The left's violence problem, the right's antisemitism problem
Most people concede that violence and antisemitism are bad. They just won't acknowledge it exists on their side.
Far-left Twitch streamer: “kill all Zionists!”
[someone kills “Zionists”]
Far-left Twitch streamer: “this is obviously a false flag operation.”
Jeffrey Blehar of National Review laments that the Washington Jewish Museum shooter - which is what he should be called, as the fact that his victims worked for the Israeli embassy was just a happy accident for those desperately trying to portray this as something other than an antisemitic hate crime - is from his city, and says what’s been obvious to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention: the very online left has been wishcasting this for a very long time.
No, this man was not crazy in the way Jared Loughner was, not at all; the killer methodically planned his murders with sociopathic amorality. He unloaded 21 rounds into his victims. He closed in on the girl to kill her after first wounding her. Then he walked into the Jewish Museum while pretending to be a bystander, asked for a drink of water, and turned to announce his guilt to the crowd, proudly chanting “Free Free Palestine” in a sing-song tone that made my eyes run over blood-red with reflexive revulsion.
I do not think I could hate a living person more than this man. I hate him for what he did. I hate him for the shame he has brought to my city. (I can assure you there are hundreds more students and teachers at UIC who speak and carry themselves exactly like Rodriguez does; I have seen them with my own eyes.) I hate him for his celebratory chanting. And I hate him for what he represents: the antisemitic disease we all saw incubating on college campuses for decades, now bursting forth with its foul progeny.
[…]
…much like “fascism” has forever threatened to descend upon America but somehow always and only lands in Europe [eeeeeeehhhhhh - DP] so too does the stochastic terrorism predicted by the left seem to really affect only themselves. Luigi Mangione, despite himself having access to the finest health care in the world, was radicalized into assassinating a health care CEO through nothing more than his internet and YouTube reading list. Elias Rodriguez, who profiled as little more than your standard keffiyeh-clad college activist, similarly received his primary education online.
And don’t kid yourself: The left is swimming in this sort of deranged content in ways that the right is barely aware of. Present media coverage focuses almost exclusively on the influence of the right-leaning podcasting ecosystem. (Its obvious role in the 2024 campaign provides ample justification for this.) But my guess is that the left-wing universe will breed further killers in years to come.
Why do I say that? Because right now, on YouTube, I can go listen to Taylor Lorenz rhapsodize for 30 minutes about online calls to murder Donald Trump. I’m not kidding, that isn’t dramatic hyperbole, and it is a terrifying example of how openly crazy the tone of the left’s discourse has become. Lorenz, “internet influencer” par excellence, opens by talking with obvious fascination about the newest TikTok trend: “Somebody needs to do it.” The “it,” she helpfully explains, is killing Trump — but she adds with a giggle that she prefers to use the term “unalive-ing Trump” because she doesn’t want YouTube to demonetize her account. Lovely.
This is the context out of which the Mangiones and the Rodriguezes of the world arise. So where are the lengthy discussions about how the online left’s currently maximalist rhetoric of panic, siege, and destruction is creating the environment in which the left’s newest celebrity assassins have arisen? You won’t find them, for the disgusting reason that far too many on the left sympathize with the goals of people like Mangione and Rodriguez, if not their specific acts. They want more of this, at least if it helps apply pressure to get them to the outcome they desire. And so I predict they will get more of it. Much more.
Drew Pavlou has been keeping tabs on the far-left Twitch-streamer fever swamp, and he’s shown that the level of incitement (on a platform owned by Amazon, no less) is off the charts. Meanwhile, here in Canada, there’s the lovely and talented Charlotte Kates, calling for the mass murder of Jews and the violent overthrow of the Canadian government, since it’s a day ending in “Y”.
Kates was born in the United States, incidentally. Funny which Americans the “elbows up” crowd appear to be totally cool with.
I can hear the response already: who cares about these online nobodies in the age of Trump?!? It’s just a bunch of idiots on the internet blowing off steam. There are much bigger threats facing American liberal democracy, starting with the man in the White House and his enablers. Why are you nutpicking and both-sidesing this?!?
