The assassination of Charlie Kirk is morally abominable. He was, it must be said, an asshole provocateur, and he was literally trolling his questioner with a smirking remark about gun violence when he was shot. This in no way justifies anyone killing him.
There were a few voices online who went for Edgy Internet Asshole at his death. Essentially every elected Democrat or prominent Democrat spoke out in horror at the events in Utah. I doubt that will matter, as Trump has already vowed vengeance on Kirk's killer or killers, despite not knowing what the motives of the shooter were, as the shooter is still at large.
Trump and others have escalated the rhetoric of violence around this act for two reasons. The first is that they tend to do that reflexively. Trump's every instinct is to attack and dehumanize. His opponents are "scum" and "animals" not people with whom he disagrees.
The second is that they see this to their advantage. One commentators lacking in rudimentary self-awareness said that Democrats were to blame for calling Republicans Nazis, and then immediately said that they could use this as their Reichstag Fire to destroy their enemies.
The increasing sense that the other side is not just wrong but inhuman is impossible to maintain in a civic democracy. It is also difficult to avoid, when the other side is engaging in behavior that seems antithetical to everything you believe. However, the job of an American President should be to calm things down, and we only have a Republican President, not one interested in healing or bringing together the diverse peoples of this country.
We will no doubt see some Edgy Internet Asshole become the True Voice of Democrats when portrayed on Faux News. But hopefully we find the assassin soon. My guess is their politics will be weirder and more confusing than we imagine right now.
UPDATE: I don't think quoting Kirk's actual words constitute being an Edgy Internet Asshole.
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