Dave Rubin’s recent comments to Sky News Australia make a simple but important point: Charlie Kirk treated him and his husband with nothing but respect, breaking bread with them and even inviting them into his home. Rubin’s firsthand testimony reminds us that the caricatures the left delights in painting about conservatives are often lies that collapse under the light of real human interaction.
This defense came at a time of raw emotion after Kirk’s tragic killing, when social media descended into grotesque celebration and rushed accusations. The mob’s immediate rush to demonize a man they barely knew showed once again how the left weaponizes outrage instead of waiting for facts, a disgrace to decency and a danger to public life.
Yes, Charlie Kirk was outspoken about his Christian beliefs and he sometimes offended the secular sensibilities of elites who think disagreement is a crime. Conservatives should not be surprised when cultural battles become heated, but we must also make a clear distinction between holding firm religious convictions and being a violent extremist — too many in the media refuse to make that distinction.
Dave Rubin — a gay conservative who refuses to shrink from his identity or his principles — has spent years arguing for open debate and mutual respect with those who disagree. His willingness to defend Kirk publicly is evidence that real conservatives value friendship, civil discourse, and the dignity of every person, even amid fierce policy disagreements.
The speed with which false and inflammatory claims circulated after Kirk’s death, including doctored quotations and hysterical headlines, is a reminder that much of the mainstream and social media cannot be trusted to care about truth. That cynical rush to judgment did real harm to a grieving family and to the idea that Americans can disagree without trying to erase one another.
Patriots who love liberty must push back against both violent rhetoric on the fringes and the sanctimonious cancel culture in our institutions. We can — and should — mourn a life taken far too soon while still debating ideas vigorously, not using death as an excuse to gaslight an entire movement.
If conservatives want to win the culture back, we should live the virtues we preach: courage in defending truth, charity in treating opponents as fellow Americans, and steel in refusing to let the left’s mobs rewrite the facts. Dave Rubin’s testimony about Charlie Kirk is a small but vivid example of how common decency between ideological opponents still exists, and it’s worth defending with everything we have.
