VIC: "Early Black Friday? Early!!!!???" (opens in separate window)

understanding and saving gen z to save america

friday, november 14th, 2025

Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, stands as a profoundly damaged cohort, scarred by ideological indoctrination, social media’s corrosive grip, marginalization of morality anchors like religion and families, and a narcissistic culture that breeds entitlement. Gen Z’s alarming psychological fragility – hypersensitivity to “microaggressions,” equating words with violence, and an obsession with censoring “misinformation” – amplifies their vulnerability to a perverse rationale for violence. This was starkly illustrated by the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University, while he engaged in civil debate, essential to a free, peaceful society.

Gen Z’s fragility is shocking to those of us who grew up with brave parents who fought in world wars and who immigrated with nothing but a strong will to live free. Gen Z focuses on perceived harms from words, demanding censorship for protection, with 72% endorsing shouting down speakers and 34% justifying violence to suppress speech. Their cancel culture thrives, with 97% engaging in unfollowing or blocking, the online version of intolerant mob behavior. This betrays a psychological frailty that undermines resilience and prevents discourse necessary for peaceful coexistence.

Gen Z’s dysfunction is undeniable. They average nine hours daily on screens, over three hours on social media, eroding real-world connections. This fuels asocial behavior, surging loneliness, and poor mental health; only half favor personal over virtual interactions. Financially, they falter: 55% find homeownership harder, 44% struggle to secure jobs, and 55% see promotions as elusive, fostering underachievement. Employers note that 65% of recent college graduates feel entitled, 63% are easily offended, and 55% lack professionalism and work ethic. Mental health crises are rampant, with depression, anxiety, and hopelessness spiking, especially among liberal-leaning youth, driven by a victimhood culture amplified by social media.

Gen Z’s psychological frailty sets the stage for unique vulnerability to social contagion, suggested by the explosion of gender confusion. Transgender identification among young adults surged from 0.59% in 2014 to 3.08% in 2023 – a 422% increase – with non-binary identities up 1260% and transgender men quadrupling (309%), driven by social media echo chambers and peer pressure. Gallup’s 2025 poll shows LGBTQ+ identification at 9.3% overall, nearly triple 3.5% in 2012, doubling in five years, with over 23% of Gen Z (born 1997-2006) identifying as such. The Williams Institute’s 2025 poll estimates over 724,000 transgender youth. This confusion pushes youth toward drastic measures like mutilative surgeries and fuels mental health crises. Rising detransition rates underscore the error; tragically, only 13% of detransitioners receive support from LGBT organizations versus 51% during transition, a shameful abandonment of distressed young people.

To understand the remedy, we must first acknowledge the causes. Never forget that the COVID-19 pandemic mismanagement inflicted catastrophic damage on Gen Z, an epic loss of society’s moral compass that left Gen Z adrift. Professors, teachers, and doctors backed isolation, disregarding known lockdown harms even though Gen Z was at exceptionally low risk from COVID. Mental health crises exploded: self-harm in teens doubled to tripled vs. 2019, overdoses surged 40-120%, and anxiety skyrocketed. One in four college-aged kids contemplated suicide by June 2020. Few discuss that Sweden kept schools open and reported low damage to youth mental health.

Inflammatory rhetoric from America’s left has influenced this weakened generation and likely inspired violence. Is it only a coincidence that members of Gen Z assassinated Charlie Kirk, attempted to kill President Trump, shot up schools, and murdered United Healthcare’s CEO? Media bias is stark and quantifiable: from 2016 to 2025, “extreme right” or “far right” mentions outnumbered “extreme left” or “far left” 5:1 (~12,000, with ~6 billion views, vs. ~2,500 with ~1.25 billion views); some, like MSNBC at 18:1 and PBS at 42:1, were far worse. Extreme demonization of Trump or MAGA conservatives as “fascists” or “threat to democracy” – MSNBC’s ~10,500 segments (~5.2 billion views), The New York Times’ ~620 mentions (~310 million views), and President Joe Biden’s 2022 Philadelphia speech, where he declared that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” a message reiterated in over 15 major addresses from 2020–2025 – has legitimized violent action.

