Within minutes of news breaking that conservative youth superstar Charlie Kirk had been shot, social media posts could primarily be classified into four buckets.

Most people set their political differences aside and prayed for the quick recovery of this youth leader. For them, humanity was a higher calling than any political ideology. Here was a tall, good-looking white man with a young wife and family who had been ruthlessly shot while committing no crime, but upholding the very values of our country, such as free speech and expression. The prayers intensified after Kirk was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The second bucket consisted mostly of liberals who made generic statements about how political violence cannot stand and even issued thoughts of prayer for the Kirk family. Included in this bucket were leaders such as former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, all significant voices in the Democratic Party. Given the vile hatred that these leaders have continuously expressed for the MAGA movement of which Kirk was a leader, it will never be known if the sentiments were from the heart or just were politically expedient to meet the moment. In a time of crisis, however, we will take them at their word.

Into the third bucket fell people who felt compelled to analyze the killing, such as Matthew Dowd, a supposedly conservative strategist for the George W. Bush campaign in 2004. Dowd defected to the liberal side of the aisle like his many peers of that era, including Nicole Wallace and former RNC Chair Michael Steele, pundits who were either liberals in conservative clothing or people who abdicated their beliefs for a paycheck. Dowd went on MSNBC to hint that Kirk deserved to be shot because his words promoted violence. It was such an extreme left-wing position that MSNBC fired him even after he posted an apology on Bluesky. A talking head, Dowd realized that much like a rifle shot, once comments are made, the action cannot be reversed.

In the last bucket were thousands of people who went far beyond what Dowd said. These people truly believed that Charlie Kirk was an evil figure, and so had to go. One person on X said that Kirk does not even deserve to rest in peace, but only to rot in hell.

How can we be so intolerant? One answer to the puzzle is in our hands right now, or certainly not far away from where we are. Of course, I am referring to the ubiquitous cellphone, which is an indispensable part of our lives, even before we awaken in the morning, as we rely on our phone's alarm. Our phones accompany us throughout the day, keeping many of us up until we turn in for the night, and sometimes even helping us fall asleep. There has never been a contraption in human history that is so physically and emotionally close to human existence.

The phone in and of itself is harmless, but it is the apps we are hooked on. Just as we learn in our middle school civics classes that the home is the smallest unit of society, the various groups to which we belong form the tiniest element of our social media presence. Every social media app allows consumers to create groups, including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

People who have not connected in decades quickly find camaraderie when they're invited to join a WhatsApp group from friends from their past, including middle school, high school, or college friends. Many of us have memberships in numerous such groups, where the only affinity is nostalgia. Everyone is naïve in assuming that the fearless and harmless way we expressed ourselves during those younger days, when our minds had not yet matured and which resulted in deep friendships, would magically return decades later. It is a feeling of eternal hope but of worthless utility.

Each of our lived experiences has shaped our current value systems, which bear little relevance to the values we held when we were young. In truth, each of us experiences a miniature Charlie Kirk episode multiple times each day in these groups, though nothing as harmful. The poor man paid for his activism with his life and became a faithful martyr.

And the disagreements are nearly always about politics. Armchair pundits initiate a new thread, generally by forwarding a message from another group. Freshly primed by watching YouTube clips just hours before, intense debate ensues among people with vigorous ideas about life but with nothing in common except nostalgia. This common glue is very deceptive. It allows members to claim that everyone in the group is a friend and that this precious bond should overcome any cheap shots taken during an intellectual disagreement.

But this construct is inherently flawed. Most echo chambers exist when an ideology binds people. Indeed, the political party system, going back to the Magna Carta, relies on people who are not necessarily friends with each other but who share a common vision, goal, and constitution. Our group chats, by contrast, are the opposite. The stitch that holds us together is our friendship, although our friendships died 30 years ago. Why would we tolerate people who oppose our views multiple times a day, sometimes in deeply personal terms, because of the illusion of friendship?

So, most people, not wanting to get into a conflict situation multiple times a day, withdraw, concluding that the stress of being challenged is simply not worth it. The groups then exist mainly because of the contributions of a few active members, all of whom share similar views—forming our reliable echo chamber. Because opposing voices are silenced and vehemently shouted down, many archive their groups or mute them. They still want to be part of the group, but they don't really want to participate. In extreme cases, people exit the groups altogether, concluding that even feelings of nostalgia are not worth daily ridicule.

Our larger social media platforms continue to be alive and well. Each of us remains anonymous when we post, and there are no hard feelings when someone disagrees with us. If we find someone who is annoying us, tools exist to block them.

However, the smallest incarnation of these social media platforms, the group chats, are dying a slow death each day. We have trained ourselves to be less tolerant of dissent. The groups will still exist, but only for harmless purposes, such as exchanging pleasantries and birthday wishes. It is hardly the outcome that the big tech platforms hoped for.

Rajkamal Rao is a columnist and a member of the tippinsights editorial board. He is an American entrepreneur and wrote the WorldView column for the Hindu BusinessLine, India's second-largest financial newspaper, on the economy, politics, immigration, foreign affairs, and sports.

Related: The Power Of Silence

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Week Ending: September 12, 2025

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📅 Key Events This Week

🟧 Tuesday, September 16
08:30 – Core Retail Sales (MoM) (Aug)
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08:30 – Retail Sales (MoM) (Aug)
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🟧 Wednesday, September 17
10:30 – Crude Oil Inventories
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14:00 – FOMC Economic Projections
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14:00 – FOMC Statement
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🟨 Thursday, September 18
08:30 – Initial Jobless Claims
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