Left-wing terrorism has come a long way, baby.
In olden days (the 1960s), violence on the left was organized in small groups like the Weathermen and the Black Liberation Army. These groups had structure and hierarchical leadership. By necessity, they were tight-knit crews of dedicated, fanatical soldiers willing to die for their cause.
Today, there is a lot less organization but far more individuals and a serious effort to radicalize thousands of unbalanced, antisocial killers. City Journal's Christopher Rufo calls this phenomenon the “left-wing terror memeplex.”
Rufo writes, "This system, in which left-wing narratives inspire decentralized acts of violence, has four elements: prestige narratives, radicalized memespaces, copycat models, and disturbed individuals."
The memeplex is driven by "the narrative" ("ICE is the Gestapo"), and a disturbed individual is inspired by those narratives to commit an act of terrorism. Joshua Jahn, who sprayed an ICE facility in Dallas with gunfire, is one such person. Charlie Kirk's accused murderer, Tyler Robinson, was inspired by pro-transgender narratives that identified Kirk as a dangerous enemy.
These are all part of what Rufo refers to as "prestige narratives." These particular narratives are actually designed to activate the rabid base of left-wing activists, among whom are disturbed individuals who are convinced President Donald Trump and the GOP mean to set up a dictatorship and oppress or eliminate minorities.
For the past decade, the Left’s elite media and political figures have entrenched a series of hyperbolic and highly polemical narratives: that Donald Trump is analogous to Adolf Hitler; that America is about to fall to fascism; that conservatives are organizing a genocide of transgender people; that deportations are laying the groundwork for martial law. These narratives have taken root not only on the fringes of activism and academia, but are reflected in the headlines of the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Public Radio, MSNBC, and other mainstream outlets.
It's a massive propaganda effort designed to radicalize, to inflame, to motivate the left to commit acts of violence.
None of these narratives is true, but each yields an emotional payout. Traditional liberals who donate to Democratic politicians and left-wing NGOs genuinely fear that President Trump desires to be a strongman and will do anything necessary to seize power. Politicians have always relied on heated rhetoric to solicit votes and donations. But the left-wing terror memeplex is different, in that the party’s “progressive” faction deploys these carefully crafted narratives in part to activate the radical elements within the broader coalition, including, most notably, anti-fascist and transgender activists.
You wouldn't know it from reading the mainstream press, but the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, has come under siege by anti-ICE protesters who are becoming more violent as the protest grows in size.
The protest is being egged on by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who is hoping to capture the energy of the violent radicals and win the nomination of the Democratic Party.
People of Illinois, we need your help.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) September 30, 2025
Get your cell phones out – record what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors.
We need to let the world know this is happening – and that we won’t stand for it.
Many of the protesters at Broadview are willing to do that, and much more. Demonstrations have included intense pounding on government vehicles while trying to block them and ICE officers. Ford Fischer of News2Share first documented these interactions in a video we posted last week. Ford returned to Broadview last weekend and found the protests to be larger, longer, and involve repeated firing of riot munitions from weapons that resemble paintball guns.
Look at this mess in Broadview, Illinois, at the ICE facility. This is what Democrat politicians have incited with their vile lies against ICE.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) September 28, 2025
Law enforcement had to use tear gas to push back the violent mob.
Shame on Democrats for promoting these riots.pic.twitter.com/szcBTed9oS
The "radicalized memespace" takes these narratives and distributes them on Reddit, Discord, Steam, and other web platforms with few "guardrails" to moderate discussions. The radicalization process is allowed to proceed, unhindered.
Rufo writes, "Democratic politicians shout that Trump is a fascist; users on Reddit and Discord conclude that the proper response to fascism is political assassination."
The third element in the memeplex, the copycat model, is self-explanatory. Spectacular, high-profile acts of violence breed copycats, The radical left memespaces supercharge the deeds of killers like Luigi Mangione, making them seem attractive, even sexy.
And that brings us to the fourth and last element of the memeplex: the disturbed individual.
Human relationships are complex, and those involving disturbed individuals who want to commit violence are fundamentally unstable and can quickly blow up or burn out. The new left-wing terror memeplex transcends those limitations. The interactions that drive the new terror are not human-to-human in a direct sense, but rather, are mediated by digital technologies and decentralized at each link in the chain.
The psychological profile of these individuals has changed, too. The left-wing terror memeplex has sought to manipulate sexual ideologies and drive emotionally unstable loners and losers into violence. The alleged Kirk assassin, Annunciation school shooter, and Nashville school shooter all experienced sexual disorders, had troubled relationships with families, and spent an inordinate amount of time in the radicalized memespace, where they built the desire for death.
It would be a mistake to ascribe some highly organized hierarchical conspiracy to the "memeplex." Small groups may swap memes and ideas, but there's no grand, overall design to carry out political violence.
But you can bet that politicians like Governor Pritzker and California Governor Gavin Newsom are watching the growing violence and radicalism closely, looking for a way to use it to their maximum advantage.
