rsmurphy wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 1:09 pm I don't mean to sound like a dick, but it is truly a privilege to have not known about the existence of Charlie Kirk. No cap.

That's real. Seeing all this hagiography is really too much. Like 2003 recurring, vast swaths of mainstream media acting like they're hosts in Westworld. "Doesn't look like anything to me."

Gramsci wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 3:37 am

jimmy spako wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 2:56 am

Gramsci wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 1:57 am One thing this has exposed is how much people are living in Crazy Bubbles.

90% of the population in the US probably had no to little idea who Kirk was, remember most people do not engage with politics in any way in their daily lives.

Then Kirk’s widow goes on a stream and says her ‘cries will echo around the world like a battle cry’… Lady, it’s sad your husband was killed, but he was just a dude that worked for a political advocacy organisation… no one will remember him in a month.

I predict the usual media flare up then this barely being mentioned once the next shiny thing happens.

Everyone in the US here is kind of telling you that's not how the US works these days, but you're not listening.

Sorry but voter turnout says the opposite. Last presidential election it was less than 60% and lower than the previous. That is incredibly low. Mid terms 46%… I think you confuse people yelling at each other online and the odd rally/protest as mass movements. They are not. Because of the first past the post voting system a small minority of weirdos can easily high jack the whole political structure.

I reiterate, the majority of people in the US, UK etc think about politics very little. We live in the era of the low information voter. It’s the system that throws up these seemingly unlimited insurmountable majorities, not voter sentiment.

Oh and fuck the media and socials.

PS I’m not denying polarisation, it’s just not as “active” as I think you suggest. Asking someone’s opinion in poll is not the same as their headspace 24/7.

With all due respect, please stop USplaining America to us.

rsmurphy wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 1:09 pm I don't mean to sound like a dick, but it is truly a privilege to have not known about the existence of Charlie Kirk. No cap.

If you stay off socials, you’ll be surprised how much you are spared. Counterpoint, I have no idea when bands tour, or when free Slurpee day is. My 15 y/o says they HAD heard of him before this….but they also think I will buy them $150 Tame Impala tickets. Fat chance.

zorg wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 2:29 pm

rsmurphy wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 1:09 pm I don't mean to sound like a dick, but it is truly a privilege to have not known about the existence of Charlie Kirk. No cap.

If you stay off socials, you’ll be surprised how much you are spared. Counterpoint, I have no idea when bands tour, or when free Slurpee day is. My 15 y/o says they HAD heard of him before this….but they also think I will buy them $150 Tame Impala tickets. Fat chance.

Randall's not even on Facebook you dingus. You don't need social media to stay informed. But his point is that it's a privilege to not have to maintain awareness of what's going on in the far right for anyone not a part of any groups they target.

joe_lmr wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 1:36 pm With all due respect, please stop USplaining America to us.

You’re right, so no offence taken. There plenty of stupid shit going on in my adopted country. I’ll stick to explaining that to the Brits.

But seriously, you are right. It’s a bad habit. I guess it’s just the US is so relevant to everywhere. US news is often above local news in the UK.

In some good news. Bolsonaro got 27 years for plotting a coup.

zorg wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 2:29 pm If you stay off socials, you’ll be surprised how much you are spared.

There is a line between touching grass and being willfully ignorant. Maybe "willfully" is too strong of a word but I can't stick my head in the sand as much as I'd like because being conversant saves and enriches my life. I wouldn't be aware of the histories of my enslaved ancestors, the Palestinian death toll, Sudanese civil war, atrocities of the Trump administration; or, Bay Area underground reissues, jack tracks, and keeping abreast of what the homies have been up to in their lives.

As a middle-aged Gen X dude I'm not fettered by the trappings of online culture and commerce, but real life is curated in such a way where being selectively inattentive could very well get me unalived - as the kids are wont to say - or reach a level of inelegance and I'm far too handsome with fabulous taste in music for that.

joe_lmr wrote:Randall's not even on Facebook

Coming up 1 year on November 7. For my sanity FB had to go. I keep my IG feed as enjoyable as possible, but, again, one has to be knowledgeable of what's happening in the country and surrounding world and that requires engagement with a platform built to enrage.

I'm low-key jealous tho of people who can just blithely scroll through reels in public because mines can be spicy

I’m in a similar space. Gen X dude that can live a non online life avoiding socials but still with a news addiction and use as a tool, a lot.

But that last thing you said about scrolling. It hadn’t really sunk in how online “young people” are until very recently. I was on a packed intercity train in Germany and there was a girl sitting on the floor, literally just flicking through what I assume was TikTok for over an hour. Almost without pausing. Then last week there was an Underground strike in London. I also walk to work but there was a massive uptick in Lime Bike use, like the streets were flooded. I literally saw on multiple occasions “young people” cycling at speed while staring into their phones and scrolling.

The fucking dissonance! Jesus!"

Robinson's background offers no real answers, either. He grew up in a conservative Utah community and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a young age, according to a church spokesperson

The other mind boggling thing is the media reporting on the OBSCURITY of the messages on the bullet casings, as if FUCKING GOOGLE DOESN'T EXIST. Saying "did he not want us to figure it out?" JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.
And STILL, the MAGAs are blaming the left.

Randy, I definitely envy your lack of awareness on this fuckhead. Grade A gaslighting troll. Debates literal children and his number one retort is "what have I ever said that is racist?". I'm unable to imagine any healthy, constructive conversation with conservatives at this point. Refusing service when possible, friendship (obviously), and any sort of interaction is the only way through. Ignore and exclude them. Every set by every band should begin with "If you are a MAGA fuck, please leave, we don't want you here." (I used to naively think they weren't out there in my circles in Chicago, but they sure fucking are.) I can't even stomach a FaceTime with my parents at this point. Will probably leave the room and let my husband talk to them next time they call.

jeff fox wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 9:02 am Randy, I definitely envy your lack of awareness on this fuckhead.

It's FM zorg who said he was unaware of Kirk. I am all too familiar with Turning Point and its acolytes. I believe Zorg's point is that if you aren't online you can afford to be ignorant of harmful groups like TP and the racism, homophobia, and misogyny they foment.

Randy wrote:don't mean to sound like a dick, but it is truly a privilege to have not known about the existence of Charlie Kirk.

I see where your confusion lies, Jeff. I was calling out the privilege of others who can afford to be ignorant of Kirk.

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brephophagist wrote:Seeing all this hagiography is really too much.

That is real. It makes me think about how people would react well over a century ago to the news of slave revolts or freedmen fighting for their own existence. Reading what Kirk's wife said: "You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry," and ""To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die," I know what movement she's talking about and I know the people she is addressing. It's exhausting as well as super frightening watching this lionization of a hateful figurehead.

Watching Donna Braziile nod her head in affirmation to Reince Priebus' praise of Kirk on This Week makes me wonder if she is intentionally ignoring Kirk's views about black women's brains having low processing power. Shameful. I get that in the public eye one has to play the game, but, honey, gurl, you are surrendering to the patriarchy and white supremacy by smiling politely.

Fuck all them hoes.