Six Lies Social Media Tells Us About Violence, Truth, and Charlie Kirk's Death

[00:00] And then you see how much violence

[00:01] there's on the left uh with our our

[00:04] friend Charlie Cook getting murdered in

[00:06] cold blood this week and people on the

[00:10] left celebrating it openly. The left is

[00:13] the party of murder. You either fight

[00:15] back or you die. Here are the six lies

[00:17] that you are being told right now and

[00:19] it's ruining our lives and ruining our

[00:21] culture. They're not lies that are

[00:24] articulated very much, but the social

[00:26] media environment that we are all

[00:28] inhabiting are reinforcing these

[00:30] untruths in every minute of our lives.

[00:33] Here are the six, and we'll go through

[00:35] them. This is him. This is you. This is

[00:40] that. This is them. This is nothing.

[00:44] This is everything. First of all, this

[00:47] is him. It's so interesting that in the

[00:49] videos that we have done about the

[00:51] Charlie Kirk assassination, so many

[00:53] people have said to us, "I can't believe

[00:56] you're raising up Charlie Kirk as an

[00:58] example of X, Y, or Zed. He is the guy

[01:01] who." And then they will give a portrait

[01:03] of Charlie Kirk that I'm entirely

[01:05] unfamiliar with. I was speaking with my

[01:08] colleague Nate Morgan Lockach, whose

[01:09] reformed mythologist channel you should

[01:10] definitely check out. He said he had no

[01:12] idea that Charlie Kirk was in fact a

[01:14] Christian until after he had died. His

[01:17] social media feeds sometimes gave him

[01:19] images of Charlie Kirk doing a political

[01:22] thing, but never preaching the gospel.

[01:24] For some people, all they see is Charlie

[01:26] Kirk preaching the gospel. For some

[01:28] people, all they see Charlie Kirk doing

[01:30] is defending free speech. For some

[01:32] people, all they see Charlie Kirk saying

[01:34] is things about race and immigration

[01:37] that he ought not to have said. And if

[01:39] that is your social media diet, how can

[01:42] you conclude anything but Charlie Kirk

[01:44] is a hater? But we live in the social

[01:47] media silos in which you have a curated

[01:50] news feed. You don't just have an

[01:51] alternative worldview. You don't have

[01:54] alternative tastes. There are

[01:55] alternative facts out there for you to

[01:58] discern. And you're constantly being

[02:00] told this is him. But your friend is

[02:02] being told, "No, this is him." And that

[02:05] sense of fracture is being

[02:06] algorithmically hypercharged in this

[02:09] moment. Lie number one, this is him.

[02:12] We're living in a siloed world. Line

[02:14] number two, this is you. Social media

[02:18] brings very near any kind of event as

[02:21] long as it happens within sight of a

[02:23] smartphone. That video footage is now

[02:25] inside your world and it gets inside

[02:27] your head at the speed of a click and

[02:30] you weren't even looking for it. I

[02:32] scrolled through Twitter looking for all

[02:33] sorts of information about what might

[02:36] have happened to Charlie Kirk and all of

[02:38] a sudden I see his murder and everybody

[02:40] is saying the same thing. They were not

[02:42] prepared to see his murder. The

[02:44] algorithm served it up anyway. And how

[02:46] can that not give you a sense of the

[02:49] nearness of the horror? In a print media

[02:52] age, we would have read the story about

[02:54] something that happened in Utah and that

[02:56] event is still just as awful. But to see

[02:59] it in real time from multiple angles is

[03:03] to make millions of people think this is

[03:05] me and to feel the nearness of the

[03:09] threat and the potential for violence.

