(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
LINCOLN — One year after the assassination of Turning Point USA president Charlie Kirk, the campus of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln was plastered with posters mocking his death.
Popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok posted images Thursday morning of posters on the UNL campus mocking Kirk’s assassination, alongside a slew of YikYak messages – an anonymous social media platform – celebrating his killing.
The Plains Sentinel verified the existence of both the posters and the messages.
The posters outside the student union read “Rest in Piss” and called Kirk “the masterdebaiter,” a joke which originated in the TV series South Park weeks before Kirk was shot.
Posts on Nebraska’s YikYak included multiple crass jokes about “celebrating the Kirkiversary” and “Kirkmas,” including posts such as “my neck hurts is Charlie kirk trying to communicate with me” and “Going by two my ex for Charlie Kirk” with a picture of a crying Erika Kirk. Others mocked students who elected to commemorate “dada Kirk” by wearing his signature “Freedom” shirt or attending TPUSA functions.
YikYak allows verified college students to post messages that can then be upvoted or downvoted by fellow students. UNL’s YikYak showed dozens of anti-Kirk posts with each garnering hundreds and some, over one thousand, upvotes from students.
In a statement to The Plains Sentinel, UNL said there was no current indication any university-affiliated persons were responsible for the posters, and stated that the University “does not condone or support messages making light of violence or the loss of life.”
Nebraska GOP chairman Mary Jane Truemper reacted strongly to the news.
“The left has shown us exactly who they are. It’s time we believe them,” she said. “Celebrating the murder of someone exercising their First Amendment rights is never acceptable, and it’s not the Nebraska way. Our schools should be places for debating differing opinions, not celebrating the assassination of those who hold them.”
Nebraska online activist Beard Vet, in response to the student messages, called the University of Nebraska “a communist hellhole.”
But celebrations of Kirk’s death were not limited to anonymous campus posters. Former state senator Julie Slama highlighted that in her post honoring Charlie Kirk, the “most liked” comment called Kirk a “racist bigot” and called for her execution.
The Nebraska GOP also posted a screenshot of Michael Mace, a former DNC delegate and chair of the Nebraska Stonewall Democrats, saying with regard to Kirk, “I’m glad he’s dead. He can’t hurt anyone anymore.” On the day of Kirk’s killing last year, he posted “reap what you sow” with a picture of Kirk.
The Republican Party called the post “despicable,” adding “this has no place in Nebraska.”
— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.
— Lewis Thune is a College Fix writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.