Widespread online videos of the bloody assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and atrocities in Gaza are the final step in a morbid trajectory of real death on screen, writes Derek McArthur.

The most common thing you’ll hear from people who have seen the video of Charlie Kirk’s assassination is not to watch the video of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

It spread rapidly on every platform, the gunshot to the conservative activist’s neck happening so swiftly in the video that many unsuspectingly saw it before they could even grasp what they were seeing and click away.

And it’s truly traumatising footage. The amount of blood that pours from his body is unimaginable. Reports an hour or two after the shooting had him as alive, but those who saw the footage knew he was gone.

We weren’t witnessing it happen to a stranger; it was a recognisable face. It is a specific kind of shock to see that happen to someone familiar. Kirk had been a prominent presence throughout the Donald Trump era, a common fixture of debates and right-wing media, and engaged in some powerful, high-profile political associations.

Now that familiarity has been transformed into a bloody act of violence witnessed........

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