[03:12] Perhaps a nearness that is not borne out

[03:15] by reality. There's the apocryphal story

[03:17] of April 16th, 1912. The Abedine Journal

[03:20] runs a headline the day after the

[03:22] Titanic sinks and it just says Abedine

[03:25] man drowns at sea. It turns out that's

[03:28] not true. The Abedine Journal did indeed

[03:30] lead with the sinking of the Titanic,

[03:33] but it gets at this truth that what is

[03:36] local to us is obviously of most

[03:39] interest to us. But if the Titanic had

[03:42] sunk in a social media age, we would

[03:45] actually completely forget about the

[03:46] Abedene man who had drowned at sea. The

[03:49] spectacle of the tragedy that had

[03:51] happened on the other side of the world

[03:52] would have been brought incredibly near

[03:55] and would have made everybody think that

[03:56] they could never again go on a cruise

[03:59] ship. This is you is a distortion. And

[04:02] it's a distortion that when it happens

[04:04] in the midst of incidents of political

[04:06] violence, it makes everybody feel that

[04:09] violence is right near to us. As as

[04:11] close as my smartphone is to me, that's

[04:14] not true. But that's the second lie.

[04:17] This is him. this is you. Then social

[04:20] media makes us think this is that and we

[04:24] are always proclaiming that on our

[04:27] social media feeds. We are invited to

[04:29] make press releases on a daily basis on

[04:32] our social media platform of choice. We

[04:34] are all our own spin doctors and we all

[04:36] ride our favorite hobby horses and then

[04:40] an image comes to us from the other side

[04:42] of the world and we are very tempted to

[04:44] say this is that. Do you remember the

[04:46] Coington High kid from 2017, the March

[04:49] for Life, and he happened to be wearing

[04:50] a MAGA hat and there was a Native

[04:52] American who was beating a drum in his

[04:54] face? And there was a snapshot of this

[04:57] kid not knowing what to do, frozen in

[04:59] the middle of a smile. And the image

[05:03] went round the world at the speed of a

[05:05] click and millions of people are

[05:07] suddenly of the opinion that this kid is

[05:09] smirking at a First Nations tribal

[05:12] leader because it fit the narrative.

[05:14] This is that. And we're constantly being

[05:17] invited by social media to see little

[05:19] snapshots from around the world that

[05:21] have contexts we know nothing of, but it

[05:24] fits into our own little narrative. And

[05:26] we want to use these as jumping off

[05:28] points for sermons that we were going to

[05:30] preach anyway. We're riding a hobby

[05:33] horse and we'll be riding that hobby

[05:34] horse long after that image has faded

[05:37] away. On social media, beware the this

[05:40] is that fallacy. And then the fourth

[05:43] one, and I think this is huge right now,

[05:45] this is them. This has always been them.

[05:49] This is the platonic ideal of what they

[05:51] are always like. And right now, it is

[05:53] very straightforward to troll through

[05:55] Tik Tok and you can find any number of

[05:58] people celebrating the death of Charlie

[06:00] Kirk and thinking he had it coming to

[06:02] him. That is appalling. It is

[06:03] imbecillic. It is morally imbecillic. It

[06:06] speaks of psychological and spiritual

[06:08] dysfunction on a level that yes does

[06:12] enrage. But then social media is

[06:14] constantly inviting you to be enraged at

[06:17] them to quote tweet them and to say this

[06:21] is them. This deluded Tik Tocker is them

[06:26] the other side. And you get Elon Musk

[06:28] tweeting out things like the left is the

[06:30] party of murder as though the left is

[06:33] celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk.

[06:35] And yet it's incredibly straightforward

[06:37] to find some very wellbalanced and

[06:40] profoundly helpful comments by those on

[06:43] the left. Whether it's Bernie Sanders or

[06:45] AOC or Barack Obama or you can find all

[06:48] sorts of leftleaning people who are

[06:50] having all sorts of appropriate

[06:52] reactions to this moment. But social

[06:55] media gives a megaphone a bullhorn to

[06:58] anyone with the most fringe views. And

[07:00] the most fringe views get amplified

[07:03] because if it enrages it engages. That

[07:06] used to be the old saying, didn't it,

[07:08] about print media. If it bleeds, it

[07:10] leads. The sensational thing is the

[07:12] thing that is going to be forwarded in

[07:14] print media. Oh my goodness, have we

[07:16] hypercharged that. If it enrages, it

[07:19] engages. And the man who owns Twitter is

[07:23] the worst offender when it comes to

[07:25] this. Here he is addressing a march.

