I was at a gathering of the clan today and that’s always fun. The younger generations are beginning to take their place at the table and unsurprisingly they’re beginning to sound almost as cynical as their ancient ancestors. I spent a goodly amount of the day just enjoying the banter and intra-familial mockery.
But I did find the time to check in with some of the folks I don’t have a chance to see as often. And this was interesting. These are folks who aren’t constantly obsessed with the political situation. They’re busy with work. They live in the belly of the beast in NYC and they have no illusions about changing the political status quo. But even among these folks there was a deep abiding anger and a sense that we’re reaching a breaking point.
One guy in particular was very angry about the sexual “transitioning” of children. He was incensed that medical associations and world-renowned hospitals were championing what he considered criminal malpractice against children. I had no idea how upset he was about this. He said he hoped that these hospitals and the doctors involved would be sued into bankruptcy and would even face prison sentences for what was in his mind medical child abuse.
I told him that this one aspect of the woke culture seemed to be the one that was most likely to be rejected out of hand by people and even governments because it had the potential to cause a revolt of a clear majority of the population. And I wondered if it could be the trigger for rejecting other parts of the woke agenda.
Another conversation I had today was about the story of the homeless guy who robbed and beat up the man who gave him the coat off his own back. Apparently, the comments by Mayor Adams trying to excuse the crime as being the result of “pain” had outraged large sections of working-class New Yorkers and reinforced the nature of the broken criminal justice system in the city. This other fellow I was talking to was of the opinion that it would be very hard to get a jury to convict the subway Samaritan, Daniel Penny because all of the witnesses in the subway car are adamant that he was justified in subduing the berserk homeless man who was terrorizing the women on the train. And many of these witnesses were minorities.
I told him I wasn’t so sure of that. After all the prosecution will probably be allowed carte blanche in cherry picking the jurors for the sake of diversity. But I did agree that conditions in New York were getting so bad that even leftists were losing patience with the revolving door arrests, rampant shoplifting and terrifying violent lawlessness.
And then we finished with the meal and moved on to the desserts. I confess to eating way too much cake and washing it down with good coffee. The long drive home gave me a chance to think a little bit about how the current chaos is playing inside the blue bastions like New York City. It’s starting to get to them. The damage being done is substantial and even the true believers are getting punchy. Will this change the votes in November? Nope. But it also tells me that the breaking point is getting much closer. And when it finally cracks things will change, one way or the other. What’s the expression? What can’t continue, won’t.