Journalist and college professor Stacey Patton has gone viral after publishing a blistering public statement on Facebook recounting the harassment campaign she endured after being placed on Charlie Kirk’s “Professor Watchlist”.
According to her, the Watchlist is a controversial database maintained by Turning Point USA that critics have long described as a digital hit list targeting outspoken academics.
Patton, who has more than 215,000 followers, did not hold back in her critique.
“I am on Charlie Kirk’s hit list,” she wrote. “His so-called ‘Professor Watchlist,’ run under the umbrella of Turning Point USA, is nothing more than a digital hit list for academics who dare to speak truth to power. I landed there in 2024 after writing commentary that inflamed the MAGA faithful. And once my name went up, the harassment machine roared to life.”
According to Patton, her inclusion on the list unleashed a torrent of racist and misogynistic abuse. She described weeks of threats and harassment:
- “Mostly white men spat venom through the phone: ‘bitch,’ ‘cnt,’ ‘n***r.’ They threatened all manner of violence.”
- The deluge was so overwhelming that university officials became alarmed. “The head of campus security reached out to offer me an escort, because they feared one of these keyboard soldiers might step out of his basement and come do me harm,” she explained.
Patton disclosed further that her experience was not unique. She said Kirk’s Watchlist has “terrorized legions of professors” across the United States, disproportionately targeting women, Black faculty, and queer scholars who spoke out against white supremacy, gun culture, or Christian nationalism.
“Some received death threats. Some had their jobs threatened. Some left academia entirely,” she wrote. “Kirk sent the loud message to us: speak the truth and we will unleash the mob.”
Patton also challenged the public mourning following Kirk’s recent death, calling it a “whitewashing” of his legacy.
“What I find especially jarring is the dissonance in public mourning for a smug white man whose life work was actively hostile to certain groups. Kirk spent years demonizing LGBTQ people, mocking gun survivors, spewing racism about Black folks, and pushing policies that literally shorten lives. And now he’s being remembered as if he were some kind of neutral civil debater,” she said strongly.
Patton’s post has since gone viral, sparking widespread conversation about the real-world consequences of political intimidation campaigns and the selective narratives that emerge after the death of polarizing figures.
Her conclusion was unflinching: Americans must confront not only political violence but also the hateful rhetoric that fuels it.
“Charlie Kirk did not deserve what happened to him,” Patton wrote. “But nor did his victims deserve the hell that he unleashed on them.”
The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, and the subsequent swarms of law enforcement officers looking for his killer shattered the usual calm in a neighborhood next to Utah Valley University, where he was hosting an event.
A manhunt is underway to apprehend the shooter.
