The mass murderer who attacked the Colorado Springs LGBTQIA+ club is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Turns out, too, he’s known by local law enforcement for his violent behavior, which has included threatening to kill his own mother with a pipe bomb. That crime, which failed to trigger the use of Colorado’s “Red Flag” law, was never even charged.

The knee-jerk “hate-crime” narrative offered by the legacy media before any facts about the perpetrator surfaced, the agonized handwringing over the persecution of marginalized people incited by “hateful rhetoric” from the political Right fell apart the instant Aldrich disclosed his non-binary self-identification to his attorneys and instructed them to use “they, them” pronouns in reference to him in all dealings before the court. 

That Leftists would rather lobby to disarm would-be victims and silence political adversaries than prosecute violent criminals can’t be denied. They’d assumed this particular rampage offered a “twofer”; an opportunity to demand the end of both self-defense and free speech rights at the same time. The Social Justice approach to crime obviously contributes to the rising tide of violence. Although Leftists may consider the increasing crime rate a fair trade for the political capital they generate with their policies, what may be less obvious to many is that the degeneration of fundamental human morality poses an existential threat to the continuity of human society writ large.

Our society’s accelerating production of deranged sociopaths is a symptom of foundational disintegration. A growing percentage of young adults have grown up without the natural, formative support of family; married and engaged parents, extended family, faith community, and role models. Absent the proper moral instruction offered by these, young people are vulnerable to the increasingly-destructive neo-Marxist ideologies taught by the aggressively anti-religious government-run schools.

Doctrines such as “humanity is a freakishly overgrown animal species; a scourge on the face of Mother Earth” produce fear, helpless rage, and self-loathing. The Left’s massively destructive gender ideology has thoroughly permeated secular society on the basis of no facts at all. It’s very much like a religious doctrine in that it must be taken on the basis of faith alone. But unlike a religious doctrine that ennobles and builds strong character, this doctrine teaches that “Your feelings trump physiological reality. In fact, they can even become a claim on the thoughts, words, and actions of others.”  

Such a doctrine can have no other result than a profound and debilitating level of self-obsession on the part of those in its grip. We see this in the case of Aldrich, who, though he murdered five other people, makes his non-binary sexual identity the center of attention in the case by dictating the pronouns with which he’s to be referenced in court pleadings. (Woke fools in the press are actually following the killer’s dictates.)  

In another example, self-described “trans-women” can be seen on social media demanding that heterosexual men demonstrate attraction to them on pain of being smeared as bigoted, trans-phobic haters. This bizarre demand begs the question: If a person’s sexual attractions can be molded by social pressure, why have we spent the past 60 years being brow-beaten by Leftists’ insistence that sexual orientation is a fixed aspect of a person’s makeup? Perhaps “homosexual at birth” requires rethinking? These are compelling questions… but not the point of this particular discussion.  

The point is that we have replaced the Judeo-Christian foundation on which Western Civilization was built with pagan Earth-worship and neo-Marxist Social Justice doctrines. In the derangement and dereliction that afflicts increasing numbers, we are reaping the grotesque harvest. 

Respect for the equal standing of each person’s life and right is the foundation of all consequential morality. And because the practical limit to the exercise of any right (if we are to respect equal standing) is the point at which its exercise infringes on others, our society’s moral foundation requires both common subscription and moral training. The incremental dissolution of the nuclear family and neo-Marxist indoctrination combine to undermine these essential elements. Society’s moral foundation is crumbling as a result.

The truth is that human goodness, strength of character, selflessness, industriousness, kindness, patience, charity, humility, and other virtues don’t come naturally. They must be purposely inculcated and mindfully acquired – taught, practiced, and mastered. No one is born with them. 

A person raised to actively pursue such attributes of character achieves functional adulthood, differentiated not only from parents, but from others in general – a person who owns him or herself. He or she takes responsibility for life choices made and results generated. Such a person recognizes, for example, that the liberty to define him or herself cannot become a claim on the observations, thoughts, or words of others. He or she has the humility to recognize the rights of others as equal in standing to his/her own. He or she is capable of defining, understanding, and channeling his or her own emotions, drives, and impulses in ways that advance the interests of self and others.

Absent the self-mastery achieved through these virtues, a person is enfeebled by the demands of his or her own emotions, drives, and urges. This obviously impedes the advancement of the individual’s own interests. Worse, such a person makes unreasonable and often irrational demands on others and on society as a whole. 

While most cases of arrested development don’t become criminals, some obviously do. Many others will attempt to compensate for psychological and interpersonal deficits by engaging in Leftist political activism. Given the political Left’s proficiency at converting human misery of nearly every variety into political capital ⏤ there remains little wonder why sources of personal strength and resiliency, family, faith, and community would be targeted for destruction. Strong, faithful, resilient people of character are not easy to subjugate.

We cannot hope to prevail against the degenerative forces of Leftism’s aggressive, anti-God, anti-human influence without recourse to God Almighty and the restoration of our foundational values.

Image: NYT