Gen Z is naturally influenced by professors, but today’s professors are steeped in extremism rather than a force for free debate. We should be alarmed at statistics like 95% of Stanford faculty voted Democrat in 2020 per Rabushka; 63% of students accept shouting down speakers, 34% deem violence acceptable to suppress speech (up from 20% in 2020), and 48% justify political violence.

Elite university leadership continues to abrogate its responsibility by ignoring Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Not a single Top 20 school offered any mental health support despite obvious on-campus impact, in contrast with extensive wellness outreach for their left-favored crises, including George Floyd’s death and both of President Trump’s elections.

Some call for legal, top-down interventions, but ultimately, it is individuals, not institutions, who will save freedom. Despite their damaged psyches, the durable solution is present in Gen Z itself. Charlie Kirk knew that and devoted his life to fearlessly engaging Gen Z in debate. That empowered his audience to think critically about liberty, morality, and truth. Charlie’s death sparked 50,000+ TPUSA chapter requests in six days – their thirst for dialogue is evident.

In that spirit, we must continue to challenge inquisitive students with ideas they may never have heard. And we should identify and mentor Gen Z’s bold, rising leaders in early careers who’ve shown a commitment to critical thinking and free speech, to accelerate their rise into leadership across business, government, media, and beyond. Efforts like these demand courage – from us and from them – an attribute in short supply today. But as C.S. Lewis noted, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

A Day In The Life.

Up at 0a on Friday, a cold 41°F, mostly cloudy, windy morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" from 9-12, had a couple smokes in the garage and checked the leftover errands list. I scanned the weather and news, and it's all about the shutdown ending and the repercussions on both sides. Did I say "both"? I meant all three sides. We must now include the communist/socialist party of the demonKKKrat party.

LOL. I was reading an article yesterday, claiming that the Gulf Stream is nearing collapse, and that could/might/perhaps cause a new ice age. And Iceland is doomed, if that happens. Heh. The eco-wackos have even taken this lunacy to the UN's leftist the National Security Council, as a potential existential threat. (((sigh))) Mental illness is alive and well in America.

The Stock Market took a beating yesterday, and it's down YUGE, this morning. BFD, it's way overpriced anyway. It needs a massive correction, but that will hurt many millions of people. Yesterday: The S&P 500 fell 113.43 points, or 1.7%, to 6,737.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 797.60 points, or 1.7%, to 47,457.22. The Nasdaq composite fell 536.10 points, or 2.3%, to 22,870.36. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 67.81 points, or 2.8%, to 2,382.98. Nice, huh? Today's bloodbath is in progress.

For the second day, I can't send new, or reply to, any email messages. And I still can't figure out what's wrong. I can receive, but I can't send. Damn. I need to get into the email settings and try to find out what's wrong.

Sherry arrived around 1, and we drove to her Daughter's, Hollie's shop, to drop-off some crafts Sherry had made, and then to Saubel's Market, to get a few things, and then back to my place for a few minutes, before she left, before it got dark. Nice afternoon with her. I watched some "Gold Rush" on Discovery, had dinner, and continued watching the evening news, and "GR" until 11:30p. Lights out.

I'm still having email problems, now with the server disconnecting randomly from my Thunderbird Email Program. Damn.

Up at 9:30a on Saturday, an overcast, nippy 47°, showers forecast, and a 58° high, I bumped-up the heat, made coffee, fired-up the desktop, scanned the news -- the mentally-ill eco-wackos are now predicting a new Ice Age -- and tuned into one of last week's "CP Show" Podcasts. I called Sherry to see how she was doing. Sis stopped by to visit, for a few hours, I did a couple errands and all too soon, it was dark. I had dinner, watched the news, and switched to new episodes of Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" until 11`:30, and bagged it.

Up at 9a on Sunday, a sunny, bright, extremely windy, 52° morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, scanned the weather and news, and watched other peoples' lawn furniture blow down the street. Heh. I started a load of laundry, got ready for the day, had breakfast and started a rash of small condo chores I save for Sundays, every week. The day passed quickly, and it was dark. I called Sherry to chat and get a day for us, the coming week. I watched the evening news, and switched to History's "American Picker" until 12nidnight, and unplugged.

