“You Could Feel the Evil”: Joe Rogan and the Unsettling Aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has triggered a national crisis of conscience, prompting a raw and emotional discussion on The Joe Rogan Experience. In a candid exchange, Rogan and his guest didn’t focus on the lone gunman theory, but rather on the disturbing societal reaction and the moral decay exposed by the event.

The core takeaway is unsettling: a frightening number of Americans celebrated the loss of a political opponent, proving just how deeply “poisoned” society has become by online manipulation and political hatred.

The Most Disturbing Aspect: Joy Over Death

The immediate reaction to the news of Kirk’s death became the central focus of the conversation, revealing what Rogan called a surge of “evil” and moral breakdown.

• “Cackling Like a Witch”: Rogan described the reaction as “the most disturbing aspect of it.” He detailed seeing people online “cackling like a witch’s cackle” and celebrating the death of a man “in front of his children on the internet.”
• The Real-Life Celebration: The guest shared multiple accounts of friends encountering people celebrating the event in real life—in a café, on a Zoom call, and in public. These people, who were often described as “normal people, housewives, moms,” were publicly clapping and cheering, genuinely happy about the violence.
• The Moral Compass is Broken: This reaction, the hosts agreed, is proof that the country has gone “that far.” The celebration of violence against a political opponent is “so gross” and evidence that society’s moral compass has been warped beyond recognition, driven by a perverse cycle of hate.

“You could feel the evil… I’ve never felt like that before. You can’t be for compassion and then celebrate when someone is [killed].”

The Social Media Manipulation: “It’s Not Organic”

The hosts were quick to attribute the severity of the reaction to a coordinated campaign of digital division, warning that the hatred is often not genuine.

• Amplified Hatred: Rogan asserted that the hatred seen online is often “not even organic.” He claimed the rhetoric is being amplified by “foreign governments, by bot farms, and by various elements either in our government or other governments” for their own dark agenda and profit.
• The Us vs. Them Trap: The goal of this amplification is to ramp up the “fever pitch of culture war” and push Americans into a “toxic trap of us versus them.” This online environment conditions people to believe that those with different beliefs are “bad guys” and that celebrating violence against them is justified.
• Loss of Decency: The result is that people are behaving in ways that they “would never get in real social circles of healthy people.” The viciousness is a product of a “very bizarre filter of just text on social media.”

The Call for Discourse, Not Violence

The hosts lamented the loss of genuine discourse, which was central to Charlie Kirk’s work, and warned of the dangerous path society is heading down.

• The Hypocrisy of the Left: They criticized the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed “progressives”—people who claim to be “kind, compassionate, inclusive”—now celebrating violence.
• The Correct Response is Debate: If opponents truly disagreed with Kirk, the correct response was not violence, but debate. As Rogan’s guest stated, “What you’re supposed to do with a guy like that if you’re opposing him is debate him. Have a conversation where your argument is more compelling than his.”
• A “Warped Time”: The tragedy is a terrifying reflection of a “warped time” where political allegiance now outweighs basic human decency. They warned that this atmosphere of hatred could easily “spark off some kind of a real violent conflict” and put people on guard from speaking courageously about their beliefs.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is viewed not just as a terrible crime, but as a wake-up call for everyone in the country. If society cannot agree that murdering someone for having a different opinion is fundamentally unacceptable, the hosts warn, then the divisions will only get “a lot worse.”