I’ve been on TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist since 2016, and I was quite proud to be mentioned on Charlie Kirk’s hate list. All the best people are on it, you know.
Kirk created the Professor Watchlist 10 years ago on Turning Point USA’s website. Users were able to search college professors based on themes including “racial ideology,” “LGBTQ” and “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
According to a video on the website describing the watchlist, “The Professor Watchlist uncovers the most radical left wing professors from universities that are known to suppress the conservative voices and advance the progressive agenda.”
Sadly, it has been taken down.
But this month, the News4 I-Team found the Professor Watchlist had been taken down. Why is unclear, as no one from Turning Point USA is saying.
Also unfortunately, I never bothered to make a copy of my entry, so I don’t remember exactly what it said. It never really had any impact on me, but some people described the annoyance of the harassment they received.
For 10 years, the watchlist remained online, and the News4 I-Team spoke with local professors who said they were greatly impacted once their names were added to it.
Earlier this year, the I-Team spoke to Professor Bethany Letiecq with George Mason University, who said she received harassing and threatening messages on social media after she appearing on the list.
Letiecq recalled when it began: “It was shortly after I published a piece in March, February, March of 2024, and it got picked up by the alt-right media, and it was distorted in sort of a rage bait-y kind of way.”
Letiecq said the harassment she faced moved offline into her everyday life.
“That started just this bombardment of, you know, social media hits that were incredibly vitriolic and quite gross. I started getting emails to my work, voicemails to my work phone, calls for my firing […] and then I received several death threats,” she said.
I got a few nasty emails, which I still get anyway, but that was about it. A few student TPUSA members at UMM accused me of stealing their terrible student paper, which didn’t happen and for which there wasn’t and couldn’t be any evidence, and that prompted a bored campus police officer to ask me questions. There was no concern expressed by my colleagues or administrators.
The whole list was stupid, petty, and ineffective. Maybe TPUSA took it down because it was a reminder that Charlie Kirk was also stupid, petty, and ineffective.
May all MAGA-affiliated people follow the Charlie Kirk / Donald Trump model of efficiency!
Like fighting fire by releasing river water reserves into the wrong region. Or going to Washington State to protest against woke libruls.
I hope that your accurate remarks about Charlie Kirk don’t cause you any problems.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj06jgl9qzlo
So, you made Kirk’s <s>hit list, and, now, it’s gone. At least, you’ll always have Paris <cue theme music>.
The internet wayback machine does not forget. I found this from 7 years ago…
https://web.archive.org/web/20190916160436/https://www.professorwatchlist.org/index.php/watch-list-directory/search-by-name/228-paul-myers
They finally canceled this particular attempt at 🙄 cancel culture?
Charlie who now?
Coulda been that excuse for the Civil War / Brutal Repression Crackdown they’d been masturbating about for decades .
But sadly for them ( ha-ha! ) turned out he’d been killed by another even worse nazi (Groyper faction) rather than an actual Leftist so they couldn’t do that and his ecstatic widow celeberating witth fireworks had to forgive the murderer who freed her to fali into “couch-fér” Vance’s arms instead..
I just looked, you’re still in my history. ; )
Catty (metaphorically speaking & unfair to felines I know) but still.
Also, nah, you haven’t been“ërased from history” PZ.
You still have your asteroid among many other things.
https://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/03/25/pz-myers-asteroid-confirmed
Does Not-the-Star-Trek-Captain-Kirk have an asteroid named for him?
Please tell me he doesn’t….
Maybe, with the scaling back of TPUSA hit list we are seeing the weakening of the far-right movement.
I haven’t seen as many Trump posters and flags around my staunch red neighborhood. The “kill the immigrant talk” is not as loud as it was when Trump started his second term, and some other subtle signs may indicate the beginning of the demise of Trump fever. I don’t understand why it took so long.
Unless something radical happens, we still have three years of Trump to endure. The good part of this would be three more years of utter incompetence, stupidity, and disgusting Trump stunts may go a long way of making MAGA self destruct.
… the Professor Watchlist had been taken down. Why is unclear…
Politico has a recent profile up on one Blake Neff, former writer for Tucker Carlson at Fox, then for Charlie Kick, now a co-anchor of the CK Show, which may shed a little light on this question.
