I spoke with students across Alabama who considered Charlie Kirk to be a mentor and role model. I asked them what they think should happen next. www.al.com/educationlab...
Replies
This is why he preyed on the uneducated. These kids don’t even have the vocab to qualify for the convo (much like CK) and don’t realize you cannot debate objective facts, you’re just wrong if you disagree. They were groomed to be wrong & think being corrected is an attack worthy of retaliation.
sep 19, 2025, 6:11 pm • 3 1 • view
Apropos of nothing in particular, Alabama is 26% black. Anyway, you say you talked to a bunch of white people? Cool, cool.
sep 19, 2025, 5:03 pm • 116 3 • view
It gets worse. Google them.
sep 19, 2025, 9:02 pm • 2 0 • view
I thought the quote from the Black guy was great though.
sep 19, 2025, 7:03 pm • 6 0 • view
Yeah - a tiny little note of discord in a sea of gloss. Very disturbing that examples of Kirk's many statements illustrating his bigoted worldview were not included, nor more commentary from how students from the many groups he targeted might have felt about his activism.
sep 19, 2025, 9:34 pm • 14 0 • view
Who gives a shit what a bunch of bigoted fools think?
sep 19, 2025, 6:08 pm • 10 1 • view
Because they are MAGA, 2.0. Social media savvy with the desire to run Southern states in the next few years! It terrifies me to know they are ignorant, armed, and would cheerfully put non-white, non-straight people into ICE detention centers, or worse.
sep 20, 2025, 1:06 am • 0 0 • view
Future Conservative Grifters of America. That eventually grows up and calls for the institutionalization of Trans people, the outlawing of Gay Marriage, and the revocation of women's rights. FANTASTIC.
sep 20, 2025, 4:36 pm • 1 0 • view
You should mentioned that the main person interviewed -- Brilyn Hollyhand (whose interview makes up about half of the article) -- is the chairperson of the Republican National Committee's Youth Advisory Council www.linkedin.com/in/brilynhol...
sep 19, 2025, 9:13 pm • 10 1 • view
Eh, I don't much care what the Hitler-Jugend thinks.
sep 19, 2025, 6:41 pm • 2 0 • view
They sound like a bunch of entitled little shits. I can only think of 2 halfway decent schools in Alabama to begin with; they're lucky they're getting a college education at all.
sep 19, 2025, 6:03 pm • 2 1 • view
Did you have time to discuss the meaning of Charlie Kirk’s words? www.thebulwark.com/p/charlie-ki...
sep 19, 2025, 5:35 pm • 0 0 • view
Let’s have a chat about Kirk’s beliefs. A thread 🧵 to bookmark 🔖 bsky.app/profile/clim...
sep 19, 2025, 5:34 pm • 6 0 • view
We don't give a shit about your interviews with the Hitler Youth.
sep 19, 2025, 8:12 pm • 0 0 • view
How much of a mentor could he be when they flatly ignored his fundamental thesis “don’t go to college?”
sep 19, 2025, 6:35 pm • 2 0 • view
So 300 people show up and you want to drop the first amendment’s rights and protections. So what about the thousands of people that think Charlie Kirk was a racist, a bigot, a trouble maker? Don’t their voices count?
sep 20, 2025, 8:05 pm • 0 0 • view
"What should happen next? You mean besides bringing back slavery?"
sep 19, 2025, 5:36 pm • 2 0 • view
Why do you just print their lies and propaganda without context or clarification? And you close with a real whopper that Alabama colleges aren’t welcoming to openly Christian students. What??
sep 19, 2025, 8:31 pm • 3 0 • view
Oh.
sep 19, 2025, 9:18 pm • 0 0 • view
Why is the central figure of this article’s role as co-chair of the Republican National Committee's Youth Advisory Council never mentioned? Presenting connected political activists as run of the mill students is lying to your readers.
sep 19, 2025, 9:22 pm • 2 0 • view
You spoke with Nazi filth. Stop sugarcoating it.
sep 19, 2025, 9:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Ms Smith, is what Jesse writes here true? bsky.app/profile/jess...
sep 19, 2025, 9:05 pm • 2 0 • view
Did you ask them why they support degrading women, stoning gay, lesbian, and trans people, reimposing segregation, and all that? Because if not, nothing else matters.
