Attempts to import US culture wars to South Africa are doomed to fail, because we are a very different country.

There ought to be a term for the delusion that what one sees in pockets of the internet accurately mirrors real life.

It is this delusion that has led people, every election season, to overestimate the EFF's eventual vote share -- because at times it has seemed as though every last man, woman and teenager on Twitter is voting for the Fighters. Then the IEC announces the final results, and we are reminded that the majority of South Africans have never been on Twitter for a day in their lives.

Indeed, according to stats derived from the Global Digital Report in 2024, more than a quarter of South Africans (around 26%) do not use the internet at all. Only 40% of South Africans use any form of social media. More than three-quarters of South Africans do not listen to podcasts.

It is worth bearing these figures in mind at times like now, when the assassination of the US podcaster Charlie Kirk ostensibly seems to be reverberating deeply through South African social media.

Charlie who?

Kirk, a 31-year-old right-wing influencer,...