One last Halloween story, since at least in Utah, it is already the Christmas season. My daughter was handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, and a little tyke ambled up to her door. He was dressed in one of the year’s more popular costumes, namely the assassinated Charlie Kirk. My daughter is not politically active. She would never sign up for the DSA, but you will probably never find her at a TPUSA rally. She leans right, but stays out of the fray. She is a stay-at-home mom, after all, so she has a demanding full-time job.
She gave the kid the requisite candy, although she was stunned that a child would wear such a thing. She was doubly stunned to see the parents standing at the curb, giggling like a pair of fifth-graders guffawing over a fart joke. She was also horrified.
She was not so much aghast at the costume. By that point, enough morally bereft people sporting that twisted ensemble had posted their photos and videos on social media. What truly sickened her was that the parents took their kid, who was three or four, and likely was looking forward to a massive haul of fun-size Snickers bars, and involved him in a bloody, ghoulish, and frankly demented statement of support for political chaos. Once again, and as usual, the leftists were not content to indulge in a level of barbarism that would make most berserker-mode, battle-hardened, mead-addled Vikings say, “Hey, maybe you should dial it back a notch or two.”
Nope, they had to take a little innocent and involve him in an orgy of gore because “Trump! Nazis! ICE!” And don’t forget the social media cred and, of course, bragging rights. Dressing your kid up as an assassination victim is now “stunning and brave.” The kid could not be Spiderman, or, as one trio of boys in my neighborhood was, the well-storied Men in Black. We even had one kid who was dressed as a sportscaster, complete with a headset. Nope, not this progressive mom and dad. They had to drink deep from the rusted, offal-encrusted goblet of political gore, and make sure their little boy at least did a shot.
Feast your ears on this concise, nuanced, and thoughtful voicemail to Republican Montana Senator Tim Sheehy, which recently came to light:
LISTEN: Audio of Helena City Commission Candidate Haley McKnight wishing cancer and death on Republican Senator @TimSheehyMT in an absolutely demented voicemail.
— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) November 3, 2025
"I hope you die." pic.twitter.com/iXSfiNQetz
You can read the full story about this upstanding, compassionate citizen here.
Fortunately, the caller, Haley McKnight, lost her bid for Helena, Montana, city commissioner.
Perhaps I am looking back through the rose-colored glasses of someone who was raised in the Legendarium of Liberalism. Still, as I was coming of age, we on the left were supposed to be the civilized, well-bred, and well-read patricians of society. We embraced art, culture, NPR, tote bags, classical music, good books, “Jazz Overnight,” free thought, decency, civility, the plight of the common man, and women’s rights — all while savoring a glass of single malt as we expanded our horizons with the PBS series The Power of Myth and The MacNeil/Lehrer Report.
We were not just elite or erudite; we were civilized. Bloodthirsty, knee-jerk violence and hatred were confined to the inbred, racist, sexist inhabitants of trailer parks and the frequenters of honky tonks and storefront fundamentalist churches. And the pockets of Neo-Nazis hiding out in rural Idaho.
That’s what I was taught, anyway.
This devotion to the self, replete with a momentary orgy of self-aggrandization, is what causes societies to crumble. And there are precedents — plenty of them.
In Judges, we read about Israel setting up false gods and everyone doing “what was right in their own eyes.” Of course, this sort of behavior would lead to one crisis after another, and God would raise a hero to set things right. And naturally, when the danger had passed, the people would go right back to doing the same things that got them ankle-deep headfirst in the excrement in the first place.
The books 1-2 Kings are thought to be among the oldest in the biblical canon. They are not mere historical records, but rather an attempt to figure out why Judah and Israel were beset by wars and invasions from their enemies. It was a bit of Monday morning quarterbacking, trying to determine which kings screwed things up royally, so to speak, and where the people departed from God. That way, they could atone for the national sins and maybe escape being conquered. (No spoiler alerts. You’ve got a Bible. Open it.)
The Roman Republic was at least on to a good thing, that is, until civil war and tyranny took over. Eventually, a bloated empire that had outsourced its economy and defense collapsed under the weight of bread and circuses.
While I do not believe in the veracity of the Book of Mormon, in that narrative, we see a pattern in which corruption eventually destroys a great civilization.