The thing is, these aren’t nobodies. Some of them have audiences in the millions on Twitch and TikTok. Online-culture reporter turned murder enthusiast Taylor Lorenz has worked for some of the largest media outlets in the country, even if none of them are willing to admit it today.
And even fewer people on the left will acknowledge ever knowing this crazy-eyed lush’s name, but I assure you she was a very big deal when she was a useful club with which to beat Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. (Him being a very big deal seems like an even more distant memory, but that’s for another post.)
Moreover, the GOP’s transition from the kinda-sorta-mainstream-center-right political party to the debauched extremist cult of 2025 started out with a bunch of very online nobodies, from the opposite end of the political spectrum.
Which brings me to my next point…
Yeah, Darryl Cooper was a nobody. Now he has the most popular “history” newsletter on this very platform, with over 165,000 subscribers. He’s been a guest on Tucker Carlson’s Twitter-based interview show and on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
And now he feels safe letting the mask slip altogether.
I can hear the response already: who cares about these heterodox commentators when antisemitic left-wing mobs are taking over our streets and our universities?!? Why are you nutpicking and both-sidesing this?!?
Well, the rot isn’t just online. It’s in the White House.
Members of Congress and Jewish civil rights organizations are criticizing the new deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense, Kingsley Wilson, for a series of online posts and past political commentary she made before joining the Trump administration.
Over the last several years, Wilson posted and commented prolifically on podcasts in her position at the right-wing think tank the Center for Renewing America. Wilson praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, promoted theories widely seen as antisemitic, excoriated Republicans in Congress who supported Ukraine, frequently used a slur for people with intellectual disabilities and also appeared to support political violence.
Now that Wilson is serving in the Pentagon, her comments have raised new scrutiny.
[…]
Wilson is not the first Trump administration official whose online commentary has attracted criticism. Marko Elez, an employee working with the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, resigned over racist posts he had written in recent years. "Normalize Indian hate," one post read. "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool," Elez said in another.
Soon after his resignation, the Trump administration rehired Elez, who is 25 years old. Vice President JD Vance wrote, "I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life."
Seen in that light, Wilson's history of extreme rhetoric "should be shocking, but it's certainly not surprising," said Spitalnick, "because this administration has over and over again normalized platformed and emboldened extremism."
That was in March. Now it’s May, and Wilson has been promoted, without even having to delete her problematic old tweets.
Honestly, it might be those tweets that got her the job.
Left-wingers will denounce this and turn a blind eye to what their allies are doing. Right-wingers will excuse this away and assail the lefty mobs and Twitch streamers.
There’s been some crossover among left- and right-wing antisemites and their rhetoric, like David Duke’s “Zio” slur now a regular feature of pro-Palestinian activist spaces. But most people concede that antisemitism is bad.
Fortunately, the real antisemitism is all on the other side, compared to our principled opposition to Israel/nuanced takes on the history of the 20th century. Such a relief, that I don’t have to engage in any soul-searching, isn’t it?
Go ahead, tell me your vote doesn’t matter:
A federal election riding in rural Newfoundland has flipped to the Conservatives after a judicial recount that took nearly two weeks.
Elections Canada announced Friday that Conservative Jonathan Rowe will represent the Terra Nova_The Peninsulas riding in Parliament. A judicial recount in the riding determined Rowe defeated Liberal Anthony Germain by just 12 votes.
The result reverses the first tally of the ballots after last month’s federal election, which had Germain ahead by 12 votes. It also gives the Conservatives another seat in the House of Commons, and puts the Liberals three seats behind the threshold for a majority government.
Rowe is an engineer with experience in mining and oil and gas. His win earns the Conservatives a third seat in the province, while the Liberals have four. It also underscores a surge in support for the Conservatives across the province, where the party held just one seat heading into the vote on April 28.
Many Newfoundlanders will assume this must have been the closest election in the province’s history. To which Liberal Tom Murphy, were he still with us, would ask why you’re showing him such disrespect.
