Two years ago, a 20-year-old student at the University of Chicago named Max Lewis boarded a subway car on the citys Green Line. Lewis had just finished another day interning at an investment bank in downtown Chicago, and he was on his way back to his apartment. Then, without warning, a stray bullet tore through the subway cars window and hit Lewis in the neck. Doctors quickly determined that Max Lewis had been paralyzed from the neck down. Hed never be able to eat or walk again. Hed need a ventilator, forever. But Lewis could communicate with his eyes. By blinking, and using a letter board, he sent this message to his family: If I have to live like this, pull the plug. Please, seriously. Doctors took Max Lewis off of life support, and he died in the hospital shortly afterwards.

Its a horrifying story. But its not particularly unusual in Chicago. The same weekend that Max Lewis was shot in the neck, at least 100 other residents of Chicago were hit by gunfire, and 18 died. A few days later, Chicagos mayor at the time, Lori Lightfoot, gave an extended interview with CNN in Chicagos West Garfield Park neighborhood. She was surrounded by bodyguards for the whole thing. Lori Lightfoot did not offer any sympathy to the family of Max Lewis, nor did she propose any solution to the citys rampant crime problem. Instead, in the interview, Lori Lightfoot made it clear who the real victim was in Chicago. It was Lori Lightfoot. Im a Black woman and Im a member of the LGBTQ community, she said. Its not okay that systemic racism, homophobia, and sexism still exist but Im going to play the cards that Im dealt.

This pattern repeated in Chicago, over and over again, for years, until finally the residents of Chicago had enough of Lori Lightfoots malevolence and incompetence. Earlier this year, Lightfoot became the first mayor of Chicago to lose re-election in 40 years. Lori Lightfoots replacement was a former social studies teacher named Brandon Johnson. Like every other mayor elected in Chicago since 1927, Brandon Johnson is a Democrat. During the campaign, Johnson did not propose any serious solutions to the rampant crime in Chicago. Instead, he ran on a platform of anti-white racism and defunding the police department.

Brandon Johnson took office just over two months ago. One of the first major tests of his new administration came on Sunday night, when a mob began looting stores, fighting in public, and destroying property in the South Loop. This is considered one of the nicer areas of the city, for what thats worth. The bar is pretty low, admittedly. Heres what it looked like this weekend:Chicagos latest teen takeover
pic.twitter.com/YBK8t2gwZe

Jack Elbaum (@Jack_Elbaum) August 3, 2023

Notice the media calls this a teen takeover, which is maybe the most innocuous possible term they could use. It sounds like a birthday party at the local swimming pool. In reality, as anyone can see, it was rioting. And by the way, not all of the criminals were teens. Many of them were, but certainly not all of them. At least one journalist didnt want to whitewash this complete breakdown of public safety in one of Americas major cities. The reporter asked Brandon Johnson what he was going to do about the mob violence in the South Loop. Brandon Johnson responded by attacking the reporters choice of language. Watch:

Its the Lori Lightfoot approach. Dont blame the criminals. Blame the people who notice the criminals. Theyre the problem, because they use the wrong language. We see this a lot now on the left. Its one of the hallmarks of leftism, in fact: This preoccupation with language is everywhere. And every time they fixate on language, its always to obfuscate the issue.Theyre not trying to be precise. In fact, its the opposite of being precise. Theyre trying to confuse as many people as possible.

According to Johnson, the preferred term for what you just saw in Chicago is not mob violence or riot, but instead, large gathering. Yes, a large gathering you know, like a concert or a Chick-fil-A drive thru. Is there a single person alive who thinks thats the most accurate, useful terminology in this situation? Large gathering implies that nothing criminal occurred at all. A Thanksgiving dinner with 20 people could be described as a large gathering.

But Johnson insists thats the appropriate way to talk about what happened. Then he says, with no hint of irony whatsoever, quote, This is not to obfuscate what has actually taken place. But of course thats the entire point of what hes doing. Thats why people like Brandon Johnson claim theyre redirecting funds from the police, instead of defunding them. Its why they use terms like gender-affirming care instead of talking about double mastectomies and sterilizing hormones. Thats why they call the victims of abortion Fetuses instead of babies. The objective of Johnsons movement, at every turn, is to obfuscate whats actually taking place which is the destruction of the foundational elements of western civilization. That includes the nuclear family, and it includes law and order.WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show

Whats actually taking place, although youre not supposed to talk about it, is that major cities in this country are careening so quickly towards total disorder that well probably be seeing Koreans on the rooftops soon. These are not isolated incidents that were talking about. This is a pattern. Heres what Chicago looked like back in April, just a few months ago:?#BREAKING: Chaotic Scene Unfolds in Downtown Chicago as Teenagers Vandalize Cars and Gunfire Erupts

?#Chicago | #Illinois ?
There is currently a significant police response taking place in downtown Chicago due to a large group of teenagers causing chaos. They have been pic.twitter.com/n7xhBpsTKs

R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 16, 2023

Another large gathering for you. Thats all it is, remember. A large gathering, like a church picnic. Now, Brandon Johnson, who was the mayor-elect at the time, responded to this violence with a written statement, saying it was not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities. Of course he gets this exactly backwards. The job opportunities are leaving these communities because these people are making the communities unlivable. They arent starved of opportunities. They are chasing the opportunities away. Any one of these people could walk into the local convenience store and ask for a job. Instead theyd rather loot the place. Thats their choice.

