Radicalized by Higher Education

 

Is college radicalizing Americans?  This chart demonstrates that those most in favor of violence are the most educated.  That strikes me as backwards.  Shouldn't more education lead to less support of violence?

When Good Will Hunting was all the rage in the theaters, I recall being unimpressed.  Sure, Robin Williams was great, but this Will Hunting guy didn't make sense to me.  He is a genius and a prolific reader with an encyclopedic knowledge of many subjects who is nonetheless prone to violence.  He's both the smartest person in the room but dumb as a box of rocks.  Smart people avoid violence whenever possible, but not this guy.

The chart shows a clear correlation between the amount of education and the acceptability of violence to get one's way.  It is interesting how it goes down with 2 years of college but rises afterwards.  Odd.  Maybe Good Will Hunting understood something that I didn't.

Cole Allen, the would-be assassin, has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, a master's in computer science, and clearly falls into the 40% of graduates who believe violence is necessary.

Yet Another Assassin

Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from California, sprinted into the Correspondents' Dinner last night with guns and knives.  He shot one Secret Service agent before being subdued.  President Trump, the First Lady, VP, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and many others were quickly evacuated.

Yet again, a crackpot has sought to kill Donald Trump.  Leftist pundits like Hassan Piker have floated the idea that it would be great if someone would assassinate Trump.  In response to the assassination attempt last night, a Wisconsin brewery announced that it would distribute free beer the day after Trump's murder.  Accusing Trump of being a fascist or a new iteration of Hitler is so common as to be unremarkable now.  And what is one of the most common bits of time travel stories: kill Hitler to prevent the Holocaust.  The assassin in such sci-fi is lauded.  Ergo, if Trump is Hitler and it would have been commendable to kill Hitler before he could carry out his policies, then it follows that killing Trump is not only logical, but worthy of praise.

If one person out of a hundred thousand is dumb enough to swallow the fallacy that Trump is the next coming of Hitler, that would create more than 3,000 potential assassins in the US.  People who disagreed with Charlie Kirk, who had no ability to implement any policies, called him a fascist.  A crackpot came out of the woodwork and killed him.  Leftists not only approved of his murder, they posted themselves celebrating online.

This is why Tim Pool thinks we may already be in a Civil War.  We're certainly in a time that echoes the 1850s.

The Next Assassin

A heavily-armed man (shotgun & handgun) with fake press credentials attempted to enter a Trump rally.  In his vehicle, they found fake passports and driver's licenses.  Whether he intended to assassinate Trump is not clear; the Riverside County Sheriff is certain that an assassination attempt was foiled while federal agencies currently disagree.  Was he just a guy who forgot to leave his guns at home when going to a presidential rally?  Gee, that seems unlikely.  What's with all the passports and the phony press pass and VIP pass?  Based on what I've heard so far, I'd lean toward the sheriff's view.

What is causing all these crackpot assassins?  Usually, assassins are young men, but this one is in his late 40s and the last one was in his 50s.  The crackpot who shot at a bunch of Republicans on a baseball field several years ago was also an older man.  This is unusual.  There is something about our modern society that breeds crazies.  There were no school shootings when I was a kid.  It started in the late 90s and continues today.  What changed?

Assassin #2

According to reports, Ryan Wesley Routh attempted to shoot Donald Trump while he was playing a round of golf.  Some of his social media posts have been reposted by others.  His profile - if it hasn't been doctored - shows him to be a Democrat, anti-MAGA, and LGBT+ member.  Common enough, but obviously against Trump.  He went to Ukraine in 2022 and sought to recruit foreign fighters and increase funding.  A ten-minute interview was also posted which shows him in Ukraine.  He doesn't seem particularly sharp.  How did this guy know when and where to try a shot at Trump?  He was arrested shortly after the incident and is in custody.  Is he another lone wolf like Thomas Matthew Crooks?  Of course, we don't know really if Crooks was a lone gunman, but that is the working assumption.  Will Jack Ruby show up and shoot Routh before he can be interrogated?

The left has so villainized Trump that it appears to be entirely reasonable to assassinated him before he can reclaim power.  This again demonstrates that there is too much riding on elections today.  This should be choosing someone who carries out the laws that Congress has passed.  Those laws should be relatively benign compared to what the states themselves pass.  No, thanks to a century of consolidating power in Washington DC, national elections become more heated each year.  The heat has risen to assassination attempts.  Either we devolve power away from Washington or the boiler will explode into open conflict. 

Only a Patsy?

The crazy stories about the assassination attempt on Trump are rolling now.  There is a video that shows the would-be assassin working his way across the roof.  It was filmed by someone behind Trump.  At one point, though very grainy, the figure suddenly vanished.  The commenter claims that was when Crooks was killed, before he even aimed his rifle.  Ergo, his only purpose was to distract from the real shooter while never actually firing himself.  Right.  Another post claims to show a bullet flying in the opposite direction, missing Trump shortly before the bullet that hit him.  Okay.  So, that would be our third shooter?  How many incompetent shooters were there?  I can accept that one guy was a bad shot.  I cannot accept that he was just a patsy for another shooter who was an equally bad shot.  Wait, there's more.  It is claimed that someone shorted Truth Social stock the day before Trump was shot.  Had he been killed, that person would have made a fortune when Truth Social stock price crashed.  Coincidence?  The poster thinks not.  Then there is the oddity that CNN was broadcasting this particular rally.  CNN hasn't regularly broadcast Trump's rallies, but this one in Butler merited coverage.  Coincidence?  Again, the poster thinks not.

Absolutely everything is suspicious and the web of conspiracy theories is growing bigger by the day.  What seems outlandish today will probably look tame a month from now.  Image how many iPhone videos of this event are just waiting to be reviewed.  Abraham Zapruder happened to be filming when JFK was shot and his film has been analyzed frame by frame ever since.  Now we have hundreds of Zapruders with their portable video cameras.  The madness has only just begun.