2024 Lessons: Toxic Social Media and College Influencers

My sister called me to say in a stunned voice, "I think they got the guy from NY who killed the CEO.......one hour away from here." That would be Altoona, PA, a quiet town where people were sharing a McDonald's meal and someone recognized him and called the cops. The story is too fresh, and motives and his "mental health status" will come later. We see a grinning biker getaway, caught on camera. Somehow, this Luigi made his way to Pennsylvania and was found huddled in a corner of a fast food joint, as he scrolled through his messages.

The next pictures we see are a shaking and shocked young man, hauled off in handcuffs, then a crazed, panicked and distorted person restrained by three cops who then suddenly regains full calm and a stoic manner as he enters the courtroom. A gifted life, an Ivy League-educated computer scientist who his past classmates no longer recognized. They say he changed — he's not the person they knew. What happened? Who plans and shoots an unarmed person in the back and smiles on camera? Who and what influenced him? It will all come out soon.

The fact that the victim was the CEO of a major healthcare provider seems secondary, God bless and rest his soul. It was the cold, heartless, soulless act that was so appalling by someone who went off the rails, because we see it all the time - the walking dead with a smile or a grievance, shooting or stabbing the innocent just walking by, or sitting in a classroom, or hopping a train.

No longer recognizing someone you've watched grow up, or shared classes and meals and dreams with, showing up as this "other," really bothers me.....to my very core. We're losing the youth among us. Luigi is one of many, just the latest terrible headline of the week because of his target.

I belong to a Christian women's book group in my neighborhood. We discussed how we look at what is so distorted in our world. How do we continue to be a light to others, even within our own families, as holiday gatherings bring us together? One woman said that while with her husband's family, he asked about his nephew. "So he graduated a couple of years ago from college, does he have a girlfriend?" The others said no, but he has a boyfriend. My friend said he showed no indication of leaning that way prior to going off to college and they were all very surprised.

OK, while now that is not that unusual, another woman at my table said, "Well.... my nephew is now my niece." Then the woman sitting next to me said, "Yes, my nephew is also now.........my niece." That is three gender changes mentioned at a table of about nine women! What are the odds, from just ten years ago?

Who ever thought we would see in America, the hatred and vitriol spewing from our youth across college campuses after the horrible attacks in Israel in October? The screaming, taking over of classrooms with signs supporting Hamas, a terrible group on the US terror list for a long time? What are they learning and from whom, especially on social media and in the classrooms?

The popularity of "social influencers" who peddle every kind of lifestyle can be found with a button click. Here's an example from Google for a face cream by a popular gay/trans person, part of this "woke" agenda:

The latest Jaguar ad follows suit.

If there was a goal by someone, some "thing," some evil entity whose goal was for marriage and family to be erased, for men and women to fear each other and choose a childless, surgically changed, multi-identity existence, a presidential campaign that included an abortion bus, to stop creation in any way it could, to grab hold of young people in their prime and distort their world view to the point of shooting someone in cold blood instead of airing their grievances in a healthy way, they or "it," this evil thing has succeeded in spades...........for now.

If the world looks and sounds and feels different, in a bizarre, abnormal way, even at Thanksgiving dinner, it's not you. It is different. With all that we've known throughout our lives to be real and good and true suddenly being re-arranged and airbrushed to try to look real, sharp and perfect, but with a new twist that removes the heart, mind, and soul, it is an influence that worships Itself. God is no longer a part of that world.

It is all the more reason to talk, post, connect, share what we think, no matter how insignificant we feel our voice or concern is. This is the season to do it. In fact, every season is the time to do it. I hope 2025 will be the year of a return to Faith and Reason.

Ecclesiastes 3 - A Time for Everything - There is a time

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot..."