This is Gen Z's Turning Point.

Why Charlie Kirk's assassination marks a defining moment for young people

Gen Z, and everyone else for that matter, just lost its voice. It’s voice of reason. Of representation. Of common sense. Of ideas that refused to stay in the dark.

Charlie Kirk wasn’t just another conservative pundit. He was the guy who showed up on campuses with a mic in hand, daring young people to challenge him. Ask me anything. That was his signature. He encouraged raw, honest, imperfect debate. He invited students to step into the arena, to battle over ideas out in the open, to prove that the battleground worth fighting on was words and ideas.

And for a generation already drowning in trauma, there’s a reason this feels like the last straw.

Gen Z grew up with school shootings always in the news cycle. A global pandemic stealing from them their formative years. Two assassination attempts on a sitting president. A country that tears itself apart over masks, pronouns, elections—take your pick.

And now this. In one of the darkest days in recent memory for this country, the assassination of the one person who relentlessly invited them into the arena.

This wound is not just political, it is social, spiritual, and generational.

Charlie may have been on nearly every campus, but most of us met him the same way I did: on our screens. I never shook his hand, but the news of his death still reverberated through my soul.

You don’t have to agree with Charlie Kirk’s politics to understand what we’ve lost. He modeled something rare: face-to-face dialogue. He wasn’t hiding behind a keyboard, sending empty threats like an ‘anon’ into the void. He showed up. In person. And he never closed the door on questions. That’s why campus yards filled. That’s why even his critics came. Because in an age where authenticity is rare and honesty is even rarer, he kept showing up.

And now we have to decide what to do in this moment.

Because the question isn’t just about what we lost, the real question is what we do next.

Do we shrivel up? Or do we create the future?

Do we flip tables in righteous anger? Or do we elevate the conversation to something better than we’ve ever experienced?

Maybe it’s both.

Hot take: Darkness doesn’t need to be destroyed, it needs to be displaced. Every time one of us chooses to speak instead of choosing to be silent, when we step forward instead of disappear, that darkness loses ground.

And that’s the choice in front of us.

Because one thing’s for sure: our future cannot look like our past.

Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk, 1993-2025.