The Death of Charlie Kirk and the Death Spiral of Civic Discourse

Where to for New Zealand?

The murder of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy. Not because I agreed with him. I didn’t. Not even remotely. His utterances were often chilling, laced with theocratic authoritarianism that felt ripped straight from the pages of The Handmaid’s Tale. His worldview was not just alien to me, it was frightening and yet, I feel sickened by his murder.

Let me be clear - I found no common ground with Charlie Kirk. I saw in him a symbol of what happens when conviction curdles into cruelty and certainty into zealotry. But his assassination is not justice. It is not catharsis. It is a warning.

We are watching - in real time - the disintegration of America’s political and social fabric. What began as ideological contest has devolved into cultural warfare. Words are now weapons. Empathy is weakness and disagreement is treated not as a democratic necessity, but a mortal sin. The centre hasn’t just failed to hold, it’s been set alight.

Here’s where it gets uncomfortable for us, over here in Aotearoa.

We don’t get to sit on the sidelines and watch America burn as detached spectators. We are not immune. We are not exceptional. We are not outside history. We are just quieter. For now.

New Zealand has long taken pride in its moderation - socially, politically, even temperamentally. But cracks are forming and the echoes from across the Pacific are getting louder.

I look at figures like Brian Tamaki, David Seymour and Brooke van Velden with deep concern. Their rhetoric is not murderous, but it is reckless. It stirs division. It scorns consensus. It plays fast and loose with the fragile norms that bind a society together. Let me be absolutely clear - I have no desire to see them harmed. If I were in a room with any of them, I would tell them exactly how I feel, with frustration, maybe even disgust, but always with civility. That’s the social contract. That’s what it means to live in a pluralist society.

But my fear is that civility is becoming passé. That the room for dialogue is shrinking, not because we disagree - disagreement is healthy - but because we’ve stopped believing we even should talk to one another. That is the American disease and it is contagious.

We cannot let ourselves be infected.

New Zealand's strength is in its diversity - not just of culture or race or gender, but of thought, experience and identity. The growing visibility of te ao Māori is not a threat to Pākehā identity - it’s a deepening of our national character. The rise of trans visibility is not an assault on tradition, it’s an affirmation of humanity. Just as decriminalising homosexuality didn’t unravel the social fabric but stitched it together more honestly, so too must we welcome and affirm those whose lives and stories don’t match the old defaults.

There is so much in this country to be proud of. There is also so much that needs repair, reflection and renewal. But none of it can be achieved through dehumanisation. None of it can survive if we choose vilification over conversation, contempt over compromise.

If we go the way of America and we can and we might - we will become smaller, meaner, more brittle. A nation of tribes shouting into the void, convinced that only our enemies are capable of evil.

So this is a plea. Stop. Listen. Understand.

Not because it’s easy. It’s not. I don’t always know how to do it myself. But it’s the only path forward. The only thing that might keep us from tearing each other apart. The only thing that honours the dream - not of sameness, but of belonging.

Let’s not let that dream die here too.

If you’d like to share your thoughts or discuss further, feel free to reach out. I’d love to hear from you. +64 275 665 682 john.luxton@regenerationhq.co.nz