[07:28] Tommy Robinson is asking him to comment

[07:30] on the events of today. And instead of

[07:33] being the grown-up in the room, he falls

[07:35] instantly for the this is them fallacy.

[07:38] And he invites over 100,000 people who

[07:40] are there demonstrating in London to do

[07:43] the very same. Have a look.

[07:44] >> And then you see how much violence

[07:45] there's on the left uh with our our

[07:48] friend Charlie Cook getting murdered in

[07:50] cold blood this week and people on the

[07:54] left celebrating it openly.

[07:58] The left is the party of murder

[08:02] and celebrating murder.

[08:06] I mean, let let that sink in for a

[08:09] minute.

[08:11] That's who we're dealing with here.

[08:14] This is this is a message to the

[08:16] reasonable center. The people who

[08:18] ordinarily wouldn't get involved in

[08:19] politics,

[08:21] uh, who just want to live their lives.

[08:24] They don't want that they they're quiet.

[08:26] They just go about their business. My

[08:28] message is to them if this continues

[08:33] that violence is going to come to you.

[08:37] You will have no choice.

[08:39] This is a this is you're in a

[08:41] fundamental situation here where you

[08:44] where

[08:46] whether you choose violence or not,

[08:47] violence is coming to you. You either

[08:50] fight back or you die.

[08:54] You either fight back or you die.

[08:58] And that's the truth.

[09:01] >> Today, Elon, I think we're I think the

[09:03] British public are telling the world

[09:04] that they're ready to fight back.

[09:07] [Applause]

[09:10] >> Yes.

[09:10] >> Come on. Come on, great.

[09:14] >> Profoundly unhelpful speech and

[09:16] committing all sorts of fallacies,

[09:18] including the this is them fallacy.

[09:21] Let's not fall for it ourselves. The

[09:23] fifth lie we're being told is this is

[09:26] nothing. And here we need to talk about

[09:28] Tyler Robinson, the shooter who engraved

[09:31] onto his bullet casings any number of

[09:35] conflicting internet memes. And many

[09:37] people are calling this posting as a

[09:40] political assassination. I found this

[09:42] article by Ryan Brderick and Adam Bumass

[09:45] to be very helpful at points. Charlie

[09:47] Kirk was killed by a meme. The use of

[09:49] memes and political mass violence

[09:51] started in earnest in 2019 when a man

[09:53] filmed himself attacking a mosque in

[09:55] Christ Church, New Zealand. Just before

[09:57] he started, he told viewers, "Subscribe

[09:59] to PewDiePie," the biggest YouTuber at

[10:01] the time. Months later, in Hal, Germany,

[10:04] an attacker live streamed the shooting

[10:05] of a synagogue on Twitch. In 2022, an

[10:08] 18-year-old white nationalist live

[10:10] streamed a shooting in a grocery store

[10:11] in Buffalo, New York. Investigators

[10:14] later discovered that he was planning it

[10:15] openly on 4chan and Discord, calling it

[10:18] a real life effort post. And in the last

[10:21] year, Luigi Manion allegedly gunned down

[10:24] United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson

[10:26] with bullets that read, "Deny, defend,

[10:29] depose." Days later, a 15-year-old posed

[10:31] for a photo flashing the right-wing okay

[10:34] hand symbol before allegedly carrying

[10:36] out a school shooting in Madison,

[10:37] Wisconsin. And just last month, Robin

[10:39] Westman allegedly carried out a shooting

[10:41] in Minneapolis with bullets that had a

[10:42] range of messages from all around the

[10:44] political spectrum, including, "I am the

[10:46] woker baby. Why soquerious skety?" And

[10:49] the simplified line version of the lost

[10:51] JPEG meme. According to law enforcement,

[10:53] the messages on the bullet casings

[10:55] believed to have belonged to Robinson

[10:56] were equally politically confusing. The

[10:58] bullet that struck and killed Kirk had

[11:00] notices bulge, capital O, little W,

[11:03] capital O, what's this? Written on its

[11:05] casing. a reference to a longtime

[11:06] internet joke that originally comes from

[11:08] a textbased furry roleplay. It is not

[11:11] proof, however, that Robinson was a

[11:12] furry. The meme has long since become a

[11:14] part of the extremely online cannon.

