Social media reactions to Charlie Kirk murder causing some to get in trouble with their jobs
How political violence inflames social media tension
There are many people who are openly asking their Facebook friends and followers on other platforms to de-friend or unfollow them depending on what they say online about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
(FOX 2) - Some heated exchanges on social media pages are taking place with people talking about the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, shot and killed in Utah on Wednesday.
Big picture view:
Some posts are getting people in trouble with their jobs, if not fired all together, in the wake of a tragedy that’s only supercharged the polarization of our country.
There are many people who are openly asking their Facebook friends and followers on other platforms to de-friend or unfollow them depending on what they say online about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
In Tuscola County near Flint, a teacher was placed on administrative leave after writing a post about the assassination that quote "raised concerns" for administrators.
A Tennessee University fired a dean for another controversial post about the killing and a staffer for the Carolina Panthers football organization was also sacked after reportedly questioning public statements of sympathy for Kirk.
Dig deeper:
With all of these heated reactions on social media…we spoke with Dr. Rose Moten, a therapist to get her take on how we can all deal with this latest tragedy in the modern era of political violence.
"It’s going to, as we’ve seen, it has inflamed tensions, but the way to cope with it is to not be drawn into this collective outrage that oftentimes just bypasses the rational brain and people go right to the area of the brain that’s all about survival, and they’re not looking at the whole situation rationally to understand you’re not at immediate threat, the whole collective starts to feed into this emotionally charged energy," said Dr. Rose Moten.
Meantime, many are also taking to social media to help law enforcement track down and catch the person of interest sought by the FBI in the wake of the shooting.