It seems that the online nuttiness has reached a stage where even that faction of MAGA wants to tone it down – not for the sake of reason, but because it threatens to devour its own creators (including Neff & KirkCorp). Perhaps ProfWatch provided an opening for Candace Owens and other next-gen nuts to waft their flatulence into the kozy Kirk Kountry Klub?
TPUSA is a money laundering right-wing cult, and cults generally die when the leader dies. They thought they could make that dweeb into a martyr for their cause, but it’s impossible to capitalize on outrage when the sniper was a white Mormon boy who was raised on their gun loving white supremacy beliefs.
@ 4 imback
Ah, the naivety of youth! It does when billionaires want it to. Eg.
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/amnesty-uk-reportedly-using-copyright
@ 6
Stevo here is just reciting a laundry list of debunked nonsense, which I assume is supposed to be a “joke”. But with Stevo these days it’s hard to tell. :-/
The whole right wing ecosystem is breaking down. Their big schtick was gaslighting, calling scientists liars, news services fake news. Now its failing because they are telling their audience not to believe their own lying eyes and its actually just turning their audience “woke”.
Taking the list down is probably to stop their dupes from seeking you out for advice.
@ Silentbob : No joke at all. What exactly do you think has been “debunked” in what I wrote in #6 and where?
A lot of USoAite reichwingers have been (still are too) metaphorically masturbating about the next Civil War and it was pretty clear they were going to use Kirk’s killing as an excuse for that or a massive brutal repression and crackdown against Civil rights and their percieved opponents (“liberals”, Democrats, leftwingers generally, Queer people, POC, feminists etc..) until it turned out that he’d been killed by a groyper rather than a progressive.
@ StevoR
Mate, are you having a laugh? Is this supposed to another “joke”? Or are you delusional?
Let’s take the fantasies one by one:
1) Kirk was killed by a “groyper”.
Horseshit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Charlie_Kirk
2) Kirk’s widow celebrated his death with fireworks.
Do I even need to dignify this one? It was a memorial. It had fireworks. Tasteless? Judge all you want, it was not a “celebration”.
3) Vance fucked a couch.
Grow the fuck up Stevo. The guy who made it up said he made it up.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-false-jd-vance-couch-trump-misinformation-rcna166155
That’s three lies/”jokes” in one comment – do you need me to go on?
(The claim Kirk’s killer was a “groyper” was entirely based on speculation about gamer memes being inscribed on bullet casings. Yes seriously. That’s it.)
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/15/groyper-charlie-kirk-nick-fuentes-tyler-robinson
And there I was under the impression that a ‘memorial’ was a celebration of the life of the person concerned. That’s certainly how we described my fathers memorial.
Jazzlet, sometimes. Other times it is not a celebration at all. Think ‘a moment of silence’ type stuff.
Literally, it means a ‘remembrance’. I think what you mean is a ‘wake’.
Consider how memorials such as public monuments, military markers, and sites dedicated to mass tragedies are not celebratory.
I’m sure Jazzlet is aware of what a memorial entails in context of a funeral. They normally do not involve fireworks, because they aren’t happy occasions despite the funeral industry’s insistence on calling a funeral a
“ celebration of life”.
I interpreted their comment as gently mocking the resident troll who is choosing to ignore PZ’s post that asked unnamed commenters to stop filling threads with their personal grudges. ( ie: #17, 18, AND 19.)
Commemorating a historic event is generally the point of a monument. Commemorating might involve fireworks or celebrations, however that is completely irrelevant to the topic of TPUsa removing their bullshit watchlist.
@ 22 Tethys
As everyone can see 17-19 were responses to a question in the first paragraph of 16.
You realise other people can see the thread and see exactly who’s trolling and who isn’t?
@trollingbob
Apparently you’ve failed to grok that this particular OP was about the obnoxious Aussies who keep treating Pharyngula like their personal soapbox. Everyone is tired of all of y’all’s endless juvenile sniping about US politics.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/09/10/a-suggestion-for-commenters/
You still owe Chigau an apology. Feel free to do that multiple times.
