{"id":4994,"date":"2025-09-25T22:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4994"},"modified":"2025-09-26T20:24:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T03:24:43","slug":"on-posthumanism-memes-and-the-end-of-the-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4994","title":{"rendered":"Posthumanism, memes, and the end of the real"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screen-Shot-2025-09-25-at-9.36.36-PM-400x422.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4999\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screen-Shot-2025-09-25-at-9.36.36-PM-400x422.png 400w, https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screen-Shot-2025-09-25-at-9.36.36-PM.png 466w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In our latest co-authored article, David Hawkes and I explore how political murder changes when filtered through memes, online circulation, and algorithmic reproduction. What emerges is less a crime of passion than a collapse of subjectivity, where digital culture blurs the line between image and act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walter Benjamin called the twentieth century \u201cthe age of mechanical reproduction,\u201d but his contemporaries were still capable of distinguishing between a celebrity\u2019s real personality and her image. The twenty-first century is the age of digital reproduction, and it forces us to ask whether the general public still possesses the capacity to recognize such a distinction. Tyler Robinson\u2019s text messages discuss Kirk\u2019s murder with shocking callousness, but Robinson was no psychopath. It would be less frightening if he was. The truly scary prospect is that his blithe indifference to the value of human life is becoming typical. We appear to have entered the realm of the \u201cposthuman.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1232,1231],"tags":[225,1237,1234,756,1236,1230,1235],"class_list":["post-4994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-technology","tag-art-history","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-critical-theory","tag-julia-friedman","tag-memes","tag-the-hedgehog-review","tag-visual-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Posthumanism, memes, and the end of the real - Julia Friedman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4994\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Posthumanism, memes, and the end of the real - Julia Friedman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Walter Benjamin called the twentieth century \u201cthe age of mechanical reproduction,\u201d but his contemporaries were still capable of distinguishing between a celebrity\u2019s real personality and her image. The twenty-first century is the age of digital reproduction, and it forces us to ask whether the general public still possesses the capacity to recognize such a distinction. Tyler Robinson\u2019s text messages discuss Kirk\u2019s murder with shocking callousness, but Robinson was no psychopath. It would be less frightening if he was. The truly scary prospect is that his blithe indifference to the value of human life is becoming typical. We appear to have entered the realm of the \u201cposthuman.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4994\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Julia Friedman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-26T05:27:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-27T03:24:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screen-Shot-2025-09-25-at-9.36.36-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"466\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"492\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jfriedman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jfriedman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4994#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4994\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jfriedman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423\"},\"headline\":\"Posthumanism, memes, and the end of the real\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-26T05:27:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-27T03:24:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4994\"},\"wordCount\":54,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4994#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/Screen-Shot-2025-09-25-at-9.36.36-PM-400x422.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Art History\",\"Charlie Kirk\",\"critical theory\",\"Julia Friedman\",\"memes\",\"The Hedgehog Review\",\"Visual culture\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\",\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4994\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4994\",\"name\":\"Posthumanism, memes, and the end of the real - 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