Nihilism, the New Normal

A young man of politically conservative leanings and Christian faith offers to debate students who hold fixed progressive, nonsectarian viewpoints. It has the makings of a civics lesson par excellence—the First Amendment in all its star-spangled glory.

One problem, however. Universities have swapped higher learning for an improbable pairing of Marxist-Islamist indoctrination. What’s there to debate? Best to just shut him up with a bullet to the throat.

Yes, that happened—in America—to Charlie Kirk. The marketplace of ideas has now fully devolved into a brainless hellscape of last rites.

It gets worse. Far too many Americans—politicians, celebrities and left-wing ideologues—celebrated Kirk’s horrifying death. He got what he deserved. Imagine sharing ideas that may have the capacity to change minds. Extolling the virtues of God and country at a time when it is chic to denigrate both.

America is a racist, homophobic and Islamophobic nation—and Israel is a genocidal one—and we won’t hear otherwise. There is a cost to having a contrary opinion.

Just look around. Nihilism is the new normal. Violence the governing ethos. Moral outrage the default position. Shouting down and screaming “Shame!” the latest in social etiquette. We no longer agree to disagree. Consent to woke protocols or face the consequences of cancellation—or the latest trend, assassination! The extreme left has now raised the ante.

We no longer agree to disagree. Consent to woke protocols or face the consequences of cancellation—or the latest trend, assassination! The extreme left has now raised the ante.

And the right has adopted some of the same tactics. Expressing the wrong opinion about Charlie Kirk might result in a different kind of termination—public school and college educators, healthcare professionals, political pundits, workers at the New York Stock Exchange, Office Depot and even late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel have lost their jobs. Roseanne Barr and Gina Carano are no longer standing alone on Hollywood’s Walk of Infamy.

Stephen Colbert is gone, too. Years of tedious jokes about Donald Trump and leveraging laughs at the expense of MAGA Republicans—and hosting only Democratic lawmakers—now looks like not a great career move. And what’s even worse—this kind of stale, low-brow and below-the-belt material was never funny. Could Greg Gutfeld have joked about George Floyd and stayed on the air—even at Fox? Maybe conservative comedians know that men wearing dresses and scoring TKOs against female boxers is idiotic, but not funny.

These lessons are not easily learned. The Boston Globe made the mistake of running an editorial titled “We need more Charlie Kirks.” Blue state readers in Massachusetts obviously disagreed.

Even more shocking is the normalization of political assassinations itself. The killing of Kirk opened up other possibilities. Over half of those surveyed had no qualms about President Trump meeting such a violent end. Slightly fewer felt the same way about Elon Musk. One-third of university students support resorting to violence to silence a speaker. More than half support preventing their fellow students from even hearing a disfavored opinion.

If you’re Jewish, or a Zionist (often they are the same), your free speech options are even more constrained. In a recent global survey, 78 percent of Jewish students now conceal their religious identity and 81 percent keep their Zionism to themselves. Around the world, slogans like “From the River to the Sea!” and “Long Live the Intifada!” are regarded as justice, not incitement. Hamas and Hezbollah are heroes. Bloody hand pins are paraded on red carpets. And Jewish deaths are no tragedies.

Kirk, who was himself a Zionist, was shown the same treatment.

We are embarking on the golden age of political violence. Sacco and Vanzetti, American anarchists of yesteryear, have new acolytes. The social justice “warrior” was supposed to be a figure of speech, not a military doctrine.

Blood is everywhere and Americans are not squeamish. Why should they be? Look what they have been witnessing and cheering on for over a decade. What was once hidden under a rock or found lurking on the dark web now shamelessly seeks the spotlight.

Blood is everywhere and Americans are not squeamish. Why should they be? Look what they have been witnessing and cheering on for over a decade.

Two assassination attempts against Donald Trump. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh targeted in his home. Governor Josh Shapiro’s house set on fire. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s husband gets his head bashed in. The CEO of United Healthcare gunned down in Manhattan; his assailant hailed as a folk hero waging war against American capitalism. Another anti-corporate vigilante discharges a weapon at the offices of the National Football League.

Police precincts, and squad cars, going up in flames. Street fights that require the National Guard. Storefronts of luxury retailers reduced to shattered glass by masked smash-and-grab vandals. Gang members, drug traffickers and terrorists given the green light to ply their trades in America. Widespread upheavals and building takeovers at the finest universities in the country.

The desecration of federal monuments and Jewish houses of worship. The torching of the American flag. New York City, the epicenter of global finance and Jewish pride, flirting with the prospects of electing an avowed Marxist, antisemitic mayor.

Get ready for a dystopian Big Apple. Thrill-seeking New Yorkers are about to weather a municipal death wish. Occupy Wall Street is about to achieve a takeover. In the 1970s, the slogan was “The Bronx is Burning.” This time we might see Manhattan in flames.

How could we have allowed it to get so bad? Glorifying terrorists and assassins; excusing lawbreakers, gang members and thieves. Selectively applying constitutional protections. Black Lives Matter arsonists went unpunished; January 6 trespassers were over-punished. Jews subjected to genocidal threats and ancient blood libels; “transgender” males asserting sovereignty over women’s bathrooms and finish lines. European cartoonists murdered for satirizing Muhammad.

Up until recently, these culture wars largely took the form of a civil war without shots fired. No longer. Bullets are flying from indiscriminate trigger happiness.

Half the country can’t stand the other, and little effort is being made to meet halfway. The center doesn’t seem to exist. All is engulfed by extremes.

Hillary Clinton wishes she could take back “deplorables,” but she meant what she said. Somewhere along the way the Democratic Party developed a contempt for the white middle and working class. They saw racism everywhere and discounted all racial progress. They pitted persons of color against “evil” white oppressors.

An entire vocabulary was censored by Orwellian linguists. The American experiment was denounced as one great failure. Meanwhile, red state patriots judged coastal elites to be tone-deaf traitors to the American cause.

And then there is the matter of Muslims and their vision for America. When a Dearborn, Michigan resident complained about naming a street for a Hezbollah terrorist, the mayor of the city with a Muslim majority population replied, “You’re an Islamophobe. And although you live here, I want you to know, as mayor, you’re not welcome here.”

We’re doomed.