Eli Steele Identifies the Hidden Root of Leftist Violence

I'm concerned that Eli Steele has correctly pointed out a problem that has no obvious solution. Certainly no quick fix:

One unique aspect of Leftist-driven violence often goes unnoticed. The recent bloodshed, vandalism, and intimidation that we’ve seen aren’t random but the predictable fallout of a worldview that reduces human complexity to fixed ideological identities. The Left’s obsession with immutable traits -- race, gender, sex -- creates a victimhood hierarchy where dissent feels like an existential threat. When challenged, responses spiral into denial, defensiveness, or even violence from those unable to defend their dogma. This isn’t mere political disagreement, but the grim consequence of a belief system that rejects the Enlightenment’s focus on reason and individuality for rigid orthodoxy.

Recent events expose this pattern. The assassination of Charlie Kirk by Tyler Robinson, radicalized through Leftist politics and his transgender partner’s identity struggles, shows how loyalty to identity can turn lethal when faced with opposing views. School shootings like Audrey Hale’s 2023 Nashville attack and Robin Westman’s 2025 Minneapolis shooting reveal how issues with or challenges to gender identity can ignite rage. Elias Rodriguez’s 2025 murder of two Israeli Embassy employees, accompanied by cries of “shame on Zio-Nazi terror,” reflects a worldview -- shared by many pro-Hamas supporters -- that reduces Jews, Israeli or not, to whites and oppressors. The decade-long wave of Black Lives Matter protests, grounded in claims of systemic racial oppression, fueled riots that caused billions in damages, claimed lives, and pressured countless American institutions into adopting reductive racial identity politics as dogma.

Beyond violence, this ideology breeds intimidation, silencing dissent with threats of job loss or social ostracism. Rooted in identity determinism, this intellectual dead-end leaves no room for nuance or growth, increasing the potential for violence among those trapped in its logic -- a logic now taught to young minds through ethnic studies in K-12 schools.

If we cannot force the Left to retreat from its fixation on identity politics through the ballot box and all legal means, this ideology will only sow ever-increasing division and violence. This challenge is daunting because it demands stripping people of their very identities grounded in immutable characteristics and showing them their worth lies elsewhere -- their character. They will fight with everything they have.

To break this cycle, we must reject the notion that immutable traits dictate moral worth and recommit to reason and individuality. Until the Left abandons its dogma, it will continue to fuel conflict—a stark reminder of what happens when ideological orthodoxy drowns out dialogue.

One way to reject the notion that immutable traits dictate moral worth would be to make sure we remove all financial and social status incentives for enshrining immutable traits. But I am pessimistic that that we can make any headway by engaging in conversation. Where to start?

Continue ReadingEli Steele Identifies the Hidden Root of Leftist Violence

Does Treatment for People Who Claim to be Transgender Reduce Suicides?

?Would you rather have a live daughter or a dead son? Transgender activists would ask this question to incentivize parents to provide "gender affirming care" to their sexually confused children.

But is it true that medical interventions reduce the number of suicides?

Consider this excerpt from "ACLU Attorney Confesses: Transgender-Suicide Claim is a Myth." Arguing before the Supreme Court, the ACLU's Chase Strangio concedes that suicide is “thankfully and admittedly rare” among transgender-identifying people:

Unfortunately for Strangio, Justice Alito had done his homework. Citing the U.K.’s Cass Review, Alito observed that “there is no evidence that gender-affirmative treatments reduce suicide.”

Then came Strangio’s remarkable concession:

MR. STRANGIO: What I think that is referring to is there is no evidence in some—in the studies that this treatment reduces completed suicide. And the reason for that is completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly, is rare and we’re talking about a very small population of individuals with studies that don’t necessarily have completed suicides within them.

However, there are multiple studies, long-term longitudinal studies that do show that there is a reduction in—in suicidality . . .

Here, the ACLU’s star attorney on trans issues seems to be at odds with Solicitor General Prelogar, who had said that the “rates” of “suicide” among gender-dysphoric youth were “striking.” Strangio admits, under oath, that suicide is actually “rare,” and that the research purporting to demonstrate benefits from hormones concerns suicidality, not suicide. Strangio’s use of “admittedly” is also striking, as it suggests the attorney is aware that claims about suicide prevention through sex “change” are false.

Continue ReadingDoes Treatment for People Who Claim to be Transgender Reduce Suicides?

New LGB Organization Announces Divorce from TQ

This dispute has been simmering (outside of corporate news circles) for years. LGB is only one organzation, of course, and it doesn't speak for the many opinions held by many LGB folks out there. That said, this announce could inspire new, less ideological and more productive conversations.

Grok presents this background. .

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Michael Shellenberger: The Political Left Needs to Renounce Violence

Michael Shellenberger, at Public:

"Why did they engage in so much dehumanization for so long? In large part, the reason is because Kirk challenged left wing mythology on gender, race and modern feminism. One cannot change one's sex through drugs, surgery or magical thinking. Kirk and other conservatives noted. There is no epidemic of police officers killing black men. In fact, the numbers declined dramatically from the 1970s to the birth of black lives matter. Black Americans commit crimes at numbers clearly disproportionate to their share of the population, and some research does, in fact, suggests that liberal, secular women report more mental health issues and lower life satisfaction than conservative, religious women who are more likely to be married and to have children.

The left cannot tolerate these challenges to its worldview, and so it resorts to censorship and silencing. The share of college students who support using violence to stop a campus speech rose from 24% to 34% between 2021 and 2025 poignantly, in April, Kirk himself posted on x about rising support for violence on the left. Assassination culture is spreading on the left. He noted, 48% of liberals say it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk. 55% said the same thing about Donald Trump.

In California. It's simply not good enough now for Democratic politicians like Newsom and news media outlets like the New York Times, who spent the last decade dehumanizing millions of their fellow citizens, including Trump and Kirk, to simply say that they shouldn't be killed. If they truly oppose political violence, they should apologize for their relentless false accusations of racism and bigotry, and they should try to make amends by humanizing conservatives.

The media Democrats and the wider left must stop portraying MAGA supporters who have Christian nationalist and conservative views as equivalent to Nazis and fascists through the use of loaded terms like "Far Right."

Let us all come together and condemn violence of any kind. Said former MSNBC commentator Dowd, in his apology. Well, if he really means that, then he and others at MSNBC, The New York Times, the Democratic Party, must go further and renounce their own demonization of Kirk, Trump and other conservatives, We have little confidence that the Left will apologize or change its behavior for many of the same reasons the Left dehumanized Kirk in the first place. The mainstream view of the left today, as represented by everyone from Democrats in Congress to the New York Times to NPR and PBS, is that Western civilization itself is corrupt and evil. The Democratic Party of the last roughly 12 years has lost any semblance of being a Liberal Party and has become an overtly illiberal radical Left one

From the Left's reaction to the assassination, more Americans and people around the world will see that the Left hated and still hates Kirk precisely because he loved Western civilization and fought to conserve it. If any Democrats and progressives really want to end political violence, they would stop encouraging fanaticism and instead embrace dialog and debate. They would go beyond simply writing articles, and instead go to colleges and universities and start having honest conversations about race, sex, gender and other issues essential to discussing it openly, if we were to move forward as a country.

They would stop accusing their political opponents of spreading hate or misinformation and instead listen to what they actually have to say. That's what is so important to our country, is to find our disagreements respectfully because when people stop talking, said, Kirk. That's when violence happens. Thanks for listening."

Continue ReadingMichael Shellenberger: The Political Left Needs to Renounce Violence