For Gen Z, Kirk assassination adds to an already polarized campus climate

Tim Collins was on his way to teach a class on presidential leadership and American democracy when news broke that conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been shot.

By the time the University of Minnesota political science lecturer’s class ended, authorities had announced that Kirk was dead. 

“My classes tend to be upbeat,” Collins said. “All of that was gone because it was, like, understood that this was gonna be sad, and not good.” 

Kirk’s death adds to a growing list of politically motivated attacks in the United States, including the recent shootings that killed Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and injured state Sen. John Hoffman. 

“People, I think, are going to start being more afraid of, you know, speaking their mind,” said William Luther, 20, the director of state affairs for the Undergraduate Student Government at the university’s Twin Cities campus.

Luther, who interned under Hortman in the state House of Representatives, said he may disagree with Kirk’s values, but his assassination was an attack on the First Amendment and the American experiment. 

Kirk was scheduled to speak Monday at the University of Minnesota as part of his American Comeback Tour — the tour he was on in Utah when he was killed. The event at Northrop Auditorium will now feature Michael Knowles, a right-wing media host for The Daily Wire.  

“That could have happened literally where we’re sitting right now,” said Benjamin Lindeen, 23, who graduated from the university last spring and studied computer science, management of technology and political science. “That just sends a chill down your spine, you know, thinking about just how, you know, crazy the world’s gotten.” 

Related: Poll shows how Gen Z views democracy: 11% say political violence sometimes necessary

The challenges Generation Z is facing, from a bleak economic future to loneliness and rates of depression, do not help, according to Lindeen. These factors make buying into radical and polarizing content easier. 

“It’s kind of like a disease of despair,” Lindeen said. 

The oldest members of Gen Z, defined as people born between 1997 to 2012, were first eligible to vote in presidential elections in 2016, when President Donald Trump was elected to his first term. For many Gen Zers, the 2016 election was their first introduction to politics.   

“We never knew a time where, you know, politics wasn’t polarized,” Luther said. 

‘More polarized’

A study by the Polarization Research Lab found that less than 2% of Democrats and Republicans said they would support murder motivated by partisanship. However, both Democrats and Republicans thought that roughly a third of the opposing party would support partisan-motivated murder. 

Maria Bengtson, 23, who graduated with a degree in communications studies at the University of Minnesota, said acts of political violence like the assassinations of Hortman and Kirk should dissolve partisan lines and bring people together. But that isn’t what she is seeing now. 

“I feel like recently it’s been the opposite,” Bengtson said. “It just makes people more polarized.” 

Partisan attempts to cast blame following attacks on both Democrats and Republicans prompted a warning from experts that the tactic could open the door for further violence, according to The Associated Press. 

“It’s so scary that it’s normalized in any sense on either side of the aisle,” said Siya Shelar, 20, the student government’s director of local affairs and a third-year political science student at the University of Minnesota. “An attack on either side is an attack to everyone because it represents an increase in normalization of violence as an answer.”  

For Shelar, who emigrated from India with her parents as a child and primarily grew up in Plymouth, talking about how socioeconomic status, human rights and barriers to civic engagement impact people differently is deeply personal.

“I want to create that association that talking about politics and the things you’re passionate about is a positive thing,” Shelar said. “It’s a thing you should be proud of doing.”

While she holds liberal views, keeping her work in student government bipartisan and focused on empowering students is her top priority.  

But Kirk being assassinated on a college campus — just days before he was slated to appear in Minneapolis — makes Shelar wonder how students can feel secure. “If no one is safe in those spaces, what do we have left for each other?” Shelar said. 

Liz Hamak, 23, a volunteer coordinator for Catholic Charities in St. Cloud and a College of Saint Benedict graduate, said Kirk’s rhetoric was part of the problem. “Not that he’s responsible for his own death in that way,” Hamak said. “But he created a culture of hate, which then, I think, can lead to violence.” 

Kirk was a vocal supporter of gun rights, even citing gun deaths as the unfortunate cost of protecting the Second Amendment, according to The New York Times. 

“It doesn’t spare anybody,” Hamak said of gun violence. “So I think there’s a huge amount of irony in that.” 

As someone who wants stricter gun reform, Hamak said outrage in equal measures that both Hortman and Kirk died from gun violence makes sense. A person had a gun who shouldn’t have. But that does not mean either party can point fingers, she said. The shooters are not your typical Democrat or Republican. 

“Your average American isn’t crazy, your classmates aren’t crazy,” said Caleb Lofgren, 20, a third-year political science student at the University of Minnesota. “Your classmates are not interested in murdering people with opposite political views.” 

Originally from the state of Wyoming, Lofgren has observed daily life in both predominantly conservative and liberal areas and the ideologies that accompany them. 

“I would say that I have a pretty good view on both perspectives and how both sides think, which still helps me remain a little bit more in the middle, rather than being swayed to either side,” Lofgren said.

Social media’s power

In talking with MinnPost about political violence, one topic kept coming up: social media.  

“Social media really enables this kind of filter bubble that we’re seeing in politics,” said Grant Wardour, 22, a fourth-year finance and management information systems student at the University of Minnesota. 

Social media is designed to get clicks from inflammatory content, according to Lofgren. If political parties are only portrayed through intentionally partisan content, believing the opposing party supports extremism becomes easier. 

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2026 College Free Speech Rankings found the percentage of students who said it is acceptable to “shout down a speaker, block entry to a campus speech, or use violence to stop a campus speech” increased from the previous year and are at all-time highs. 

“There’s a real sense that the understanding that I grew up with, which is you can disagree with someone, but that doesn’t mean you kill them, that is now rapidly eroding,” said Larry Jacobs, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. 

At Minnesota’s flagship university, 41% of students said it is acceptable in at least rare cases to use violence to stop someone from speaking on campus, according to the report. Among students nationally, 34% said using violence to silence speech on campus is at least rarely acceptable, with 13% saying the tactic is sometimes acceptable. 

Still, most students don’t want to see violence become the norm. The remaining 66% of students surveyed said it is never acceptable to use violence to silence campus speech. 

Related: How Gen Z uses social media to stay informed — and sometimes misinformed

Looking ahead 

In the wake of political violence, unity and understanding are needed more than ever, students said.  

“Having respectful dialogue, talking with each other and not letting politics get in the way of your relationships is more important than anything,” Wardour said. 

For Luther, addressing the aftermath of political violence is essential for creating an environment in which people do not fear retribution for expressing beliefs. Despite witnessing violence, his love for engaging in politics and being a part of creating change remains. 

“As a student leader, I want to make sure that this university is a place where people can speak freely,” Luther said.

Wren Warne-Jacobsen is a reporting intern with MinnPost.

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