Those who were fired for speaking out against Charlie Kirk are finally getting what they deserve
Big props to Drew Pittock and BrieAnna J. Frank of USA Today for sussing out something I’d been curious about for months. You may recall that, in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk, and in the teeth of gale-force wing-nut keening, some people posted some of Kirk’s own words as a kind of corrective. Some other people posted admittedly tasteless reactions as well. Fearing the vengeance of the cult, major institutions, including government agencies and universities, fired these social-media miscreants. Many of those people turned around and sued the institutions in question. And, with discussion of reparation payments all the rage these days, it’s fit that we point out that some of the victims of cowardice and mob rule are cashing out in a big way.
Settlements totaling more than $1.5 million have been reached so far with people who lost their jobs over social media posts that were critical of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination.
The free-speech cases in Florida, Tennessee, and Indiana highlight a growing debate surrounding the First Amendment, political discourse and social media. It’s “not surprising to see this flurry of settlements,” Aaron Terr, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s director of public advocacy, told USA Today. “I think the size and frequency of these settlements shows that violating the First Amendment is expensive.” … USA Today reported a little more than two weeks after Kirk was killed, at least 50 people had lost their jobs in the education sector alone. A Reuters investigation also found that 600 people were fired across the private sector for posts they shared about Kirk.
Vice President J Divan Vance, who has demonstrated the democratic soul of an ambitious Stasi recruit, led the mob. He told people to inform on their colleagues who did not memorialize the deceased at a proper volume. Now that everything’s calmed down, the bill is coming due for what happened to people like a Tennessee cop named Larry Bushart.
A settlement was reached in the case of Larry Bushart, a former police officer in Tennessee who was arrested September 22, 2025, and charged with making threats of mass violence after posting a photo of a quote from President Donald Trump in the Facebook comments of a local community group page. He was held on $2 million bail for more than a month. The charge was dismissed in late October, and Bushart subsequently filed a lawsuit against Perry County, Sheriff Nick Weems, and the investigator who secured the arrest warrant. His incarceration caused him to lose his job in medical transportation and to miss his anniversary and the birth of his grandchild, according to his lawyers.
On May 20, an $850,000 settlement was reached in the case in exchange for dismissing the complaint, according to a news release by Terr’s organization FIRE, which represented Bushart. The settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing on the defendants’ behalf. “I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in the statement. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”
And what was Bushart’s offense against the martyr? He reposted a meme in response to Kirk’s murder that quoted the president’s remarks after a school shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa. “We have to get over it,” the president said. And reposting that under the comment, “This seems relevant today…” was enough to get the law dropping by in the middle of the night.
(In a masterpiece of cop dodge, the prosecutors charged Bushart for threatening mass violence at school in Perry County, Tennessee, using a tragedy in Perry, Iowa. Such clever dicks, they are.)
I look forward to the First Amendment marching on through the storm of nonsense thrown up by the cowards of industry and the snowflake-y snowflakes of the two-fisted Right. It’s such a tough little bastid.
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