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Aside from the cost of living, everything is cheapened by MAGA: Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/sep/12/charlie-kirk-shooter-suspect-latest-news-updates-donald-trump-utah?page=with%3Ablock-68c44ea18f0880bae9c52790#block-68c44ea18f0880bae9c52790

God, I think Terri Hatcher was the only time I had an actual crush on a celebrity. Teenage me didn't give a crap about the show but I watching her.

I remember a performer saying that before streaming, they got a $5,000 check from DVD royalties every quarter. With the advent of streaming, those checks are now $250. That's vertical integration for you. Happening in broadcast too. Look at Nexstar and Sinclair. They own hundreds of TV stations and are now looking at getting rid of more regulations. Nexstar wants to do away with a lot of local news and move to newshubs. They also own multiple stations in single markets because of shell companies. I think it was the Telecommunications Act of 1994 that opened the door for that and also destroyed radio.

Trump said he's "confident" that it's the guy. I don't think he's going to be the left wing radical they've been going on about. It sounds like a minister had something to do with this guy turning himself in. I am probably wrong but he may have had the goal of starting a civil war, you know, that think all those people on the internet want but are too scared to actually fight one.

Smart phones plus big social media provided the incentive structure for people like him to get as outrageous as possible. When social media's giants found out that engagement could generate money, the rhetoric got worse and worse every year. Look what was acceptable in 2005 and then 2015 and compare that to 2025. Now AI is getting into the picture and that means they're rushing to have the most engaging and enraging AIs to gin up more engagement. I've come to personally believe that we've got to ban social media apps from smart phones and then on top of that regulate those social media companies, particularly when it comes to collecting data and their algorithms. I mean, we already have one generation where a huge number of people were encouraged to make every thought and emotion public and seeming deterred from self-moderation. I don't think we can survive another one.

He is confidently stupid but he's more of a follower and a regurgitator than an originator. He's almost identical to Joe Rogan in that he seems to really be averse to facts especially when it comes to what he thinks he's supposed to believe. He's like Rogan and even Trump (at least pre-2025) in that his supporters set the agenda and he just follows it. They all fear losing their audience because that's who gives them their identity. Cameron is just on a much, much smaller scale than the other two.

We're getting closer to Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny existing in the same universe!

I think I'm going to be sick: Exclusive | Paramount Skydance Prepares Ellison-Backed Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery - WSJ

Source: Charlie Kirk shooting latest: FBI shares photos of person of interest and offers reward for information

Any chance to grandstand or give the performance of outrage, grief or piety. I really get annoyed by obvious poseurs. It's like watching a real bad high school pay where everyone over acts, but not in a hilarious way.

I never heard of the guy until a few months ago when Turning Point popped up in a news article. I'm sure the majority of people who aren't Gen Z or politics addicts probably never heard of him before yesterday. I hate to say "these kids today" but I remember when I was the same age as GenZ (1990s-2000s), people like Kirk were generally ignored and didn't get massive followings or influence ... really, Republicans tried to distance themselves from those sort of guys up until the TEA Party. Even then, it took until the end of Trump's first term for these guys to be accepted into the main stream. Shit, I remember being annoyed that the press would barely give coverage to anyone in politics that wasn't the President or the Speaker of the House.

Considering how it was for ...

Just eight years ago this would've got him kicked off broadcast TV.

Oh no! Nevermind, I don't have cable. South Park Pulls Episode After Charlie Kirk Assassination

I tend to think they don't have a suspect in custody because they are completely incompetent. It doesn't take a lot for someone to be smarter than law enforcement. Usually, we'd see the surveillance by now, but they aren't releasing it. We don't even know the race. All we know is that they're using AI to identify them ... that always goes well. I don't think they would care about facts when it comes to politicizing things, their tactic has just been to flood the zone by lying over and over until it's generally accepted, kind of like how the litter boxes in schools stories never go away. The perpetrator could be MAGA through and through back to 2015 ... but they'll just claim he was just pretending so he could undermine the movement.