Awake at 5a, and finally up at 8:30 on Monday, 39° partly sunny and very windy, I bumped the heat up, made coffee, fired-up the desktop, and scanned the news and weather. I tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", 9-noon, and had breakfast. I checked email, and tried to reply to one...

HOLY SHIT! All my email addresses in my Thunderbird Email Book, are GONE! Wiped out clean. Everything's gone; probably over 200 names and details. I am stunned... way beyond mere 'gobsmacked'. I tried everything I knew how, to find the MIA email address book, but to no avail, so I closed the program, and watched TV, until 1a. Good night, Irene.

Up at 7a on Tuesday, a cloudy, windy, cold 31° morning, I upped the heat, made coffee and had a couple of smokes in the COLD garage. (((shiver))) Email is still MIA. After tuning into the "CP Show LIVE", I made breakfast, and got ready for the day with Sherry, at 1p.

We had a wonderful time together, as usual, and she left around 4:30, before it got dark. I watched the evening news, had dinner, and switched to History's "The Curse of Oak Island" and "Mysteries Unearthed", until 12 midnight. The rain and sleet started and continued into the night. Lights out.

Up at 7a on Wednesday, a heavily-overcast, cold, 37° morning, I fired-up the furnace, made coffee and had a smoke in the garage. After tuning into the "CP Show" at 9, I tried email again, and it was still MIA. I can receive, but I can't send or reply. Damn. I had a new 11:30a Ophthalmologist app't, made just last evening, to have a closer look at my right eye's Macular Degeneration situation. I have to renew my PA Driver's License on Dec 1 or 2, and my vision could be a problem. It snowed just north of us overnight, and I kind of wish we'd gotten some. Heh.

I enjoyed the coffee, skipped breakfast, scanned the weather and news, and left at 11a, for the 11:30 Dr's special eye app't. That went well -- I have 20/40 in each eye, even with the MD -- and I stopped at Bob's Discount furniture to buy a new office chair, and get it delivered. That didn't go well. It's shipped from the vendor, and I have to set-it-up and dispose of the crate/box. WTF! I need it delivered, set-up and the crate/box disposed of. PO'd at myself for not calling and finding out their policy, Around 1p, I came home, made a couple of cheese hot dogs and vegetable soup, and took a 90min snooze on the LR couch. I also made a large container of Fettuccine Alfredo for dinner and for lunch tomorrow.

After a couple of condo chores, it was dark, I watched the evening news, had dinner and switched to Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" and "Ghost Adventures" until 1a, and unplugged.

Up at 8a on Thursday, a cloudy, and very cold 30° morning, I made coffee, upped the heat, scanned the news and weather, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" from 9-12. I made Soft-Boiled Eggs w/ Toast In a Bowl, for breakfast, and visited some office furniture stores, online, to continue looking for an office chair. (((SIGH)))

After poking around Staples' website for an hour,I found the nice office chair that I tried out and liked, 2 months ago, but wasn't available for shipping and assembly, but now is. And I bought it, and scheduled assembly and delivery for tomorrow. We'll see what happens. I took a 90min nap, had some Fettuccine Alfredo, watched the evening news, switched to History's "The unXplained" and MotorTrend's "Roadworthy Rescues" until 11:30p, and unplugged.

Tomorrow starts a new week, here in the "Journal", and I'll spend Turkey Day and dinner with Sis. Otherwise, it's clear. I'll see Sherry tomorrow, and maybe we cal get a day for us.

Truth at the Speed of War

America stands at a crossroads. The greatest crisis we face is neither foreign invasion nor financial ruin nor even the factional strife that now masquerades as governance. The gravest danger before us is trust, that “main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad,” as Madison warned in Federalist Number Forty-Nine.

The American people have been deceived, misled, manipulated, and betrayed by the very institutions designed to be their safeguard. These departments, much like the unchecked branches Publius feared, have grown ambitious beyond their constitutional boundaries. And now, at the very moment their power trembles, truth forces its way into the open like light through a cracked vault, exposing the “impostures” Hamilton condemned in Federalist Number Sixty-Eight.