When I was studying to be a priest, I intended to study Greek. It was also suggested to me that I study German, since that nation produced a plethora of great theologians, who should be read in their own tongue. And yet, even that nation, which was, and should have been, a light to the world, somehow managed to descend into a sadistic madness, the effects of which haunt us to this day.
Even the events of The Lord of the Rings are couched in the lore’s own history. In many ways, the troubles that vex the people of Middle Earth in the books are rooted in the distant past of the Númenóreans, a race of people skilled in the arts and sciences. But the Númenóreans fell prey to pride, jealousy, and ambition. In the end, God Himself punishes Númenór by destroying the once-great island nation and scattering its people.
What it comes down to is not the Original Sin of disobedience, but the sin which prompted the chief offense, which in this case is self-interest.
We have reached the traditional inflection point common to many nations, in which self-interest pre-empts everything else. Violence, whether rhetorical or physical, has become a path to identity. The left now defines itself not by what it can achieve, but by what it despises. Violence is not a means to an end. The means are the end, because leftists now judge their worth and relevance by the havoc they can wreck.
The Keffiyeh Studies majors will chant, burn, and break windows without another moment’s thought. ICE protesters care nothing for the addicted, trafficked, and broken people; all immigrants, even the perverts, pedophiles, gang-bangers, drug dealers, and terrorists should be welcomed, coddled, and supported, merely because conservatives don’t like it. After all, there is a patriarchy to be smashed. And there is a self-aggrandizing thrill to be had in rebellion. There is an identity to be had in burning things down. But those setting the fires are willfully ignorant of the fact that ashes make for poor mortar, and destruction is always easier and more gratifying than construction.
Yes, the health care system is a mess from the FDA on down, and health insurance is insanely out of control. Talk to the health care provider in your life, and they will probably tell you stories of dysfunction that you didn’t even think were possible. Let’s be honest: it is a racket. But Luigi Mangione didn’t gun down Brian Thompson because he wanted to leave a better world for his kids or create a more equitable system. Mangione murdered Brian Thompson because he wanted to be immortalized as a left-wing action figure, complete with his own miniature arsenal. (Remember, kids, it’s worth more if you leave it in the original packaging!)
Granted, the younger generations are going to have it rough. The job market will only get tighter. AI may be the next wonder of the world, but what good is automated production and delivery if nobody can afford to buy anything because they are out of work? Student loan debt is staggering, and buying a home is simply out of reach. So I have some empathy for them. Yes, the rich are getting richer, and many of us are sliding backwards, particularly right now. Millennials and Gen Z are not the only ones staring destruction in the face.
But the support for Mamdani, socialism, and the murder of Charlie Kirk and those who think like him is not just the result of the frustration of people who cannot achieve the American Dream. They have been bred to this. While it is true that social media has been a driving factor in the drastic uptick of antisocial behavior, there are those who have taken advantage of the existential angst to create an army of rabid animals. And worse yet, these people fell for it.
They fell for it because while they have no sense of history, they also have no sense of the future or of themselves. They have no plans to build anything. Why plan for the future when the present is so fulfilling with memes, innuendo, conspiracy theories, riots, and tantrums?
One year ago tonight… pic.twitter.com/R4VFlbPd5n
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 6, 2025
They don’t know what they are doing, and they don’t care. They have allowed themselves to devolve, to become less than human for that fleeting moment of relevance or rebellion. They are willing to drop down more than a few rungs on the evolutionary ladder for 60 seconds of adrenaline. And that includes the DSA and Antifa, and, for that matter, Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens. Fuentes, Owens, and now Tucker Carlson have become so enamored of the attention, even if it is negative, and the money it brings that they are willing to say anything if it results in recognition from the tinfoil hat crowd and the fringe-dwellers who have waited for years to have a “legitimate” platform. This will not be the death knell of conservatism, but it isn’t doing the movement any favors, especially in the face of a newly energized left.
Such people, whether they are saying they love Hitler, spreading discord under the banners of “free speech” and “just asking questions,” chanting “Free Palestine,” or beaming over their toddler dressed as Charlie Kirk’s corpse, are rejecting civilization for their emotions and egos. They are repellent and execrable. As hard as it may be to believe, they are also pitiable. They are pitiable because whatever humanity left in them is dwindling fast, and they will be too busy celebrating the chaos they have created to realize that they have been complicit in having their souls sucked dry.
