By now, it is safe to say that the left killed Charlie Kirk. On a number of levels, as Joshua Monnington demonstrated in an excellent piece at The Federalist, it is clear that the only way to stop leftist violence like Kirk’s murder, is to defeat leftism itself. Tyler Robinson was a leftist and his violence was motivated by politics. He despised Charlie Kirk because of his criticism of the LGBT movement.

All available evidence suggests that Robinson was, as Utah Gov. Spencer Cox remarked, “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,” specifically from Antifa and LGBT groups. This crime wasn’t done by a mentally unstable psychopath, but by a person thoroughly influenced by leftist propaganda.

Then, of course, there has been the horrific spectacle of leftists everywhere celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death. Far from trying to disassociate from Robinson, they welcomed him as one of their own, placing him on the same pedestal with fellow leftist murderer Luigi Mangione. Even popular Democratic congresswomen like Ilhan Omar, Jasmine Crockett, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez felt comfortable blaming Kirk for his own murder.

So if there is any confusion about Robinson’s motives or attempts to equivocate and categorize this as the sort of political violence of which “both sides” are guilty, such explanations should be read as attempts to deny reality. As fellow writer Evan McClanahan and I discuss in our latest podcast, much of the left has degenerated into an anti-conservative insurrectionary movement that increasingly resorts to violent tactics and toxic propaganda to intimidate and defeat their opponents.

Thus, it is necessary to eliminate inflammatory leftist rhetoric in all its manifestations. As writer Joe Populares recently discussed at The Federalist, the federal government could defund leftist groups, punish leftist violence, cancel and investigate leftist influencers, protect conservative speakers, and purge both online and offline hotbeds of leftist extremism. If nothing is done, then more horrific murders are bound to happen.

Beyond punishing the left, the death of Charlie Kirk should prompt conservatives to reassess the role that the internet now plays in leftist radicalization. Obviously, leftist wackos got to Robinson, a person who grew up in a conservative household, and brainwashed him with false narratives and ideas that led him to conclude that shooting Charlie Kirk was the right thing to do.

Robinson wasn’t groomed by any specific teacher or professor, but by websites, message boards, and social media platforms. Moreover, he didn’t just consume endless leftist content, but most likely watched vast amounts of pornography.

The porn and leftism complemented the other: the porn hijacked Robinson’s mind and compromised his reasoning capacity, and the leftism affirmed his shameful addiction and channeled it into political violence. In Robinson’s mind, he wasn’t a perverted loser with a furry fetish; he was a LGBTQ Antifa warrior who needed to defend his lifestyle against Christian men like Charlie Kirk.

This fact should worry everyone. There are plenty of young men like Tyler Robinson who, ensnared by pornography, become radicalized, and commit (mostly leftist) political violence. At the very least, they contribute to a depraved nihilistic culture by transforming themselves into anti-social pariahs that live out most of their waking lives in the dark seedy corners of the internet.

Soon after Robinson was arrested, a picture of him as a middle schooler playing games on his laptop went viral on X. This, along with everything else about this crime, should prick the consciences of every parent. Without that computer and its unfettered internet connection, he would have been a normal, productive member of society today. He might even have finished college, seeing that he had the aptitude for it.

As sad as this is—though it is even sadder for the parents who had to turn in their own son after he became a monster—it presents a lesson for people to apply to their own lives . Adults working with children need to know the potential dangers of the internet and place restrictions on its usage. Not only are kids today exposed to subversive and harmful content, but the internet is much more addictive now than it has ever been.

Far from being a digital town square or marketplace of ideas, most of the internet has become one giant stimulation machine. While the content may vary, all websites are designed to trigger dopamine production which keeps users scrolling and clicking. This is usually done through algorithms curating certain visual media (videos or memes) or controversial voices (the more provocative the better) that induce a rush of dopamine. Dr. Anna Lembke discusses this problem in depth in her bestselling book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.

As with any addiction, it takes ever more stimulation to achieve the same high. For the terminally online user, this means consuming ever more extreme and graphic material. Needless to say, people in the clutches of this kind of addiction will not be swayed by arguments, but must be physically pulled away from the screens to become deprogrammed. Only after their brains reset can they begin to act like rational human beings.

For too long, parents and schools have either underestimated or ignored the impact of screen and pornography addiction on young people. Although the vast majority will not take the final step that Tyler Robinson took in killing an innocent man, there are many who will unless serious measures are taken to stop them.

In addition to combating leftist radicalism, Americans must confront this crisis of internet addiction. State governments should continue imposing age restrictions on porn sites as well as social media. Parents should hold off on buying their children smartphones, keep the computer in a public area of the house, and inform their kids about the dangers of screen and online addiction.. Moreover, they themselves should model proper internet usage. ,

In other words, they can imitate the example of the late Charlie Kirk who stayed off his phone on the Sabbath, preached healthy living, and primarily interacted with others in-person. Kirk understood that in order to help his own movement of national regeneration succeed, he and other conservatives needed to be grounded in truth. This isn’t possible when young men’s minds are lost to lies and smut.