The Ruling Class

For decades, the elite stewards of our society—those insulated towers of academia, media, and bureaucracy—have extended an almost paternal leniency toward the eruptions of leftist fury. Riots that scorched cities in the name of "justice" were rebranded as righteous uprisings; assaults on free speech were dismissed as mere passion plays; and waves of ideological vandalism against monuments, institutions, and even the fabric of civil discourse were met with hand-wringing editorials rather than the firm hand of accountability. This isn't mere oversight; it's a calculated asymmetry, a grace afforded to one side's excesses while the other is dissected under a microscope for the slightest infraction. The result? A emboldened vanguard that views restraint as weakness and escalation as virtue.At the heart of this imbalance lies a deeper truth about human nature, one etched into the annals of history from the fall of empires to the street-level skirmishes of our own fractured age: much of the radical left doesn't parley in the currency of dialogue or compromise. They thrive on the grammar of coercion—the boycott, the cancellation, the unyielding demand for submission. Empathy and olive branches are interpreted not as bridges but as invitations to overrun the ramparts. Witness the Bolsheviks, who devoured their own moderates after the Tsar's collapse, or the cultural purges of Mao's China, where intellectual mercy was the prelude to the gulag. Closer to home, consider how the architects of "woke" orthodoxy have weaponized shame and exclusion to silence dissent, only to cry foul when met with equal fervor. Punishment, in their lexicon, isn't cruelty; it's the only lexicon that registers. It enforces the new moral order, weeds out the apostates, and cements loyalty through fear.The hour has come for moderates and the right to shed the illusions of chivalry in this lopsided arena. No longer can we afford the luxury of turning the other cheek while our adversaries sharpen their blades. It's time to master their dialect: the targeted exposé that topples a censorious bureaucrat, the viral counter-narrative that shatters the echo chamber, the unapologetic mobilization of boycotts against corporate enablers of division. Fight fire with fire—not out of vengeance, but necessity. History's great turnarounds, from the American Founders' defiance against imperial overreach to the Velvet Revolution's velvet-gloved steel, remind us that civilizations don't bend toward justice through passive virtue alone. They are forged in the crucible of reciprocal resolve, where the defenders of liberty learn to wield the flames before they consume the house.Let this be the pivot: a coalition of the clear-eyed, from the suburban skeptic to the principled conservative, rising not in rage but in calculated reciprocity. Speak their language fluently, but infuse it with the unyielding spine of tradition and reason. Only then can we reclaim the public square from the arsonists and rebuild it on ground that endures. The alternative—perpetual concession—is not peace; it's surrender.