@ 24 Tethys
Are you drunk? Or high? The OP was about TPUSA’s watchlist. Nothing to do with Aussies.
@ 6 Stevo made a bunch of batshit claims.
@ 14 I pointed out they were batshit but charitably allowed it could be a joke.
@ 16 Stevo said it’s not a joke and demanded I show how the claims are batshit.
@ 17-19 I comprehensively showed how the claims are batshit.
@ 22 You called me a troll with a personal grudge
@ 23 I pointed out everyone can see that’s not true.
@ 24 You completely change the subject to “US politics” and weeaboos.
Get a fucking grip mate.
John Morales @21 we absolutely did not have a wake for my father, we had a funeral for the family at the crem, then later ,in the same Methodist church he attended for decades, we had a memorial service that was a celebration of the three most important parts of his life. Then we adjourned to the church hall for food and drink, Methodists do drink but not to excess and not spirits, so in this case the ‘drink’ was tea and coffee, which really doesn’t sound like my understanding of ‘wake’ in this context.
And yes I was mocking Silentbob, but I was also telling the truth about what we called my fathers memorial, which was separate and some time later than his funeral. People may not always describe them as such, but in my experience memorials usually are a celebration of the life of the dead person, it’s part of why we have them.
SilentBob you are boring, get a grip.
@ ^
Lol. I’m sorry you find reality boring.
When people talk shit I will continue to talk truth. You could always opt out and go watch a movie or something? (Or -shock, horror – learn how to discern fantasy from reality and construct an actual evidence-based argument. Or not. Your call.)
@ Jazzlet
From #6
Are you seriously claimng with a straight face, this was referring to celebrating Kirk’s life??? Do you not have an honest bone in your body?
When people talk shit I will continue to talk truth
You are in fact demonstrating that you are incredibly obtuse, in addition to being boring and rude.
Y’know I think there’s this phenomenon in Pharyngula threads where after two or three comments people forget what it was even about. X-D
This is case study:
It started with StevoR making the absurd claim his widow celebrated his death with fireworks.
I pointed out it was a memorial and though there were fireworks it was not a “celebration”.
Then some numpty comes along and says you can celebrate a person’s life at a memorial – which is true but not the original claim.
Then people claim Silentbob says you can’t celebrate a person’s life. Which is batshit. It’s like this bizarre game of “telephone”.
Reality check: StevoR made a false and ludicrous claim Kirk’s widow celebrated being “free” with fireworks. Silentbob accurately debunked the claim.
Anyone claiming StevoR was correct needs to come at me with evidence. Any takers? You need to establish the fireworks were celebrating death, not life.
I’ll take that as a “no” then. None of these beanheads can find any inaccuracies in anything I posted. Fucking clowns.
PZ Myers makes a suggestion for commenters in a previous thread with that name here. Silentbob proceeds to ignore it making multiple comments and hogging the thread with comments #12, 13, 14, 17, 18 there and now he’s posted comments #13, 14, 17, 18, 19,23, 25, 28, 29, 31 & 32 here. Go figure huh?
Anyhow Silentbob described my claims in #6 which were later clarified in #16 as “debunked nonsense” (#14), “delusional, “Horseshit” “fantasies” (#17), “ batshit “ (#25), “shit” (species unassigned -ed) #28, “ absurd claim”, “false and ludicrous claim” (#31) and then challenged :
Before doubling down on his (Silentbob’s) totally irrelevant lies & misgendering against chigau (違う) yet again.
Now my claims were :
(A) That Charlie Kirk’s death been their hoped for excuse for the Civil War / Brutal Repression Crackdown they’d been masturbating about for decades but when it turned out he’d been killed by another even worse nazi (Groyper faction) rather than an actual Leftist so they couldn’t do that.
(B) His ecstatic widow celeberating with fireworks had to forgive the murderer who freed her to fall into “couch-fucker” Vance’s arms instead.
Which can be broken down into (i) Erika Kirk celebrated her husband’s death with fireworks & ii) had to forgive the murderer & (iii) seemed attracted to Vance.
Now that Erika Kirk walked out to fireworks at the Kirk celebration is really clear we have visual proof here :
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/people-keep-pointing-1-thing-193953770.html
Even Silentbob acknowledges there were fireworks. He is charitably inclined in his interpretation of this but a lot of people noted how bizarre it was and how surprisingly happy about it all she seemed. Erika Kirk and JD Vance’s relationship became subject to widespread rumour as noted among other places here :
Source : https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/erika-kirk-jd-vance-spark-223900370.html
Now Snopes didn’t confirm the relationship but they also didn’t find it false either. They suggested there wasn’t evidence yet the photos and body language speak for themselves. Maybe its true, maybe it isn’t. Frankly, I really don’t care. I detest all the people involved – Erika Kirk. JD Vance, the late nazi bully Charlie Kirk etc. It’s their business and I’ll admit I could be mistaken and was being “catty” as I noted at #8 with apologies to felines. However, the idea that Erika Kirk was having an affair with Vance was not my claim but a common plausible rumour based on their body language, etc.. and describing it as Silentbob did? Nah.
Then there’s the idea of the Repugs and Trump cult using Kirk’s death as an opportunity for a Civil War or extremely brutal crackdown. Again this is something that many online were speculating about and as this USAite ABC article notes :
Source : https://abcnews.com/Politics/after-charlie-kirks-killing-maga-world-mourns-war/story?id=125483603
Obviously, those calls for war deflated immediately when it was clear that Kirk’s murderer was a Groyper or at least wasn’t obviously a leftist and was a white Mormon kid from a gun-loving MAGAt family – one of them.
So my claim (A) regarding them seeking an excuse for Civil War is correct NOT “false or “absurd” or “batshit” at all.
My claim (B) remains plausible and the bit about the fireworks is true and its been widely rumoured that Kirk and Vance were romantically involved. This hasn’t been proven but still. It ain’t “ludicrous” or “batshit”and certainly hasn’t just been me saying it.
@18. Silentbob : “3) Vance fucked a couch. Grow the fuck up Stevo. The guy who made it up said he made it up.”
Yeah, I didn’t say otherwise. I used “couch fucker” as a nickname for Vance which has become popular because of that story. Are, are you taking offence on behalf of JD Vance and supporting him here, Silentbob? Are you tone policing what nicknames and insults we can use against that utter klown?! Fuck off with that.
Is it tho?
FWIW It was noted by PZ here :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/09/12/i-am-not-surprised-that-the-shooter-was-far-right/
Complete with a linked video providing evidence.
Then there’s :
Source : https://gazettedirect.com/tyler-robinson-groyper-nick-fuentes/
Bold added for emphasis.
Plus :
Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/was-tyler-robinson-a-groyper-charlie-kirk-shooting-suspect-being-linked-to-alt-right-movement-101757703508205.html
Note evidence ^ is more than just “gamer memes on bullet casings.” There is other evidence if not yet conclusive and its been widely reported and common knowledge that Kirk’s killer likely was a groyper atleats at one stage and quite possibly that was his motivation.
Silentbob claimed (#31) :
Nope. Silentbob you did not. Also weird to refer to yourself in third person like that. I think the others here can decide for themselves how accurate you have been.
I’ve provide that evidence you asked for even it is not 100% conclusive there’s still reason for what I said and its commonly held by many people not just me and plausible not “batshit or absurd, etc…
Recap :
Erika Kirk had fireworks at the celebration of Kirks death / MAGAT fund raiser.
Erika Kirk & JD Vance have been subject of plausible widespread rumours based on their body language and more that they are / were having an affair.
Kirk’s murderer is widely reported and plausibly a Groyper although this isn’t confirmed evidence includes personal photos and accounts of his behaviour as well as those gun casing messages.
Reichwing pundit, pollies and leaders called for war and crackdowns on the left before the nature of Kirk’s murder was known.
No JD Vance did NOT fuck a couch – but then I didn’t say he did I used it as a nickname. Is that fair on Vance? Who cares the man is a evil dodgy as Trump sycophant who can go fuck himself. Or fuck a couch if he’d rather.
PS. Silentbob have you answered those questions regarding Greenland or apologized to chigau (違う) yet?
I know it takes time and people have lives with work and other commitments and are busy (hence my delayed response here also taking the time to get it right) but you have had waa-ay more than enough time to do so by now.