She then added two words, thoughts and prayers. She was fired days later. Or Clemson climate scientist Joshua Breguehue wrote no one should be gunned down. But am I going to allow people to make a martyr out of a flawed human being whose rhetoric caused notable damage? Not a chance. Republican lawmakers threatened to defund the university unless he was removed. He was fired. And Trump's Vice President J.D. vance encouraged these purges directly. Call them out and hell call their employer. This isn't protecting anyone. It's enforcing ideological obedience and it's erasing the first Amendment in real time. What's the real message here? Amongst all the other constitutional crises facing America right now, we're really facing a time of right wing wokeism permeating not just academia, but businesses everywhere. 600Americans have had their lives destroyed, their careers ruined, not because they called for violence, but because they didn't praise Charlie Kirk. This is an Orwellian nightmare and it needs to stop. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. So am I saying you should be able to say anything you want anytime? Well, no. No one believes you should be able to shout fire in a crowded movie theater because it can cause a stampede and people die. No one says you should be able to out foreign agents working for your country because revealing their status as an agent could get them instantly killed in a foreign country. So there's really nobody, no serious person who believes that there should be absolute, absolutely zero restraints on speech. You should not be able to take something that is a pure poison and sell it as a drug that will cure baldness and start selling it to people and killing it to people. You don't have the right to commit fraud like that. So everyone agrees there should be some limits on speech. Traditionally, the limits were you can't make calls for violence. But that's not what happened with these people getting fired for Charlie Kirk. They're getting fired because they hurt the feelings of people who like Charlie Kirk. Now, if you like Charlie Kirk, fine. I'm not trying to convince you, not if you mourned his death. I respect your mourning. If you wanted to, if you're personal friends with him and you wanted to express sympathies to family, by all means do so. But when a public figure dies and someone who has been involved in the political debates of our time and by his own reckoning is highly, highly controversial and very much a part of culture wars, when that person dies, it's simply implausible to suggest that no one be able to criticize this person. If, and I don't wish anyone ill will, but if Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson were to die tomorrow, I don't think anyone should be fired for voicing criticisms of things they said throughout their career. But I think it's kind of weird if people didn't. They were. I've got some issues with both of them. I think Tawana Brawley is something that Al Sharpton's never really lived in. Although in the context of our times, that seems like nothing as far as public figures lie repeatedly. But this is a huge, huge problem where we've heard all of this talk about how awful wokeism is in our culture today. And some presidential candidates, like the governor of Florida, that was their whole theme of I'm going to fight Wokeism and I'm going to make Wokeism die. Well, Wokeism is stronger than ever. But it's not because there's some left wing faculty member of an Ivy League university getting you or a family member of yours fired because you didn't use the word Latina. That's our Latinx. That's not what is happening. You aren't getting fired because you didn't use a preferred pronoun of some obscure academic at the University of Iowa. That's not happening. What is happening is latest count, According to Reuters, 600 people have seen their careers, their livelihoods, their incomes destroyed because they didn't praise an ideological extremist. And that, my friends, is not America.