sep 19, 2025, 5:19 pm • 61 1 • view
I'm sure they'd answer something like "Well, you see, in the Bible..."
sep 19, 2025, 9:36 pm • 8 0 • view
Were these young adults aware of why so many Americans associate Charlie Kirk w/White supremacy, misogyny, homophobia and anti-trans sentiment? I find it troubling, based on Kirk's extensive online record of hateful & offensive comments, that ANYONE would consider him a "mentor and role model."
sep 19, 2025, 9:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Seriously- Alabama?
sep 19, 2025, 6:42 pm • 0 0 • view
Lol, yeah, okay. Tell them to go do their homework.
sep 19, 2025, 5:05 pm • 10 0 • view
Man, and all we had was Brother Jed and Sister Cindy. Simpler times.
sep 19, 2025, 6:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Just regular students- no actual GOP operatives? Wait, let me come in again
sep 19, 2025, 8:26 pm • 4 0 • view
Cool fascist propaganda, does the money fill that void where your soul is supposed to be?
sep 20, 2025, 11:04 pm • 0 0 • view
I counted just one comment from a non-conservative in this article, but several so-called conservatives were quoted. So balanced journalism isn't a thing in Alabama?
sep 19, 2025, 5:52 pm • 5 0 • view
Nothing like using GOP whack job plants for your "student" interviews.
sep 19, 2025, 11:38 pm • 2 0 • view
sep 19, 2025, 5:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Alabama is a terrible place. Good luck there.
sep 19, 2025, 6:40 pm • 4 0 • view
I do not care
sep 19, 2025, 9:32 pm • 0 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/doug...
sep 19, 2025, 7:48 pm • 8 0 • view
You liberals keep thinking communists are fascists when it is the capitalists you revere allying with or enabling fascism.
sep 19, 2025, 6:53 pm • 4 0 • view
Wrong army.
sep 19, 2025, 5:50 pm • 42 0 • view
Didn’t Charlie tell them not to go to college?
sep 19, 2025, 6:55 pm • 2 0 • view
And here I was thinking to myself, you know what we haven’t had enough of the last decade? Stories in the media about white, male, conservative grievance and their desire to stamp out any other voices from the public square. But thanks for writing the 7501060175914th version, Ruth.
sep 19, 2025, 7:29 pm • 11 0 • view
A rabble of mouth-breathing Kayleighs and Braydens who've barely dated outside their own family.
sep 20, 2025, 12:21 am • 2 0 • view
How do they reconcile firings with that fact that Kirk most clearly said that there is no such thing as hate speech, with no exceptions of any kind? I mean intellectually what does this say about their ability to reason, their grasp of the Constitution, and their vapid and shiftless 'conservatism.'
sep 20, 2025, 12:19 am • 0 0 • view
Cherry-picked campus bible-dorks who should suspended for failing basic high school civics.
sep 20, 2025, 12:16 am • 2 0 • view
Giving right wing college students the power that the cancel culture boogeyman never actually had…
sep 19, 2025, 8:30 pm • 2 0 • view
The people you talked to say Charlie Kirk wanted freedom of speech and open debate. What did they say when you asked them why they're trying to get liberal and progressive professors fired for exercising their first amendment rights?
sep 19, 2025, 5:41 pm • 38 0 • view
Kirk is rotting in hell and nothing will change that. What a bunch of soft ego losers
sep 19, 2025, 5:03 pm • 6 0 • view
Oh wow yet another journalist walked into an average small town diner that was, by sheer coincidence, full of GOP operatives
sep 19, 2025, 10:00 pm • 0 0 • view
If you consider Charlie Kirk to be a mentor and role model, I have some exciting opportunities to offer you in the world of bridge ownership. Use code MORON for a 10% discount!
sep 19, 2025, 8:43 pm • 3 0 • view
Hateful doesn't necessarily mean stupid. Kirk wasn't stupid. (There's PLENTY of it, but we underestimate them at our peril.)
sep 19, 2025, 9:47 pm • 0 0 • view
A valid point, it's a Venn diagram, not a circle
sep 19, 2025, 9:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Ala fuckin bama!
sep 18, 2025, 5:09 pm • 16 0 • view
Wow, from under what rock did you crawl out from?
sep 19, 2025, 5:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Really good story, Ruth.
