Category Archives: Mob Mentality

Orem, Utah, 10th September 2025

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If you live outside of the USA and until today have not heard of Charlie Kirk, then chances are you will by now. A far right activist favoured by Trump and on the 10th September 2025 slain by a currently unknown gunman. In the eyes of The Right now elevated from a favoured son into a Martyr and a Hero. And unless you are someone devoted to the MAGA and Trump, where do you start?

There is a mirrored synchronicity of 9/11 unfolding. Firstly, because what would normally be a day of solemn reflection and for many recollections of where they were has now turned into another media event which will have effects on America. Although this one could have far greater repercussion, 9/11 tore at America’s heart and soul, this assassination has the capacity to shake a foundations already weakening by a series of other quakes. So where do you start?

Are you saddened at another loss of life through violence and worried for the future?
Are you angered and in mourning from a bright young man taken from you?
Are you fearful for you and yours at the random backlash by an extreme Right Wing has a propensity for violence, encouraged by a volatile president?
Are you just satisfied, taking a ‘Game On Stance’; even if it is only secured away in a small place in your being and will only be let out in some long coded way?
Are you detached with a ‘Those Who Live By The Sword Die By The Sword’ outlook?
Or are you far enough gone to just rejoice?

In writing this being British but essentially ‘intolerant of Intolerance’ I am detached. There are qualifiers though. Spare at least a thought.
For his wife Erika who was watching the event and his children, one old enough to possibly perceive some of what is happening. There is a pain none of us should ever wish upon anyone.
For those youngsters witnessing a close up killing who will have that image branded on their minds. Their innocence ripped away from them and Reality ground into their souls.
For those of his family and true friends, who have lost someone close.

As I write this, the breaking news on BBC is that the FBI have a weapon, possible forensic evidence and now they have an image of the Person of Interest. Whether this will result in a rapid detention remains to be seen. Sudden assumptions would have been made along the ‘Grassy Knoll’ line and the Conspiracy Industry would have gone into overdrive. We could have been forgiven for thinking the assassin was one with professional experience, the accuracy of that shot?  Along comes The Action Film scene through a scope, the shot and then camera to the face of a hardened veteran looking grim and stealing away. Instead, we might have to consider a young loner with an agenda, who was aiming for the head but hit the throat.

Motivations? One volunteer of an extremist group?  One truly lone gunman? Just looking to kill one particular target? Or seeking the chance to throw one final match on a forest of folk tinder-dry through polarisation and start the urban war the shooter yearns? Or maybe some disenchanted MAGA member? Or maybe just someone looking to make a play for infamy? Or someone so far out anyone with a profile would do?

Whoever and whatever. In a year with so far 150+ acts deemed as political violence this one comes perilously close to setting off a whole sequence of events, the parallel of which sits back in 1914 in a town with its named etched into history, Sarajevo and a previously inconsequential fellow Gavrilo Princip. Would that I might be just one person writing alarmist rhetoric. But I am not am I? A fear which has been simmering amongst Americans since Trump first got into the Whitehouse will have been notched up.

And I worry for you all.
For those who do not want violence at all; the innocents are always the first, last and most to suffer.
For those who dally with the idea of violence, because unless you have been in a place riven by communal violence you seriously do not know what you are dealing with.
For those who dream about violence, are you ready to live as people did in Northern Ireland for thirty plus years, never who is at your door, checking underneath and all over your car?

There is one person who I have no sympathy for and that is your president. He has dallied with violence, he has made NO appeal to those who did not vote for him, he has poured forth irrational invective. If he had cared so much for Charlie Kirk then why did he not use his presidential power to ensure the man had some more efficient security? Somebody else has died for you Trump. Because of your ego, your vanity, your stupidity. And I fear they will not be the last.

For my friends in the USA
For those I exchange views with,
For those I do not know, but just want a quiet life,
For those who will loose their innocence.
For those who will see their dreams turn to nightmares
I worry and fear for you          

Unbelievable? Sadly No

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I was going through FaceBook this morning and encountered this item from ABC7 a news outlet in Los Angeles and Southern California. You will see an all too familiar type of headline.

It was not the headline which took hold of my attention. It was the reaction emjois. Now Facebook being Facebook you can expect a few twisted and ignorant souls to put up laughing ones when there is a human tragedy and also thumbs up when Trump’s administration does something. After all it’s FaceBook where the ignorant, ill-informed and prejudiced of any political stripe be it Right or Left congregate.

The aspect which disturbed me was that there were approximately 200 thumbs up (maybe more now and worse 150+ whose reaction was to put the laughing face. A quick glance at the comments revealing one GIF ICE – themed support.
These twinned actions say much about a corrosion of the common sense of Humanity. That folk can support or mock the misery of children, vulnerable and frightened small individuals does speak harshly about those folk.

Now down Humanity’s long jagged, ragged road there is nothing new in this. One of the most frightening creations we have to offer is mentality of The Mob, be it a howling scream missile throwing horde or a host of folk with access to social media. Of any political or social stripe by the way. Against these waves of irrational hate and screaming War can at times look positively sanitised ‘It’s nothing personal. It’s just business,’. It is also fearfully easy to be swept up in the emotions of a crowd whose passions have been ignited.

The most dangerous aspect of this mindless action comes from the Opportunist. The Opportunist comes in many forms. We think of them as simply charlatans looking out for no more than personal gain from ‘the rubes’. But there are those who harbour extreme beliefs who will sense the discomfort and anger, to harness it and thus have a fertile ground to promote those ideas. There are those who are possessed of a narcissism and thus will use any means to promote themselves. There are the professionals who are there at the behest of an organisation or nation to stir up the Mob, who will be quite unaware they are fodder. And there are those who just want their moment of Glory, not really sure where it leads. All of these types will work upon the crowd, turning it into a mob, mindless.
Now aside from the expert professionals and the more astute of the charlatans both of whom know when to fade into the background or ‘jump ship’ at the right time there can grow  amongst the rest an unholy alliance between Opportunist and Mob. This being that the Opportunist delivers what The Mob want to hear, but The Mob will want more, howling for it, so the Opportunist begins to do at the behest of The Mob and thus the cycle picks up a giddy pace both parties locked into a whirlwind of emotion where all perspective is lost. The end leads to some type of destruction, either materially or of the Soul, sometimes both. For within this there will always be the danger of the element of retribution, and that comes in many forms.

To return to those foolish folk who applauded at that news item. They would do well to consider an incident where some of their own; close friends or relatives are attending a gathering, a rally. There is an accident, a fire in the building maybe, loss of life much injury. How will they feel in the aftermath of that horror and tragedy to see thumbs up and laughing emjois along with cruel comments?

The door swings both ways. 

And since there appear to be those who say they espouse Christianity, then they should meditate on the words of Christ as recorded in Matthew 25 verses 31-46