May 5, 2026

HEATHER MAC DONALD: The New York Times’s Latte Logic of Social Collapse.

Three days before a 31-year-old male stormed the White House Correspondents Dinner, hoping to assassinate President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet, the New York Times published a 35-minute video titled: “‘The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?’ Why petty theft might be the new political protest.” In it, a Times editor interviewed two other members of the media aristocracy about the moral code shared by a large swathe of young Americans.

That code justifies theft—and even violence—when harnessed to a fashionably left-wing cause. None of the participants—podcasting celebrity Hasan Piker, New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino, and Times opinion editor Nadja Spiegelman—expressed alarm at the glorification of crime. They smirked and giggled through the discussion, betraying a breezy indifference to lawbreaking.

It was striking enough that the Times published the video after reviewing the final cut. The paper was not embarrassed by the participants’ ignorance and entitlement. Nor was it troubled, apparently, by their debate over whether the December 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was “actually effective political action” or merely—and disappointingly—effective “political consciousness-raising.”

But after the assassination attempt on Trump on April 25 by yet another young megalomaniac, one might have thought that the Times would want to distance itself from its hipster commentators and their ends-justify-the-means morality.

It apparently feels no such discomfort, however, and thus has left the video online. That is fortunate. The exchange offers a more revealing window into left-wing political violence than the latest would-be assassin’s predictably disjointed manifesto. When future archeologists seek to date the moment that the demise of the West became inevitable, this artefact of peak decadence will be a strong contender.

Speaking of which:

 

We’re getting a taste of that new reality now, as a the guardrails become increasingly loosened.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

GAY MEN? What is the P-Shot? Learn the risks and rewards of the ED treatment popular with gay men. A doc friend of mine used to run a clinic that did these, and his clientele was decidedly straight. (They also did the “O Shot” for women.) He claimed great results, but I have no first, er, hand experience.

Plus: “Some people also get the injections in the hopes of enhancing the size of their penis, but Goel says that while it can help with girth, if you’re looking for dramatic results, you’re better off getting penis filler.” Penis filler.

There’s also a procedure called the “Jennifer Aniston,” where they inject filler into a woman’s nipples to give them that perky, Rachel-from-Friends look.

What a time to be alive, eh?

Posted at 1:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THIS IS THE WAY:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE:

Posted at 12:29 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ONLY THE POLICE SHOULD HAVE GUNS, THEY TOLD ME:

Posted at 12:27 pm by Stephen Green

T. BECKET ADAMS: Just How Badly Does the Left Hate the Right Anyway?

Nearly as great a problem as left-wing violence is the left’s refusal to admit it has a problem.

You’ve likely encountered this brand of ideological intransigence over the past decade. You’ve probably heard some variation of it from a co-worker, a friend, or even a family member.

When a Republican or conservative is shot, stabbed, or beaten by a left-wing assailant, the activist left adopts one of three standard responses:

The first: The violence is deserved. He had it coming! The second: It didn’t happen. It’s a hoax! The third, and by far the most common, is: Right-wing violence is still worse.

Of the three, the third is the most annoying, not just because it’s raw whataboutism, but because the counterexamples offered are often mischaracterizations or outright falsehoods.

Related: Voters Blame Media for Inspiring Assassination Attempt, Dividing Nation.

Six in ten voters think it’s likely that negative news media coverage of President Donald Trump inspired the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents Dinner on April 25, a new national Rasmussen survey finds.

Of U.S. likely voters polled April 27-29 following the attack, 60% think it’s at least “somewhat likely” that hostile media inspired the armed shooter’s attack – including 41% who call it “very likely.” In contrast, just 13% consider it “not at all likely.”

“How likely is it that negative news media coverage of Trump inspired this assassination attempt?”

  • Very Likely: 41%
  • Somewhat Likely: 19%
  • Not Very Likely: 16%
  • Not at All Likely: 13%
  • Not Sure: 11%

Fully 55% of Democrat voters say it’s likely that hostile media inspired the attack, with far more saying it’s “very likely” (28%) than calling it “somewhat” (17%) so.

More than three-fourths (79%) of Republican voters say media instigated the assassination attempt, including 58% who think it’s very likely media are to blame. Meanwhile, 59% of “other” voters attribute the attack to the influence of the media.

The penultimate scene in Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film Network is (spoiler alert) television executives plotting the assassination of one of their on-air hosts in order to improve the channel’s ratings. When Chayefsky wrote the scene, I’m sure he envisioned some completely over-the-top Strangelove-esque satire. Today, a late night host can deliver a throwaway gag (that has very likely been approved by his network’s standards and practices division) envisioning the death of the president, and network execs pray that their cameras are in position when it happens.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

NO SURPRISE HERE: Ability grouping helps top students, and doesn’t hurt weak students.

Strong students learn less math in mixed classes, concludes a new Education Endowment Foundation study of English middle schools, reports Richard Adams in The Guardian. Weaker students, as judged by prior math achievement, do about the same whether they’re in mixed classes or lower-track classes, University College London (UCL) researchers found. Furthermore, students placed in lower-track classes were more confident of their math abilities than those in mixed classes.

The “big and important” results “support achievement grouping in maths,” said John Jerrim, a UCL professor who has studied mixed-ability classes but wasn’t part of the study, Adams reports. Jerrim added, “It wasn’t long ago that some educational researchers in the UK and Ireland were calling ability grouping ‘symbolic violence’.”

High achievers grouped by prior achievement made two months more progress on average than similar students in mixed classes, the study found.

Not that long ago, this was common knowledge and common practice.

Posted at 11:41 am by Stephen Green

WHEN “GENOCIDE” LOSES ITS MEANING: Me methodically debunking the Gaza genocide hoax in Skeptic Magazine:

Establishing a claim of genocide against Israel would require more than pointing to the scale of suffering in Gaza or to deeply felt moral condemnation. It would require setting aside established precedent, blurring the distinction between intent and consequence, and relying heavily on tendentious, nay dishonest, interpretations of rhetoric by Israeli leaders. In effect, concluding that Israel has engaged in genocide requires not just expanding the definition of genocide beyond its accepted legal contours but well beyond reasonable interpretation of the concept.

Posted at 11:38 am by David Bernstein

REMARKABLE, ISN’T IT?

Posted at 11:25 am by Stephen Green

THAT SEEMS LIKE A ROOKIE NUMBER: Nancy Mace Names 6 House Lawmakers Allegedly Involved In Sex Scandal Cover Up. “Mace’s post names six lawmakers including former Republican Louisiana Rep. Rodney Alexander, former Republican Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, former Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Meehan, former Democratic New York Rep. Eric Massa, former Democratic Michigan Rep. John Conyers, and the office of former Democratic New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy.”

Posted at 10:39 am by Stephen Green

THE JUDICIAL BRANCH’S SELF-MARGINALIZATION CONTINUES:

Posted at 10:03 am by Glenn Reynolds