Indiana Farm Family Honored Charlie Kirk and Trolls Tried to Erase Their Business Overnight

Charlie Kirk was taken down at a Utah college campus one year ago this week.

An Indiana farm decided to honor him in their annual corn maze design this fall.

Within days, strangers online launched a coordinated effort to wipe the family business off the map.

Goebel Farms Turned Its Corn Maze Into a Charlie Kirk Memorial

Goebel Farms in Evansville, Indiana, cuts a new corn maze design every year.

This year the family picked Charlie Kirk's face.

Farm manager Jeremy Goebel posted the design on Instagram, and the backlash started almost immediately.

Goebel explained the choice in his own words.

"The maze was meant to honor someone, not to tell anyone else they aren't welcome," Goebel said.

The farm's official statement made clear nobody was required to agree with Kirk's politics to walk through it.

"Our intention was not to suggest that everyone should share Charlie's beliefs or agree with every statement he made," the farm said.

The goal, according to the family, was simple – discourage political violence and get people talking to each other again.

Kirk was taken out at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University last September.

Tyler Robinson, 23, just pleaded not guilty and is now awaiting trial on seven charges including aggravated murder, a charge that allows for a death penalty.

There is no indication Robinson ever confessed to law enforcement or family – despite the seriousness of the charges, and bedrock principle underlying our judicial system, mainstream media reports have perpetuated the claim without evidence.

Trolls Tried to Get the Family Business Marked Permanently Closed

The reviews started pouring in within hours.

One commenter called the tribute "some dumb political bullshit."

Another wrote that involving Kirk and politics with the farm was "one of the worst business decisions."

Goebel Farms disabled comments on its Instagram posts just to slow the flood.

Yelp ratings collapsed.

Then someone went after the farm's Google listing directly and got it flagged "permanently closed" – a tactic trolls use specifically to bury a small business in search results and choke off new customers.

Not every reviewer piled on.

"It's sad that they're getting such hateful comments," one supporter wrote. "Charlie was not a hater."

Another told the family to "stay strong with these toddlers having meltdowns."

Goebel Farms said it was listening to the community but had no plans to take the maze down.

https://twitter.com/MahalaxmiRaman/status/2096101331681546448

The Same Playbook a New Jersey Deli Owner Already Survived

This is not the first time a mob has tried to starve out a business over its politics.

A liberal Facebook group in Monmouth County, New Jersey, called Indivisible Blue Two Rivers built an actual blacklist of restaurants, delis and liquor stores it accused of supporting "MAGA, Fox, or alt-right radio."

Deli owner Eric Taliercio said getting listed was a punch to the gut for a business that had nothing to do with politics.

State senators from both parties condemned the list, and the group shut down after the backlash it created turned back on its own organizers.

That pattern is now playing out again in a cornfield in Evansville.

A YouGov survey of more than 3,000 Americans taken in September 2025 found 51 percent now say cancel culture has "gone too far," compared with just 6 percent who think it hasn't gone far enough.

That number has held steady in the year since Kirk's death, which means the instinct to organize a pile-on against a farm family did not fade – it just found a new target.

Making an example out of one family is exactly the point.

Nobody has to burn down Goebel Farms to send a message to every other business owner in Indiana thinking about putting up a Kirk tribute of their own.

They just have to make an example out of one family and let word spread.

Kirk spent his career telling college kids to say what they actually believe instead of hiding it.

A farm family tried to honor that one year after he died for it, and the same crowd he spent his life debating showed up to prove his point for him.

Sources:

• Fox News Staff, "Indiana Farm Faces Backlash After Honoring Charlie Kirk With Corn Maze Display," Fox News, September 3, 2026.
• Washington Examiner Staff, "Indiana Corn Maze Addresses Backlash Over Charlie Kirk Design," Washington Examiner, September 3, 2026.
• Todd Starnes, "Leftists Rage Over Farm's Charlie Kirk Corn Maze," ToddStarnes.com, September 2026.
• YouGov, "Do You Think That Cancel Culture Generally Has…?" YouGov Daily Survey, September 19, 2025.
• AOL Staff, "Liberal Facebook Group Made Blacklist of 'MAGA' Businesses in NJ Shut Down After Fierce Backlash," AOL News.