By Brett McCracken - Posted at TGC:
"Highly online life warps our brains and poisons our souls. If we’re looking for something that ties together all the political assassinations and school shootings in recent years, it’s this. Whatever their ideologies or motives, these mentally unwell murderers are all mentally unwell in large part because of their digital worlds—Discord, Reddit, 4Chan, TikTok, and all the rest. As they live immersed in these spaces, they are radicalized, dehumanized, and disassociated from reality."Within minutes of Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week, the video clip was everywhere on social media. More graphic footage followed. Last year’s Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt of President Trump unfolded the same way: instant video all over social media. Earlier this month, you couldn’t open social media without seeing indelible images and video of Iryna Zarutska being stabbed from behind in a monstrous act of murder now being investigated as a potential hate crime. In December, video footage spread rapidly of a black-hooded Luigi Mangione walking up to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in NYC and shooting him in the back.
It’s easy to become numb. But images and video have galvanizing power. The real-time video chronicling of 9/11’s horrors, nearly a quarter-century ago now, powerfully shaped culture in my lifetime. So did the live footage of bloodied teenagers fleeing Columbine High School.
So will the Charlie Kirk assassination.
What Kind of Turning Point?
It’s hard to not notice that the name of the organization Kirk founded—Turning Point USA—mirrors the way Kirk’s assassination feels. Will this event be culture-shifting in the way the 1960s political assassinations were? Is it a “generation-shaping event” like 9/11?
Only time will tell. But I do sense that Kirk’s assassination might be uniquely catalytic in American culture. It may not be a decisive turning point, but here are three ways this event might accelerate already-in-motion trends, and why it matters for Christians.