sep 19, 2025, 5:44 pm • 1 0 • view
Either there are TWO 'Brilyn Hollyhands' in this world and you interviewed the one that was NOT the RNC Youth Advisory Chair...or you DID interview that Brilyn and never disclosed his position, merely calling him a 'political activist'. Which is it? Pick one. www.newsweek.com/exclusive-go...
sep 19, 2025, 9:35 pm • 2 0 • view
You brought shame to both journalists and educators with this drivel
sep 19, 2025, 5:18 pm • 7 0 • view
So, this is basically just a fluff piece to help soften the crowd to accept Brilyn as Kirk's replacement?
sep 21, 2025, 11:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Applauding assassinations? I can see firing someone for that. But it’s not clear to me whether any of these fired professors have actually done that.
sep 19, 2025, 6:59 pm • 0 0 • view
How many students? Be specific.
sep 19, 2025, 7:10 pm • 1 0 • view
I ignore white diner safaris.
sep 19, 2025, 5:42 pm • 6 0 • view
This 19 year old is profiting off Kirk's death while calling for Universities to fire professors who are not MAGA and racist enough for him. These racists think they are cool when they are a minority that will never be anything but selfish and bigoted.
sep 20, 2025, 3:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Just here for the ratio
sep 19, 2025, 9:40 pm • 0 0 • view
"we are all Charlie Kirk" Not me. I haven't called for the execution of a US president.
sep 19, 2025, 5:52 pm • 1 0 • view
I would like to know what was "debunked 100 times", Ruth. Seems like you missed something rather big.
sep 19, 2025, 5:06 pm • 22 0 • view
So you talked to a bunch of cowardly snitches.
sep 19, 2025, 4:53 pm • 146 2 • view
why did you bother to interview a bunch of losers?
sep 19, 2025, 9:10 pm • 0 0 • view
Soon the diplomas of red cracker state universities will match the intellect of the alumni holding them. Qualified only to be an ice agent, they will rely on government money for a career. Hopefully the blue states will have choked them off financially and they can become what they want
sep 19, 2025, 5:02 pm • 2 0 • view
If you didn't even Google the people you interviewed before publishing, is it really journalism?
sep 19, 2025, 9:59 pm • 1 0 • view
they know who these people are when they contact them as sources, they're simply intentionally dishonest
sep 19, 2025, 11:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Fuck Alabama.
sep 18, 2025, 5:22 pm • 24 0 • view
We need better journalists than you in these times. You've utterly failed here.
sep 20, 2025, 12:19 am • 1 0 • view
So you talked to a bunch of brainwashed Bible thumpers. Cool beans.
sep 19, 2025, 6:51 pm • 5 0 • view
I mean, if you're interviewing White people in Alabama, the odds are pretty high (I say as an Auburn alumna).
sep 19, 2025, 9:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Very true. Ive spent a lot of time in Chattanooga in the last 10 years and routinely venture into NE Alabama. I’ve never seen so many confederate flags
sep 19, 2025, 9:54 pm • 1 0 • view
What a complete waste of time.
sep 19, 2025, 9:45 pm • 0 0 • view
nobody give this sanitizing Ruth Smith any pageviews - if you want to laugh at this article go via archive: archive.ph/MOWMM
sep 19, 2025, 7:08 pm • 0 0 • view
Just want to add a note here that I assume this article means well, and the heat in the comments are identifying a frustration with how angry we all are at the continued failure of our institutions to see what is happening with clear eyes and hold the powerful to account. Sadly, 1/
sep 19, 2025, 9:48 pm • 3 0 • view
the critiques made of this piece could be made of most mainstream reporting, which has for too long been reflective of a certain cultural milieux which has been too comfortable with the status quo and now must feel blind-sided. The reality is these critiques have been made of 2/
sep 19, 2025, 9:48 pm • 2 0 • view
journalism for a long time. What is the framing? Who's story is being told? Who benefits and who does not? Who is being left out of the picture? What is the larger context in which the story is playing out? Obviously this is difficult, but we are relying on journalists more than ever right now. 3/3
sep 19, 2025, 9:48 pm • 1 0 • view
You identified Hollyhand as a "political activist" but not that he has been a high-profile Republican activist in the state since he was 11; you didn't identify Buffenbarger as the leader of the campus chapter of Young America's Foundation. 🤷
sep 19, 2025, 7:14 pm • 59 3 • view
Hollyhand (in his first semester at Auburn) just announced a mini-me tour, a thing normal freshmen at state colleges do: yellowhammernews.com/alabamas-bri...