At any rate, its fair to conclude that this is the prepared talking point of Johnsons administration, in response to mob violence. Every time his city is besieged by rioters, hes going to lecture you for noticing. Hes going to police your language. Back in April, Johnson was asked about his written statement. Heres how he defended it:

Its hard to believe any elected politician would say something like that. Theyre young! They make silly decisions! Like setting cars on fire, robbing stores, and beating people up. You wouldnt understand. Youre not a former middle school teacher like Brandon Johnson.

Its clear that, like so many other Democrats, Johnson is totally unequipped to handle rampant crime in his city. Leftist ideology has at this point left reality, and all of realitys concerns, completely behind. These people arent living in the same universe as normal taxpaying Americans, let alone the same city. They hear about hundreds of shooting victims and they start talking about homophobia. They see a mob of hundreds of people robbing stores and setting cars on fire, and they say its just silly. Its a fun prank. Like putting a whoopee cushion on someones chair. You know, that sort of thing.

Thats not to confine the problem to Johnson, or Lori Lightfoot. This is now the default position of the Democratic Party in response to mob violence everywhere. We see it anywhere Democrats are in charge, in an entrenched position of power. And its leading to predictable results. This was Copton a few months ago:

A sideshow erupts into looting! A huge crowd taking part in a sideshow suddenly got out of control, according to FOX 11. It sounds so innocuous. Who could have anticipated that the side show would erupt into looting! Its as unpredictable as your neighbors backyard barbecue erupting into a mass shooting! What are you going to do?

As it happens, not much. As the anchor said, just one arrest was made. Imagine that. Of course, Chicago and Compton arent the only towns with a George Soros-backed D.A. where these kinds of side shows are common. We could show you similar videos out of Philadelphia and many other cities. In the case of Philly, a recent episode of mob violence was described by local media as a flash mob. What did this flash mob do? Did they perform a coordinated dance routine or something? No, they waved guns around and injured police officers. Just an innocent flash mob, our media reports.

Officials and media outlets can condone riots all they want. They can use whatever euphemisms they choose. At some point, stakeholders people who own shops and homes will fight back. And indeed thats already happening. You may have seen this video from the other day. It shows store owners in California beating a guy with a stick, after he empties out their inventory of cigarettes. Heres what happened as the thief tried to leave:Whoop his ass 7-Eleven workers stop California man who tried to steal trash can full of cigarettes

By Katherine Donlevy
August 2, 2023 9:40pm Updated

Two 7-Eleven workers in California took matters into their own hands and used a stick to wallop a man who tried to steal a pic.twitter.com/DpB3IvFfii

SubX.News (@SubxNews) August 3, 2023

I have to admit: Im a sucker for a heart warming video. If you watch the whole thing youll notice that the narrator of that clip the person recording it starts out on the side of the robber. He tells the store owners that they cant do anything, because theyll get in trouble. Theres nothing you can do, the person says. And its clear why he said that. Weve all seen the reports of store employees being fired or arrested because they tried to stop shoplifters. And in this case, the shoplifter claims he has a gun, so theres even more reason for these store owners to stay back.

But they dont. The store owners stepped up, regardless of whatever personal consequences they might suffer. And then and this is the key moment when the robber is subdued, the narrator celebrates. He takes the side of the store owners.

What does that tell us? It tells us that when strong people take action, everyone else gets the message really quick. All it takes is some bravery, and some decisive action, for everyone else to fall in line. Did you ever notice that the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin stopped after that night Kyle Rittenhouse defended the local businesses, and himself, from the mob? Theres a reason for that. But the leaders of the biggest cities in this country have no interest in defending their communities or taking any decisive action whatsoever. Instead, theyre making excuses.

Lets go back to that Brandon Johnson press conference from a few months ago the one where he defends the mob. I mean, one of the press conferences where he defends the mob. Watch what he says about root causes of violence:

Brandon Johnson wants to eradicate the root causes of violence. What are those root causes? He doesnt really say in that particular press conference, but you can probably guess. The root causes are white supremacy, and the police, and so on.

What Brandon Johnson didnt reflect on is why all this crime and destruction in our cities is so pointless and arbitrary. Why are teenagers gathering to set cars on fire? What exactly are they gaining from that? Why are they gathering by the hundreds, for no apparent reason, to commit acts of violence? Theyre not stealing food. Theyre not doing it for survival. In many cases theyre not even doing it for money. This is destruction for the sake of it.

What Johnson and his party will never say because its true is that were seeing the results of multiple generations of children raised with essentially no moral formation, no parental guidance, and no sense of purpose. They come from fatherless homes. Theyre taught by unionized employees who would rather be on vacation than in the classroom. Theyre given smartphones before they learn their multiplication tables if they ever learn them. And then, when they commit serious crimes, the people in charge blame everyone but them.

When Lori Lightfoot says its racist to criticize her, shes also saying its racist to criticize the delinquents we see in these videos. But its not. People who form mobs to destroy property are behaving like animals. They should go to prison for a long time. And unless we can say that, we will never address the root causes that Johnson claims to care about. