Gotta love UC Irvine, where apparently you can earn a paycheck teaching composition while making cryptic jokes about political violence—and somewhere along the way, “academic freedom” apparently becomes the answer to everything. Zot zot zot.
Meanwhile, if you’re Nick Shirley, you apparently need $30,000 to $50,000 a month in private security just for exercising your own version of free speech. Even the First Amendment apparently needs a bodyguard.
Shirley, the conservative YouTuber whose investigative videos have made him a favorite target of the progressive establishment, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging California’s new law targeting the kind of reporting he does. The law has been dubbed the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” by its critics.
And Shirley isn’t just raising money for lawyers. He’s raising money for security. That’s because Shirley says the political hostility surrounding his reporting, lawsuit and public appearances has become sufficiently serious that he’s spending tens of thousands of dollars every month to protect himself. That’s a lot of money.
It’s also a rather extraordinary indictment of the current political climate. And then along comes UC Irvine lecturer Matthew Goldman, who is still listed on UCI’s School of Humanities website as a composition lecturer. He’s apparently been teaching at UCI since 2022. His job includes teaching students how to write. One might assume that would include understanding the difference between an argument and a threat. Apparently there’s an advanced seminar for that.
Goldman reportedly responded to an Instagram post about Shirley appearing at Harvard by writing:
“Someone can do the funniest thing just before the Kirkiversary.”
“Kirkiversary” is apparently a reference to the anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination (it’s been almost a year)..
Now, before anyone reaches for the outrage button, let’s be precise: Goldman did not explicitly write that somebody should kill Shirley. Those are not the words he used. But if you are a university lecturer responding to a public announcement about a political figure appearing at Harvard, and your response involves somebody doing “the funniest thing” shortly before the anniversary of a political assassination, you’re going to have to forgive people for wondering what exactly the joke was.
Perhaps it’s all perfectly innocent. Maybe Goldman was referring to a really hilarious PowerPoint presentation. Perhaps a particularly amusing campus protest. Maybe someone was going to tell a terrific knock-knock joke. We don’t know. And that’s precisely the problem with cryptic references to political violence. They tend to require a little explanation.
Welcome to the UC Irvine School of Creative Interpretations
UCI has long marketed itself as an institution devoted to critical thinking, intellectual diversity and challenging conventional ideas. Which is wonderful. But there is a funny thing about intellectual diversity: It is supposed to apply to people you disagree with, too.
Shirley isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite person on the Irvine campus. He’s conservative. He’s confrontational. He makes videos that annoy people. He investigates subjects that make progressive activists extremely uncomfortable. In other words, he is exactly the sort of person universities should be able to tolerate. Unless the university’s definition of “free speech” secretly means “speech approved by people who already agree with us.”
That’s where this gets uncomfortable.
Because imagine the roles were reversed. Imagine a conservative university lecturer making a cryptic Instagram comment suggesting that a progressive activist might have something unfortunate happen to them just before the anniversary of a politically motivated killing. Would we be hearing about academic freedom? Would UCI tell everyone to relax? Would the explanation be that the professor was merely engaging in sophisticated political satire? Or would CNN have a satellite truck parked outside the Humanities building before lunch? These questions aren’t hypothetical in today’s political environment.
Universities have spent years telling students that words matter. They teach students about microaggressions, hostile environments, harmful rhetoric, online harassment and the importance of creating safe spaces.
Apparently, the concept becomes somewhat more complicated when the person being discussed is a conservative provocateur.
And then there’s the money
Shirley’s security fundraising may ultimately prove to be the most revealing part of this story. He’s saying security costs him $30,000 to $50,000 a month. That’s up to $600,000 a year. For perspective, that’s more than many Californians will earn in a decade.And Shirley is asking supporters to help pay it because he believes his public profile and political reporting have made him a target.
There is something deeply depressing about that. You can disagree with Shirley’s reporting. You can challenge his conclusions. You can criticize his methods. You can even think his videos are political clickbait wrapped in a camera. That’s called America. You don’t have to like somebody’s journalism to defend their right to do it.
And you certainly don’t get to turn political violence into a punchline.