sep 20, 2025, 4:29 am • 0 0 • view
e.g. Hollyhand was one of two people who met privately with the president earlier this year in Tuscaloosa; the other was Nick Saban. www.al.com/politics/202...
sep 19, 2025, 8:04 pm • 26 0 • view
Buffenbarger got UA to exempt YAF from the LGBTQ provisions of the university’s nondiscrimination statement: thecrimsonwhite.com/119918/news/...
sep 19, 2025, 9:21 pm • 10 0 • view
Holy fuck, that is some bargain bin journalism right there. Must have a degree from that Dollar General U in Tuscaloosa.
sep 19, 2025, 9:03 pm • 3 0 • view
The others in the article are GOPers as well. bsky.app/profile/bind...
sep 19, 2025, 9:22 pm • 3 1 • view
🎯
sep 19, 2025, 9:25 pm • 1 0 • view
Do we really need to supply them with yet another platform to spread their hypertrophic sense of entitlement and greed for even more of everything, especially power, they were never entitled to in the first place? Do you, Ruth?
sep 19, 2025, 5:38 pm • 5 0 • view
congratulations for amplifying the Hitler Youth
sep 19, 2025, 6:34 pm • 69 7 • view
It’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before….
sep 19, 2025, 7:17 pm • 0 0 • view
In Alabama. Of course.
sep 20, 2025, 11:17 am • 1 0 • view
Well, Kirk said some people have to die to preserve the 2nd Amendment, which proved absolutely true. Since these red states have the most guns and worst guns death rates by a mile, some portion of that outraged youth movement will rediscover one of Kirk's eternal truths. FAFO
sep 19, 2025, 8:56 pm • 0 0 • view
None of them were worth talking to, let alone expounding on their profound ignorance.
sep 20, 2025, 12:13 am • 0 0 • view
These students are brainwashed at the very least, mostly uneducated or complete bigots. I’m thinking all 3.
sep 19, 2025, 9:48 pm • 0 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/jess...
sep 19, 2025, 8:40 pm • 6 0 • view
I have an idea, try disclosing the party affiliations of the people you interviewed. Propagandist.
sep 19, 2025, 9:19 pm • 2 0 • view
Not a coincidence that Alabama kids are the stupidest fucks in the country.
sep 19, 2025, 8:17 pm • 0 0 • view
this sucks, Ruth bad job
sep 19, 2025, 9:16 pm • 1 0 • view
Ummm…
sep 19, 2025, 8:17 pm • 14 0 • view
Hey, just a random college student with personal opinions— Oh.
sep 19, 2025, 8:20 pm • 21 0 • view
lol
sep 19, 2025, 8:29 pm • 3 0 • view
Crazy that he's Alabaman, that's the most Utah-ass name I've ever seen.
sep 20, 2025, 12:16 am • 3 0 • view
Somehow I had glossed over that and rendered that collection of letters into Brian Holland but I did a double take when I saw your comment and Holy Brigham Young Batman
sep 20, 2025, 12:32 am • 3 0 • view
The typical representative college student started a GOP newsletter in 5th grade, is as enmeshed with the Republican political and ideological infrastructure as a college kid can be, and has been the subject of multiple news articles talking about how the GOP is their favorite thing.
sep 19, 2025, 8:46 pm • 15 0 • view
So, he was indoctrinated.
sep 21, 2025, 11:34 pm • 0 0 • view
Interesting choice not to mention any of this and pretend Hollyhand was just a random student having a Dr.Pepper at the Student Center.
sep 19, 2025, 8:48 pm • 16 0 • view
🎯
sep 19, 2025, 8:47 pm • 2 0 • view
sep 19, 2025, 8:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Another person glowingly speaking about Kirk is *also* affiliated with the Republican Federation and a former intern of Tommy Tuberville. This article is 3/4 quotes from the College Republican Federation of Alabama.
sep 19, 2025, 8:53 pm • 3 0 • view
Believe it or not, I could have guessed how representatives of the Republican federation of Alabama felt about Charlie Kirk. I do not feel more informed about the opinion of general college students at all.