[11:17] This does not explain all the motives of

[11:19] Robinson. He had told family members

[11:21] that he thought that Charlie Kirk was

[11:22] full of hate and he couldn't be reasoned

[11:24] out of it. And it appears that Tyler

[11:26] Robinson had identified hate in Charlie

[11:29] Kirk and wanted to stop him with a

[11:31] bullet. The variety of confusing memes

[11:34] does not mean that this was not

[11:35] politically motivated, but it does mean

[11:37] that Tyler Robinson was lost in more

[11:39] ways than one. He was lost to an

[11:41] ideology that believes that violence can

[11:43] end speech. But it also seems to me that

[11:45] he was lost to utter nihilism, to brain

[11:48] rot, to posting. The article finishes by

[11:52] drawing attention to these links between

[11:54] shootings and meme culture. And they say

[11:56] of the violence, all of it is now just

[11:59] another meme you can participate in to

[12:01] go viral. Made even more confusing by a

[12:04] new nihilistic accelerationist movement

[12:06] that delights in muddying the waters for

[12:08] older people who still adhere to a

[12:10] traditional political spectrum. Many

[12:12] young extremists now believe in a much

[12:14] simpler binary, order and chaos. And if

[12:18] you are spending any time at all trying

[12:20] to derive meaning from violent acts like

[12:22] this, then you are by definition their

[12:24] enemy. That's the fifth lie. This is

[12:27] nothing. It's a lie that Tyler Robinson

[12:30] has bought into. It's a lie that many

[12:31] others are lost to and it's killing us.

[12:34] We shrug our shoulders at brain rot. But

[12:37] in a nihilistic frame, in a godless

[12:39] frame, what else is brain rot except

[12:42] soul rot? And we are giving ourselves

[12:44] and our children over to a world of

[12:47] brain rot. A world that says this is

[12:49] nothing. There is definitely danger in

[12:52] ideologies that glorify violence and

[12:55] that permit violence in the name of that

[12:57] ideology. That is dangerous. But it's

[13:00] also extremely dangerous. Annihilism

[13:03] that permits violence because this is

[13:06] nothing. That's the fifth lie and it is

[13:08] all over our online world. But finally

[13:12] the sixth lie. This is everything. If

[13:16] you are online as much as I am online,

[13:19] you are receiving a diet of this stuff

[13:22] on a daily basis, algorithmically

[13:24] tweaked and refined and supercharged to

[13:28] push your buttons in a way that is

[13:30] bespoke for you. And all the algorithm

[13:32] wants is for you to stay at the

[13:34] computer, to stay glued to your screen,

[13:36] to keep on scrolling. That's all it

[13:39] wants. It's just that it's found that

[13:42] the way to keep you glued is to enrage

[13:44] you. It turns out that will tether you

[13:46] to your device more than seeing

[13:48] attractive naked people. We used to

[13:50] think sex cells. What we found is

[13:52] something better and that is rage. And

[13:54] these algorithms have figured out that

[13:56] the best way to get engagement in more

[13:58] Nissan ads is to figure out your

[14:00] political leanings and then take you as

[14:02] far as they can tweet by tweet or real

[14:04] by real or Tik Tok by Tik Tok to an

[14:07] extreme. And now that Americans get two

[14:10] or twothirds of Americans get their news

[14:13] from social media, the temperature has

[14:14] just gone up. And I would ask all of us

[14:16] to do what Darth Vad Vader suggested and

[14:19] search your feelings. You know this to

[14:20] be true. More than lust, which is a

[14:23] problem all of its own. Anger will keep

[14:26] you addicted to the machine. And you're

[14:28] tempted, and I'm tempted to believe this

[14:30] sixth lie. This is everything.