Irvine has seen this movie before
Orange County has never been exactly boring politically. Irvine, however, has developed a particularly impressive talent for turning political disagreements into full-contact municipal theater. We have council meetings where procedural disputes become blood sport.
We have arguments over Ranked Choice Voting. We have campus activists. We have academics weighing in on national political controversies.
And now we apparently have a UCI lecturer whose social-media commentary has become part of a conservative YouTuber’s argument for why he needs a private security operation. At this rate, Irvine may soon need a Department of Political Drama. UCI can provide the faculty. The Irvine City Council can provide the meetings. And Shirley can provide the camera crew.
The irony is almost too perfect.
A man suing California over his First Amendment rights says he needs protection because of the reaction to his political speech.
And a university lecturer whose professional life is built around teaching people how to communicate finds himself at the center of a controversy over a comment that many people interpret as invoking political violence. Maybe the adults in the room should take over.
UCI should determine what Goldman meant. Goldman should explain what he meant. Shirley should continue pursuing his lawsuit through the courts.
And everyone involved should remember that political opponents are not enemy combatants. They’re Americans. Even the annoying ones. Especially the annoying ones. Because that’s the whole point of free speech. You don’t need the First Amendment to protect speech everybody loves. You need it to protect the speech that makes somebody across town absolutely furious.
And if defending that principle now requires Nick Shirley to raise enough money to hire a security detail, perhaps the people who claim to be defending democracy should stop laughing long enough to ask why. After all, “someone can do the funniest thing” isn’t nearly as funny when someone actually gets hurt.
And at UC Irvine, they should be smart enough to understand that. It’s called critical thinking. Apparently, it’s still being taught. At least we think it is.
Love Nick Shirley!!! We need 100 more of him in California and throughout the US. So much fraud on insurance costing us billions each year. We taxpayers pay for the fraud with increased car and homeowners rates and cost of goods. Google how much fraud there is in auto insurance claims. Don’t get me started on workers comp fraud. No one in government is doing anything about it. Judges let plaintiff attorneys and fraudsters get away with this every day and we law abiding citizens pay the price. Why does this have to be political. It’s just common sense.
he is a dick
It’s amazing how much leftist discourse is just them pretending not to understand things, thus making discourse impossible.
You’re a subhuman, Nick Shirley is great. You should go get the Alex Pretti treatment
so is goldman, but no one in any power or influence is calling for violence against him.
Does he deserve death though? Which side is the fascists again?
Does he deserve death though? Which side is the fascists again?
Wow, how absolutely intelligent and adult of you.
Just sad and pathetic. I used to think that progressives just couldn’t see how screwed up their beliefs and comments are/were, but now I am quite certain they know exactly what they are saying and doing and its by design. Scream a lie long and loud enough and maybe it will stick. It is very easy to see who the real facists are. BTW, Socialists=Communist=Facist. There is no difference.
The red scare failed in the 50s; glad to see there are some who still think its a factor
So are you.
An obviously intelligent individual such as yourself should expand his vocabulary. Otherwise one might conclude that you are a COMPLETE MORON!
He is awesome. He has exposed so much fraud in CA and now those “care centers” have closed down… saving us millions!!! thank you Nick
Shirley’s style is confrontational citizen journalism (knocking on doors, public records + visuals of inactivity) rather than traditional investigative reporting with full documentation of every claim. Critics (including some mainstream outlets and state officials at the time) called early videos overstated or lacking immediate proof for the full scope he alleged. Broader Minnesota fraud was already under investigation before his video. Not every site he highlighted has produced public charges, and “actual fraud” means proven cases via prosecution/guilty pleas rather than appearance alone.In short, yes—he has spotlighted real problems, and at least one facility from his Minnesota video resulted in federal charges and a guilty plea for millions in fraud. His work has also contributed to wider scrutiny and enforcement activity.
It’s called sensationalism not journalism.
You are like a chimp but less clever.
98 arrested, 60 already found guilty
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/minnesota-fraud-row-update-98-people-charged-more-than-60-found-guilty-pam-bondi-gives-shoutout-to-nick-shirley-101767075109078.html
hysterical; and much of that was underway while Nick Shirley was still trying to figure out where Minnesota was. Hindustan Times?! Hysterical and Im not your monkey
The Hindustani Times? Oh lord. Sensational.
