To engage with today's anti-Trump left is to confront a disturbing descent into collective psychosis, where inconvenient facts are discarded and reality is replaced by an echo chamber of manufactured outrage. They scream about threats that simply do not exist, crafting an alternate universe to safeguard their entrenched positions.
This isn't merely political disagreement; it's a relentless, ritualistic hallucination, carefully constructed to protect paychecks across the institutional status quo — from legacy media to academia and the sprawling, results-optional world of non-profits. For undeniable proof, one need only glance at the opinion pages of The New York Times, the self-proclaimed agenda-setter for the government and non-profit class. Take, for instance, Nicholas Kristof's October 24 column, a journalistic masterpiece of a street preacher babbling on a bus bench. His central thesis? "American norms" are under attack, with President Trump painted as a terrifying deviation from a supposedly pristine past.
Yet, as is often the case with the left's carefully curated narratives, "every word is a lie, including "and" and "the,"" to borrow from Mary McCarthy. Consider Kristof's assertion that "Presidents did not try to crush law firms or universities, nor did their administrations mislead federal courts or send armed officers into cities, where they shot people." This particular gem is "very special." The notion that armed federal officers only began operating and, yes, tragically, using force in American cities under President Trump is not just absurd; it's historically illiterate.
Before the "Mean Orange Man" arrived, federal agents were, in fact, present and involved in such incidents. Carlos Boles was shot and killed by a deputy U.S. marshal in 2011, under President Barack Obama. That same year, an ICE agent fired at Daniel Noriega in Anaheim, California. Adrian Ricketts was shot by an FBI agent in New York City in 2012. Fernando Llanez was shot and killed by an HSI/ICE agent in June 2016, and Jamarion Robinson was shot — dozens of times — by deputy U.S. marshals in August 2016. All during the Obama years. This is but a partial list, yet Kristof presents federal agents shooting people in cities as a terrifying, unprecedented deviation from American political norms unique to Trump's presidency. The sheer audacity is astounding.
Equally laughable is the claim that "Presidents quarreled with allies but didn't threaten to invade Greenland." Apparently, American history began in 2017. Did Kristof forget about Manuel Noriega, a long-time American ally, whose regime was ended by an invasion led by President George H.W. Bush? Or Henry Kissinger, under President Gerald Ford, broadly hinting at military force against oil-producing nations during the 1970s oil crisis? And if no American president ever dared to "quarrel" with European allies, what exactly was Eisenhower doing during the Suez Crisis? The left's selective memory for historical inconvenient truths is a hallmark of their "hallucinatory state."
The relentless hand-wringing and panic-mongering isn't just selective; it's entirely unreal. It invents an American past that never existed, then hysterically laments its fake loss. Kristof even frets that "Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House, is building a ballroom and aims to construct a so-called Arc de Trump." Good heavens, a ballroom! This is depicted as a devastating assault on American norms. Someone might remind Mr. Kristof that President Harry Truman "gutted the White House" so thoroughly he lived at Blair House for three years during renovations, and somehow, the Republic survived. The left's outrage over a potential White House ballroom shows the depth of their desperation to find something, anything, to condemn.
Digging deeper into Kristof's fantasy world reveals the true motivation behind the outrage: money and the protection of an institutional status quo. He claims "Trump has worked to undermine the entire international system the United States created after World War II — for our benefit and the world's — to promote peace, trade, prosperity and health." This "system" he so passionately defends often translates to vast sums of money changing hands, benefiting a specific class. When Kristof laments the "loss of the international system," he's speaking for friends and allies who lost grants, comfortable positions, and paychecks.
He describes "three pillars that explain the rise, strength and resilience of our nation," all centered around "funding." He praises "great universities and research institutions" that Trump supposedly "attempted to defund them, cancel their tax-exempt status and make it harder for foreign students to enroll." Harvard's endowment alone has soared to $68 billion, yet the left cries foul over any challenge to their tax-exempt status. It becomes clear what "norms" Nicholas Kristof is truly trying to protect, and why his alarm sounds so hysterical.
As America approaches critical elections, the legacy media insists on focusing on "nothing" — invented crises like federal agents having guns (they always have) or construction at the White House (it's happened before). This wholesale manufacture of narrative distraction is what they now call "politics," and it is fake from top to bottom. It's time for patriotic Americans to treat this delusional propaganda with the contempt it deserves and demand real accountability, grounded in common sense and factual reality, for the future of our nation.