sep 19, 2025, 8:55 pm • 3 0 • view
And to frame this piece as interviews with ordinary college students who thought well of Kirk is journalistic malpractice. It just is. As we’ve just demonstrated, it’s not hard to background people you’ve interviewed before you submit.
sep 19, 2025, 8:59 pm • 3 0 • view
I think the headline is meant to be interpreted as getting quotes specifically from the subset of students who saw him as a role model, it’s just annoying that minority conservative opinions seem to be drowning out any pushback, especially at a time when the crackdown is on everyone else.
sep 19, 2025, 9:18 pm • 3 0 • view
Well, I’d say it strongly implies that they’re just *typical* college students she interviewed who then expressed their admiration for Kirk. This can hardly be what actually happened.
sep 19, 2025, 9:22 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah, even among conservative students, it seems like a pretty narrow sample, all being part of the same federation lol
sep 19, 2025, 9:24 pm • 2 0 • view
“Charlie was my very bestest friend. Frequently, in my dreams.”
sep 19, 2025, 8:10 pm • 0 0 • view
LMAO What a crock.
sep 19, 2025, 7:48 pm • 0 0 • view
Hey Ruth are you gonna respond to this bsky.app/profile/jess...
sep 19, 2025, 9:06 pm • 9 0 • view
Ruth, as the " education editor at AL.com " and "leader of the The Alabama Education Lab", did you pay attention to this observation or ignore it.
sep 19, 2025, 8:51 pm • 18 3 • view
🎯
sep 19, 2025, 9:05 pm • 0 0 • view
lol
sep 19, 2025, 8:33 pm • 0 0 • view
I looked up Brilyn Hollyhand on Facebook. He is CREEPY AF. Yikes. 😬
sep 19, 2025, 7:57 pm • 2 0 • view
When I was at Auburn in the '80's we had a fixture named Brother Jed that would preach on the Concourse and around town all the time. Fine. Free speech. It's difficult to wrap my head around students admiring Kirk's message of hard-right, exclusionary activism as a religion...
sep 19, 2025, 5:11 pm • 4 0 • view
Glad you gave them a platform to vent their grievances.
sep 19, 2025, 5:02 pm • 14 1 • view
Along with Mississippi Goddamn, Nina should have written a tune called "Alabama Fuck You"
sep 19, 2025, 6:06 pm • 1 0 • view
As an alumna of Auburn, I'm disgusted and horrified by the firings, and think these students are probably not smart enough to be allowed to attend the university. What an embarrassment.
sep 19, 2025, 9:45 pm • 2 0 • view
sep 19, 2025, 8:10 pm • 0 0 • view
So someone gets fired by their employer, and loses their livelihood, and these people want the employers to do more to them?
sep 19, 2025, 4:41 pm • 50 0 • view
And this is a 19 year old racist who is destroying families lives while he makes money off Kirk's death!
sep 20, 2025, 3:04 pm • 0 0 • view
We should definitely let the freshmen, self-described political activists, run our nation's colleges and universities.
sep 19, 2025, 5:09 pm • 41 0 • view
"political activist" is weasel words dude is a GOP stooge bsky.app/profile/pete...
sep 19, 2025, 9:14 pm • 17 0 • view
"we asked these nazis what they think should happen next, the answer will shock you!" please.
sep 19, 2025, 9:33 pm • 7 0 • view
How did you identify and connect with potential sources for this story, Ruth?
sep 19, 2025, 4:58 pm • 40 1 • view
great question.
sep 19, 2025, 9:03 pm • 1 0 • view
These young people can admire Kirk but let’s be clear Criticizing Charlie Kirk is not celebrating his death just like criticizing Israel is not antisemitic
sep 19, 2025, 9:14 pm • 1 0 • view
STOP GIVING THESE IDIOTS A PLATFORM.
sep 19, 2025, 8:43 pm • 0 0 • view
Genuinely pathetic.
sep 19, 2025, 5:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Why don't you clearly identify a hack operative?
sep 19, 2025, 8:30 pm • 9 1 • view
Complicit. There are multiple GOP ops in that one article.
sep 19, 2025, 9:18 pm • 4 0 • view
You really did a bang up job, Ruth. /s
sep 19, 2025, 10:10 pm • 3 0 • view
Alabama. Riiiiight. Their grandparents might well have conducted a lynching.
sep 19, 2025, 7:44 pm • 1 0 • view