Now that everyone has responded to WHAT A MORON YOU ARE, you change your tune and SUCK ASS because you know you look like a COMPLETE idiot to everyone.
Let me know anything that I posted about was inaccurate. Kay?
Oh I see you drive a hummer. The official car of tiny dicks everywhere
Exactly!
you overstate his actual contributions to society; Shirley is a lousy journalist. Remember his San Diego reveal that hundreds of people were registered to vote from a UPS facility? There was a UPS retail store at that address, and apartments above the address — all with legitimate registered voters. Shirley never corrected the record.
Oh my gosh! Oh, the sting!
Who in the mainstream media or leftists rags recanted on the Hunter Biden laptop top being Russian interference for Trump during the election process? One small example. I assume you were outraged when they never corrected the record?
A former client of mine reviewed the hard drive on the Hunter Biden laptop for the Washington Post; he was able to confirm it was authentic but said it was “a nothing burger.” Nothing there that would incriminate Joe Biden. In light of how much the Trump sons are profiting off their Father’s presidency, you should sit this one out. And there was plenty of evidence the Russians interefered with our election to benefit Trump. And thanks for your AOL email address; it’s been a while since a Luddite has left a comment here
The issue with the Hunter Biden laptop wasn’t that it would necessarily provide evidence of Joe’s illegality – it was that the FBI had tipped liberal mainstream media to the (false) likelihood that it was Russian propaganda. That was pre-bunking to arm the fake news to give them cover for not covering it. They spiked the story in support of Biden’s election.
It was Trump’s FBI
I thank Nick Shirley greatly for hi coverage. Fraud is huge problem, and welfare-medicaid fraud is enormous. I have seen it way to many times in action, and mostly in the immigrant community. It makes me terribly sad, but it needs to be stopped, and only way to stop it is to shine a light on it.
Perhaps Shirley could focus on the Medicare fraud committed by Senator Rick Scott. Or business fraud committed by President Trump. Or why the president grants pardons to those convicted of fraud who no longer have to pay full restitution.
Shirley missed this story. He is not uncovering anything/
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/economy/2026/6/23/the-3-7bn-man-inside-one-of-americas-biggest-medicare-frauds
Well it looks like UCI has scrubbed him from their faculty website as well as removing any mention of him on their site.
It’s so bizarre to me that anyone would disagree (or dislike) Nick when all he’s doing is uncovering fraud. Make it make sense! ♀️
This is the best explanation of what is going on in the US that I have read. Truly fair and balanced. Thank you!
You are making excuses for Matthew Goldman who has been reported to the FBI. He’s a vile TDS infected LEFTIST POS as are you if you continue to Make excuses for him. Your party is violent, hateful and dangerous and you should be ashamed.
Ok January 6th.
he also said “only good ice agent is a dead one” on the same post, which is very explicitly a call for violence. his profiles have been taken off the uci websites since
Matthew Goldman needs to be fired! I am ashamed to have graduated from UC Irvine, a public university that supports the inciting of violence and homicide!
Came back to this article and the author deleted my comment which had nothing offensive in it.
Typical liberal censorship.
If illegals weren’t so violent, especially when caught committing crimes, and if liberals weren’t so stupid to support the violent illegals. Nick wouldn’t need security. Stop the invasion, stop protecting people who shouldn’t be in this country. Stand up, fight along side ICE.
Speaking your mind freely can be a dangerous activity. It’s call “free” speech not “safe” speech.
Speaking your mind is one thing. Being a lecturer and having a position of influence on maliable young minds, and inciting homicide is another thing that should not be tolerated!
Malleable. Graduate?
Speaking your mind is one thing. Being a lecturer and having a position of influence on maliable young minds, and inciting homicide is another thing that should not be tolerated!
Exactly. There is free speech and their is speech you speak on your own time to the public while officially or not represents the institutions you work for. And if your speech doesn’t align or especially clashes with the mission statement of the afore mentioned institutions, then you are free to speak your mind all you want in the unemployment line.
Running with the Jewish Zionist American playbook I see. Cancel em all.
Good article Dan – not so much for your own comments here.