UFC competitor Sean Strickland recently shared a deeply personal reflection on his initial reaction to news of Charlie Kirk’s shooting and what it reveals about society’s growing desensitization to violence.
The former UFC middleweight champion admitted to an unsettling initial response when first hearing about the incident. “My gut reaction was like, ‘No, I didn’t, but I’m excited,'” Strickland confessed in the video. “I felt this little dopamine spike in me, where I’m like, ‘I wanna see the video.'”
This moment of self-awareness led Strickland to question his own emotional response. “How did I become such a sociopath? How am I so detached from human beings?” he pondered in the monologue.
Strickland connected his reaction to a broader cultural phenomenon, suggesting that constant exposure to violence through media has numbed society. “We watch a girl get stabbed on a subway. We’re watching little kids get pulled out of buildings… we are so desensitized, and we’re such sociopaths,” he observed.
The reflection took a deeper turn as he contrasted his emotional response to violence with a seemingly mundane encounter. “I was walking through a park, and there was a homeless guy with a dog, and the dog had a tennis ball in his mouth and dropped it at my feet… It’s like the saddest thing I’ve seen all day. And I just watched a man get [attacked].”
Strickland theorized about the origins of this collective desensitization, pointing to cultural influences from the 1990s and early 2000s, including video games like Call of Duty that he believes normalized violence. “Slowly, they’ve just manipulated us to be sociopathic consumers, and the only thing we want is stuff and things,” he said.
Research has suggested that repeated viewing of violent imagery can lead to emotional numbness toward real-world violence.
Strickland’s introspective moment resonated with many followers who appreciated his willingness to examine his own reactions in an age of immediate, often thoughtless responses to tragedy.
“They took God from us. They’ve taken everything from us,” Strickland concluded, expressing frustration at what he perceives as a spiritual and moral decline in American society. “It’s just sad and frustrating.”