[14:34] But it's really not. Last night I was in

[14:36] a church helping Christians to get

[14:38] better at how to share their faith. And

[14:41] one thing I train Christians to do is to

[14:43] just use the line, that's what I love

[14:45] about my church. And we got people to

[14:47] workshop that. And of course, there's so

[14:49] many things that people love about their

[14:51] church. There is this embodied community

[14:53] where I get to meet people from all

[14:55] kinds of different walks of life. Some

[14:57] of them have a social media diet that

[14:59] paints Charlie Kirk in one way. Some of

[15:01] them have a social media diet that

[15:03] paints Charlie Kirk in a totally

[15:04] different light. And we get to come

[15:06] together. And when we come together on a

[15:09] Sunday morning, we get to hit reset and

[15:13] we get to say the problem is me. We get

[15:16] to confess our sins and out loud

[15:19] together. We can talk about how I've

[15:21] been a spiritual this week. And

[15:23] you've been a spiritual this week.

[15:24] We've all been wrong this week. Doesn't

[15:27] that recalibrate your heart? Instead of

[15:30] being right online, you can show up in

[15:32] church and be wrong. Instead of an

[15:35] online world in which I'm trying to look

[15:38] good in the presence of judgment, I can

[15:40] come to church and I can look bad in the

[15:43] presence of love. Never have we needed

[15:45] embodied community across racial lines,

[15:48] across ideological lines. Never have we

[15:51] needed the church of Jesus Christ more

[15:52] than right now. And listen, we're glad

[15:55] if Charlie Kirk and the social media

[15:57] that is coming to you from Charlie Kirk

[15:59] has meant that you end up in church on a

[16:02] Sunday. If the name of Charlie Kirk got

[16:04] you to church on a Sunday, praise God.

[16:06] But if you leave that church because it

[16:08] didn't mention the name of Charlie Kirk,

[16:11] I don't think that's even what Charlie

[16:13] Kirk would have wanted. Church is the

[16:15] place where we refocus on the name above

[16:17] every name. Where we challenge the lies

[16:20] that we've been telling ourselves all

[16:22] week. where we come clean in front of

[16:24] one another. We drop the act. We stop

[16:27] trying to look good in the presence of

[16:28] judgment. We start looking bad in the

[16:30] presence of love. And we worship a Jesus

[16:33] who descended into the mess to be with

[16:35] us, to be with us all, to be for us, to

[16:38] be for us all, and to lead us in a truth

[16:41] that comes from beyond. Have you

[16:43] investigated the truth of Jesus yet?

[16:46] We've got a great way of doing that.

[16:47] It's called 321. You can go to

[16:48] 321course.com and see life according to

[16:51] Jesus. Plenty of people have done it

[16:53] since the Charlie Kirk event. And some

[16:55] people are finding faith right now

[16:57] because the Charlie Kirk events have

[16:59] awoken them to their spiritual need.

[17:01] They've done 321 and they've come to

[17:02] Christ and now they want to go to

[17:03] church. Could that be you? Could that be

[17:05] your friends? Perhaps you should do it

[17:07] as a Christian and then pass it on to

[17:08] your friends. Go to 321course.com and

[17:11] discover life according to Jesus.

[17:12] That'll do for this video. If you've got

[17:15] this far, you must be a fan of the

[17:16] channel. Have you subscribed? Um,

[17:18] there's plenty more stuff for you that

[17:20] is coming. Our new studio is coming and

[17:23] that's why I'm here in this makeshift

[17:25] studio in a few weeks. I cannot wait to

[17:27] show you what the new studio looks like.

[17:30] Subscribe and we'll see you very soon.