On September 10th, 2025, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University by Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from a conservative Utah family. The irony cuts deep: Kirk built his career championing gun rights (famously arguing increased gun violence was “worth it” for the Second Amendment) and using inflammatory rhetoric about political opponents. Yet he wasn’t killed by the “radical leftists” he’d spent years demonising, but by someone from his own ideological side who apparently felt Kirk wasn’t going far enough.
The tragedy left everyone in an uncomfortable position. Those who embrace tolerance can’t celebrate the poetic justice without losing their own humanity. Those on the right can’t use it to fuel narratives about leftist violence when the shooter emerged from their own ecosystem. It’s a stalemate that demands reflection.
“Goodbye Charlie” isn’t celebration or condemnation. It’s a lament. The song acknowledges Kirk’s divisive rhetoric while refusing to dance on his grave. It suggests the most radical thing we can do isn’t choosing sides in culture wars, but choosing depth over shallowness, reflection over reaction.
Kirk leaves behind a widow and children. Robinson’s family must reckon with their son’s violence. These human costs matter more than political point-scoring.
The song is a plea to step back from the precipice. To recognise that the person across our political disagreements isn’t our enemy, but our neighbour. Because no one needs to die at the end of another gun, even when they’ve spent their lives arguing otherwise.
Goodbye Charlie
[verse 1]
Goodbye Charlie
And all your hate
Dressed up as virtue
From an angry saint
You bottled poison
With your words
And broadcast fear
Among your cursed
[chorus]
But no one needs to die
At the end of another gun
Even though you said that’s normal
And the way freedom is won
If we took our thinking deeper
And we took time to reflect
There’d be less to be afraid of
In a world with more respect
[verse 2]
Goodbye Charlie
And your push and shove
With a broken soul
Only a mum could love
You preached a message
To your chosen few
One they’d never voice
Were it not for you
[chorus]
But no one needs to die
At the end of another gun
Even though you said that’s normal
And the way freedom is won
If we took our thinking deeper
And we took time to reflect
There’d be less to be afraid of
In a world with more respect
[bridge]
The fact that you made headlines
With your finger-pointing words
Suggests there is a vacuum
In this modern universe
We’ve given up on thinking
We can’t wrestle with a thought
So we hitch our empty wagons
To any creed that can be bought
And boy, you made it easy
To play prejudice like sport
Until it was game over
To the sound of that report
[verse 3]
Goodbye Charlie
Let’s take a breath
Find a silver lining
From your death
That noisy leaders
Won’t save this place
Until they care for
The whole human race
[chorus]
But no one needs to die
At the end of another gun
Even though you said that’s normal
And the way freedom is won
If we took our thinking deeper
And we took time to reflect
There’d be less to be afraid of
In a world with more respect