America is Engulfed in a Growing “Assassination Culture”
- Donald V. Watkins
- 23 hours ago
- 4 min read
By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on September 20, 2025
An Editorial Opinion
On April 7, 2025, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and Rutgers University published a study that confirmed what I have feared for many years – America is engulfed in a growing “assassination culture.”
Political violence targeting Donald Trump and Elon Musk has become increasingly normalized. Following the July 13, 2024, attempted assassination of Trump, tolerance -- and even advocacy -- for political violence surged, especially among politically left-leaning segments of the population.
This pattern builds on a broader trend that NCRI identified in two December 2024 reports which analyzed how viral social media narratives were legitimizing political violence, particularly in the aftermath of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassination.
The April study was based upon the survey responses of 1,264 U.S. residents, balanced to reflect Census data on race/ethnicity, gender, age, and education. Respondents were asked demographic information, political identity, several political and psychological scales, and questions concerning their acceptance of specific forms of political violence.
The study’s results are shocking:
Overview: The study found widespread justification for lethal violence -- including assassination -- among younger, highly online, and ideologically left-aligned users. A spillover effect into offline domains is also occurring, as illustrated by a ballot measure recently submitted in California that is macabrely named “The Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act.” Mangione is Thompson's alleged killer.
Murder Justification: 31% and 38% of respondents stated it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk and President Trump, respectively.
These effects were driven by respondents that self-identified as left of center, with 50% and 56% at least somewhat justifying murder for Elon Musk and President Trump, respectively.
Property Destruction: Nearly 40% of respondents stated it is at least somewhat acceptable to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest.
Psychological/Ideological Correlations with Assassination Culture: These beliefs are highly correlated with one another, as well as with the justification of the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and hyper-partisan left-wing ideology.
The study hypothesized that support for violence is part of a broader assassination culture, underpinned by psychological and ideological factors.
Online Amplification of Radical Ideation: NCRI's analysis supports the belief that BlueSky (a cyber-social platform) plays a significant and predictive role in amplifying radical ideation.
Users are increasingly associating the memeification of Luigi Mangione with calls for political violence against Musk, Trump, and others, reflecting the growing cyber-social presence of assassination culture.
Charlie Kirk's Assassination Adds Fuel to the Fire
Against this backdrop, Turning Point USA founder and conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025. Kirk's gruesome murder on TV confirms that we are living in an assassination culture.
A suspect has been taken into custody in Kirk's case. However, highly qualified independent forensic experts outside of the FBI have produced enough credibile frame-by-frame audio-visual and accoustical analyses, together with solid entry-exit wound evidence and proof of a sophisticated professional-grade laser guidance device (which has not been retrieved), to cast reasonable doubt on the FBI's hasty and shaky theory of the case that Kirk was assassinated with a rifle shot from 200 yards away by an amateur "lone wolf" gunman named Tyler Robinson.
What is more, the fatal bullet in Kirk's assassination has not been found and the crime scene was severely tampered with and grossly compromised immediately after Kirk was killed. Non-law enforcement officials are seen on video removing key pieces of evidence from the scene before police arrived.
Many seasoned homicide experts are baffled by the fact that the FBI's criminal investigation into Kirk's assassination is led by an obviously unqualified FBI Director -- Kash Patel -- who has zero law enforcement experience in homicide investigations and who appears to be little more than a Trump-appointed DEI sycophant.
My Personal Condemnation of Political Assassinations
I am an old-school freedom of speech activist. I cherish the First Amendment as much as gun owners cherish the Second Amendment. I exercise my freedom of speech rights constantly and liberally.
Between 1973 and 2019, I practiced civil rights law in Alabama under the cloud of constant death threats. As such, I know what it is like to worry about a potential violent death at any moment solely because I freely expressed my political beliefs in the court of public opinion.
On November 7, 1999, an editorial cartoonist for The Birmingham News caricatured me an as insect and showcased my death by Dr. Bernard Kincaid, the incoming Birmingham, Alabama mayor. Death threats against me skyrocketed after this provocative and demeaning cartoon was published by the News and celebrated in Birmingham's ultra-conservative, right-wing white community.
I condemn all political assassinations. Whoever plans, carries out, and/or aids and abets in the execution of public officials, political figures, and social justice activists should be arrested, charged, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to death, without exception. This includes foreign intelligence agents who carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, whether they are working on behalf of our nation's so-called allies or its declared foes.