There was a conspiracy to subvert the elections of 2016 and 2020, and to interrupt the peaceful succession of authority itself. It was a design as perilous as the cabals against the Electoral College that the Federalist writers labored to prevent. I was among the first targeted for destruction because I threatened the architecture of their scheme. That is no conjecture; it is confirmed by public records and sworn testimony, precisely the “multiplicity of documents” Publius insisted a free people demand of their magistrates.

The only citizens who arrived in Washington on the sixth of January with a deliberate plan were those inside the government, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the intelligence agencies, and the political officers who resolved that Donald J. Trump would not be permitted to hold the presidential chair. It was the very embodiment of the “violent factions” Madison described in Federalist Number Ten, now armed not with muskets but with badges, warrants, and federal authority.

Hundreds of undercover agents do not assemble in the capital disguised as ordinary citizens without forethought, coordination, and command. No standing force mobilizes without leadership, logistics, and intent. The bomber who planted the January sixth devices could be identified by sunrise if the will existed. We have found enemies through the faintest print left in the smoke of battle; yet we are told that the most surveilled city on earth cannot discern the figure who placed explosive devices under the government’s own cameras. It is a mystery so convenient it borders upon the absurd, one more “pretended” enigma, as Hamilton would say, designed to protect the guilty.

This is not incompetence. It is deliberate resolve.

It is the quiet, methodical usurpation of public trust, the very path to tyranny the Federalist writers warned was most certain.

Independent media now outpace the ability of the government to suppress them. Power fears sunlight because sunlight reveals corruption. Power fears pressure because pressure demands accountability. But most of all, power fears an awakened people. For as Publius taught, the ultimate security against oppression lies in the vigilance of the people themselves.

To the magistrates, officials, and power brokers in Washington, I say this without equivocation. Your season grows short.

Trust is the most brittle orb in your keeping, and you shattered it, fracturing the “confidence in the constituted authorities” that Madison deemed essential to a functioning republic.

This Commonwealth is not generations removed from the loss of liberty; we stand one election away. We inhabit precisely the “critical period” Jay described in Federalist Number Two, when the fate of the Union hangs upon a single contest and the virtue of those who must act.

If those entrusted with surrounding President Trump falter in the speed and resolve he requires, let them understand this clearly.

The people will advance without them.

For Publius was right, the power of the sword must remain not with the few but with the many.

Truth marches forward whether they permit it or not.

Meet The New Ice Age, Same As The Old Ice Age

Before the global warming catastrophists held sway in our politics and in the media, we were warned that another ice age was in our near future. But that prediction was overwhelmed by fearmongers who have been telling us for decades that we’re burning our world with greenhouse gas emissions. Now we’re hearing again that the big freeze is coming. What do we do with this new information?

Best just to ignore it, since predicting the future climate based on human activity is a narcissistic folly.

In 1970, University of California, Davis ecologist Kenneth Watt pulled the alarm handle. Our planet, he said, “has been chilling sharply for about 20 years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but 11 degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”

Didn’t happen. Instead, climate activists have been promising an overheated future. In a 1988 Senate hearing, James Hansen claimed “the greenhouse effect is here.” We have since been inundated by predictions that man’s combustion of fossil fuels was not just going to roast Earth, it would cause more frequent and more damaging storms, calamitous droughts, overflowing rains, the wildest of wildfires and life-threatening sea level rises, to name a few of the end-is-near predictions.

The existential threat is always just around the bend where we can’t see it but we just know it’s there. Convincing you of that, is what the green left has always done to accrete power, wealth and influence to itself.

And yet, despite this, humanity has plugged on. But now a new threat has emerged. Carbon dioxide might be a factor in turning “warming events into ice ages,” thus saith a report recently published in Science.

Or maybe it’s not. It’s too soon to tell. And it’s likely that it will always be too soon to tell, since contrary to the left-leaning media’s take, most climate warming science is hotly debated and therefore not at all certain.

In any event, let’s not confuse this report with one that, according to the New York Post, also floats the idea that a new ice age is coming, in this case because “the Gulf Stream is near collapse.”

Reminder: This is just a couple of weeks after influential arch-global warmist and multi-billionaire Bill Gates announced a change of heart about climate change, saying that climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”

Whatever the supposed state of the climate is, no matter what dangerous trends have allegedly been identified, we suggest that everyone should take the new information and do … nothing. Because that’s roughly what it’s worth.