{"id":56,"date":"2025-10-02T15:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10.0.10.140:5590\/?p=56"},"modified":"2025-10-07T08:58:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T14:58:57","slug":"good-to-not-know-you-charlie-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"Good to not know you, Charlie Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I barely even heard the name Charlie Kirk before he was shot in Utah. So, I admit, I did not know the man. But after scrolling through so many posts about him in social media, it’s now pretty clear that no one really knew him either. I am not saying that he couldn’t be known. I am quite certain that his family and very close friends knew exactly who he was. I don’t doubt that, behind the social media facade, he might have been a good person. But if the only way you knew Charlie was through social media or cable TV, then you didn’t *know* him. You knew the person that the algorithm presented to you.

That is the issue with social media and cable TV. There is a carefully curated feed of content that is shaped to either incite or excite you. As I watched videos of Charlie he was clearly presented as a saint, or as a villain. Both Charlies were convincing in those roles, and although as sinners we have both sides of us to contend with, social media algorithms will tune in on what keeps you scrolling and reading. You get what you stay for.<\/strong><\/em> It’s a pernicious feedback cycle referred to as the “echo chamber” but rather than hearing just yourself, you hear what you want to hear to the exclusion of all other content.

Whether you are MAGA or Antifa, you are brought to the extreme through the magic of psychological manipulation. Social media feeds are really remarkable in the way the algorithms continue to evaluate what draws your attention. Even a slight pause on an item will tune the algorithm to show more of that content. Technically, it’s brilliant, but that brilliance comes at a personal and social cost.

So, I’m glad I didn’t know Charlie because for me that Charlie could only be known through media and I know what is presented through social media and the cable networks is “true” only to whatever the focus demographic is. It takes too much effort in these days of AI and algorithms to fact-check every post. So, on social media, I stick with just friends that I DO know. Trending folks, popular folks, politicians, social media influencers, nope, not gonna “follow” them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


So, where do I get my news, and is it any better than social media? Well, network, over the air local stations, plus PBS, BBC, and a few others, combined with a real, printed newspaper and multiple magazines, give me a fairly balanced view of the world. I suggest that you do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I barely even heard the name Charlie Kirk before he was shot in Utah. So, I admit, I did not know the man. But after scrolling through so many posts about him in social media, it’s now pretty clear that no one really knew him either. I am not saying that he couldn’t be known. … <\/p>\n

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