State of Wednesday: THEY NEED THE FEAR OF GOD
Watching this, I felt like we as a society lost something we desperately needed to find again.
Greetings, Dear Reader,
We’re going to keep this one brief because I have a long night ahead of me.
Speaking at this big event, and big events are not really my bag. I’m a small event guy. Backyard, barbecue, brews, my one and only babe.
Every now and again, though, the troops need assembling. They need rousing. For whatever reason, I keep finding myself in the position of doing the rousing.
Happy to do it. Onward.
THEY NEED THE FEAR OF GOD
The video is among the more heartbreaking to go viral on the internet recently. It happened just this week.
It shows a woman [[GRAPHIC]] in Chicago walking her two small children home from school. The oldest must be around eight, and the youngest no more than six.
From the moment the video starts, you know things will not end well. There are about 20 or so other, bigger kids, late elementary or middle school age. They’re the ones doing the filming. They’re yelling. There are slurs I don’t understand. I already have enough trouble understanding kids, but you don’t even need to break through the accents or the inner-city zoomer speak to know what’s coming.
The energy builds toward inevitable violence. The children cling to their mother. The crowd closes in, battering her. They rip the kids out of her grip and slam them to the ground. They slam the mother to the ground. There’s a brief shock of pure animalism when she hits the ground. There’s kicking, punching and screaming.
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Watching this, I felt like we as a society lost something we desperately needed to find again. Why were they filming this? Nobody yelled “world star” but you could feel the DNA in the moment. Would this even be happening if not for the ability to post it to TikTok or share it among clusters of “friends”?
It’s a mix of internet and wannabe thug culture that’s gripped us and stripped us of humanity. She wasn’t human in that moment; she was content. Clear as day to anyone with any awareness. They recorded the event for bragging rights.
How had children lost their innocence so quickly that they’d film themselves assaulting a woman and her kids on the way home from school?
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I was obviously emotional watching all this unfold. Not much I can do, really. Or can I?
I searched for information. The woman, I find out, was pregnant at the time of the assault.
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If there’s any hope for humanity, it’s not in Washington — that much is for sure. You won’t find it in your mayor or your governor. You won’t get it from health “authorities.” Authorities are basically worthless when the barbarians come for you.
But neighbors, community, local churches. If you’re close enough with your neighbors, if you’ve got an active community, anything is possible.
It’s been a long time since I lived in a community I considered close. We all sit in our living rooms now, choosing streamers, scrolling, clicking, watching content.
As filled as our lives have become with it all, there’s a nagging void.
What could fill it? Are we too far gone?
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The very next series of videos to go viral was a large group of parents congregated outside the public school, demanding justice. They wanted the perpetrators identified. They wanted to hold kids, parents, administrators and police to account for the assault.
Unlike the mob that attacked the woman, this group was calm and resolute.
It wasn’t long before the local news showed up, and right along with them the police cruisers.
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I’m not sure how accurate these reports are at this point because they come from onlookers and locals, but the kids were identified. As kids do, they immediately melted in tears and contrition. They were “scared,” but probably not nearly as scared as the woman they assaulted.
They need to be more scared. Not scared of upset parents and teachers or even scared of the law. They need to be existentially scared.
They need the fear of God.
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Judge this for yourself — I’m still not sure what to make of it. Reciprocal justice or just more deranged content?
One mother decided her daughter would make a follow-up video for the internet. She had apparently taken part in the violent mob.
The girl faces the camera. Her mother tells the internet to “be respectful, this is a child.”
She states her name clearly and, through tears, tells the internet, “I’m sorry for everything that I did.”
The suffering of the mother was enough to touch my soul, but the suffering of this child on top of it reached even deeper.
What happened to us? How did we get here?
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The next video I see is of another mob. A group of adults. They’ve located the private residence of one of the children. They’re gathered outside. They’re streaming live to one platform or another.
Thumbs-ups and emojis and hearts and encouragement from live viewers stream up the screen.
The poster narrates all the issues in the neighborhood and with this particular family.
Is this genuine concern or just more content? Is this why our kids film themselves carrying out violence?
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The woman at the center of it all is healthy and so is her unborn child, thank God. It seems as if at least some parts of the community stepped in constructively to rectify the situation.
Society as a whole, on the other hand, I’m not so sure.
This isn’t an isolated occurrence. There’s a gravity distortion affecting all of us and I can’t say definitively how to fix it. Cameras, internet, content creation have become so cheap and easy to access. The market purists would look at that like it’s a good thing. Line goes up. GDP goes up.
What’s going down, however, appears to be the overall health of our communities. Inner city, suburbs, doesn’t matter.
Unmoored groups of unruly children have been dangerous throughout all of human history, I’m sure. The checks and balances have changed in the modern age. The incentives have changed. Kids will haphazardly and summarily alter the trajectory of your life for internet points and laughs.
We’re all too busy watching Netflix documentaries and short-form video content to notice the steady decay.
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I guess the lesson we can draw from this barely noticeable flash in the pan of internet content is that our humanity still matters, and we see its reflection in our communities, blemishes and all.
You can withdraw into your living rooms; that’ll be peaceful. It’ll also hasten the decay. Inaction is a choice.
So here’s my advice, Dear Reader: make a better choice. Make a resolution. Take part in your local community in some way in the next year. Make it a habit. Make it a family habit.
We can’t just wait around for the next season of Stranger Things and hope things get better.
WHAT I’M READING
The great Mary Rooke, in collaboration with Evie Magazine.
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Shaking my damn head…
Socialist Zohran Mamdani Won’t Stop Asking His Supporters To Redistribute Wealth … To Him
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Lmaoooo
‘Quiet, Piggy’: Trump Blasts Reporter Over Question On Epstein Files
WHAT I’M WATCHING
Zohran Mamdani Just Made a Terrible Mistake
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