You know you live in a depraved culture when young women on social media post prom outfit transition videos to the soundtrack of the dying moments of a fallen conservative hero and not think twice about it.

The background fodder, which recently trended on TikTok, comprised the last moments of Charlie Kirk speaking at Utah Valley University, being shot, and the crowd erupting in horror and terror. In some cases, Gen Z high schoolers were even mocking those in the crowd who witnessed Kirk’s assassination.

No one’s murder should be used for entertainment, but mocking this specific political assassination was particularly pointed, outrageous, and heinous — a frivolous act of callous and sick kids.

TPUSA, the organization Kirk founded, issued a statement about the TikTok trend, saying, “Turning Point USA condemns in the strongest terms the TikTok audio trend that uses or references the assassination of our founder, Charlie Kirk, for entertainment.” The statement continued, “Charlie Kirk was the victim of a real act of political violence. Turning that into viral content is grotesque and dehumanizing. There is nothing harmless, funny, or acceptable about it. It reflects a culture that trivializes violence and reduces real human loss to a punchline. This has no place on TikTok. Or anywhere. This audio needs to be removed.”

To its credit, TikTok removed the garbage. “UPDATE: We have been informed that all known audio and videos have been removed,” TPUSA responded. “We thank TikTok for its prompt action.”

Considering these were mainly high school students using the audio, one can safely assume some of them were ignorant, jumping on a trending soundtrack without thinking about the deeper implications.

There are, however, also those who have been so thoroughly indoctrinated into leftist violence culture that mocking a murdered conservative might seem like an act of virtuous defiance.

You do have to wonder if some teenage users think that because social media isn’t real life, using heinous audio is somehow acceptable. Either way, this seems like a good argument for introducing a social media ban for minors. Do these kids’ parents even know that their children posted these abhorrent videos?

There is another perspective to consider. Charlie Kirk was a uniting figure on the Right, and there are many bad political actors out there, both foreign and domestic, that are incentivized to add fuel to the fire of an already divided nation. Frankly, one could be forgiven for wondering if these videos were part of a Chinese or Russian or Iranian psyop. With AI being so good, there is still that possibility.

Regardless, the audio and videos should never have trended on TikTok in the first place. While some of the individuals who employed it may have been ignorant or stupid, others certainly used it maliciously. Furthermore, they most assuredly belong to a political party that, ironically, prides itself on being empathetic. Well, they weren’t being empathetic toward Charlie’s widow, his children, or those who watched him get assassinated. Empathy is empty if it turns you into a hate-filled harpy.