The subject in the murder of Charlie Kirk is 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. The perpetrator of the attempted Annunciation Roman Catholic Church mass murder was 23-year-old Robert Westman. The gunman awaiting trial for last December's heinous murder of United Healthcare C.E.O. Brian Thompson was 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. The shooter who fell an inch short by fate of assassinating former President Donald Trump 14 months ago in Butler, PA was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
What has happened to Gen Z?
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and College Pulse, just released their Sixth annual College Free Speech Rankings. The survey of 68,510 college students nationwide found: “34% say using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is now acceptable.” Before the pandemic, the figure was 24% - still unacceptably high.
Most of the blame that a third of college students believe in silencing political opponents with force should fall on Left-wing academia for helping to shape America's youth into revolutionary zombies.
A survey conducted last year by political science professor Kevin Wallsten found that Gen Z is far more accepting of political violence than any previous generation. But as he astoundingly notes in The Wall Street Journal, “there's no meaningful difference between the attitudes of 18-to-26-year-olds who are and who aren't enrolled in college.”
Radical curricula alone are not enough to turn (mostly) young males into ruthless spies and killers for a North American version of the Staatssicherheit. If that were the case, we'd have come to this terrible moment long ago. Two generations have passed through the leftist indoctrination of university classrooms since the unruly 1960s. While they may have graduated with a lot of silly notions of how the world worked – which they mostly unlearned over time at great cost – they didn't take up bolt-action rifles with scopes for the cause of the month.
To make a terrorist, you must first break the person. We as a society have done that to Gen Z.
Raised on portable computers that fit snugly in their back pockets (a.k.a. smartphones), they never got the chance to become fully social beings. Just today at a bus stop, I encountered two anti-social young males sporting the ubiquitous headset waiting with me. One's tee-shirt said, “I Am The Worst”; the other's said “Almost Human.” Multiple studies have pointed out this behavior is a result of alarming deficits in empathy and self-confidence, and higher rates of depression and anxiety.
In the real world, these kids were taught that they mattered more as representatives of some group identity than as individuals. If they thought they were thriving, they found out it's only because of something like “white privilege.” If they were having problems, it was because they were part of a “disadvantaged group.” The group determined their lot. There was no room for personal agency.
Meanwhile, their personal discomfort was considered an intolerable condition. Every challenge was a threat to their well-being. Others' speech could harm them. No such thing as “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Speech is violence. They were ushered into therapy – diagnosed, medicated. Some, it turned out, were discovered to have been born into the wrong bodies. Oh, My Goodness, God made a mistake! As distressing as this new knowledge was, this designation was to be celebrated. While it turned their lives into a sci-fi nightmare, our unelected moral authorities built a cage around this new protected class of people.
There were other competing nightmares to deal with, too. Gen Z was scared by frightening harangues about the planet becoming uninhabitable. We must not only change course before it's too late, but we must also punish the evil forces behind this rush to greedy excess at their expense. Democracy was dying (because Hillary Clinton was deprived of her coronation back in January 2017). Fascism was plotting a comeback behind the walls of Mar-a-Lago.
No litany of catastrophes would be complete without noting the centerpiece of importance to Gen Z life: the COVID lockdown. Disruption of normalcy; complete social isolation; years lived entirely online.
By the time Gen Z was delivered into the hands of the revolutionary professoriate, they were mentally broken and hungering to be put back together in a new and profound way. A.I. could take care of their day-to-day responsibilities, while they devoted themselves to the propaganda on their screens and in their classrooms. All that was left was for them to go out into the world and make an earth-shaking statement. They're too good and too entitled to do anything so mediocre, mundane, and routine, as getting married, buying a house, having children, raising a family, and giving worship to our God who made this creation possible.
The writings left behind by these Gen Z murderers read less like Unabomber-type manifestos than dystopian personal diaries. That's probably how they should be understood: as reflections on the devastated life that made them who they are.
A Special Note to Erika
Prayer isn't always words whispered into the heavens.
Sometimes, it's silence.
A still heart. A quiet soul. A surrendered spirit.
You don't always need to speak...
Sometimes, you just need to be still and know that He is God.
Meditate on His Word like it's oxygen.
Don't let your heart grow numb;
don't let your eyes skim over sacred sentences
you've read a hundred times.
This isn't just a book.
This is the living, breathing voice of your Savior.
Treat it as holy.
Stop multitasking with the holy.
Don't "habit stack" Jesus.
Drop everything.
And worship.
This is not productivity.
This is presence.
This is sacred.
Be intentional.
Be still.
Be postured in awe.
Because you're not meeting with a
character in one of the greatest books
ever written...
You're meeting with the King of Glory.
Every Kid Deserves A Dad.
Every Wife Deserves A Husband.
Every American Needs Charlie Kirk.
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I know this is the land of free markets and limited government.
These are broad general numbers for magnitude, not accuracy, but social media companies generate approximately a trillion dollars on the US stock market. Meta/Facebook runs about 90% of social media and makes up 3% of the stock market.
All of these companies' algorithms are designed to induce engagement - be it cute cats or rage and despair. Gen Z is especially hooked on this, and we as a goverment and nation do almost absolutely nothing to regulate it. Sure, they aren't supposed to show a 13 year old girl pondering suicide how to make a noose - but it happens. Why do we allow this content to reach any age kid? Sure - the parents should be on top of this - but they are not. Just like I had a stack of Playboys and if I was lucky a Penthouse or two in my closet.
The internet needs to be age-gated and cleaned up so vulnerable, confused kids aren't being brainwashed into hate so easily.
Big fat check from these companies to both sides keep everyones hands in their pockets about doing anything about this problem.
David, I agree with much of what you write about some Gen Z males. And like most people I know some Gen Z guys who are among the most together, empathetic, hard working and considerate young men I've ever known. But getting back to the most psychotic among them, I think the primary reason for their black-pilled void is they're constantly told that males, especially white males, are worthless toxic waste dumps - unless they're billionaires or superstar athletes by the age of 25. So thank you, excellent piece. But your words to Erika Kirk I find baffling, I'm sure I'm just not getting it but you seem to be telling her to do better. And I can't think of another wife who has done as well under the circumstances of her husband's assassination.