In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, patrons of Twitter or TikTok or Bluesky or Facebook were treated to spontaneous exultations of glee and celebration. This was not surprising, or new. When Reagan was shot, I remember some idiot at the college bar where I worked asking, “Why couldn’t they have shot him later?” because her soap operas were being preempted. But things are different now, and here’s why.
Imagine if, after JFK or Reagan or the pope was shot, someone got out his Kodak home movie camera, filmed himself laughing and dancing with joy, then set up a bedsheet screen in his front yard and ran the scene on a constant loop. Anyone would have thought the person was deranged. But that is what people do now on social media.
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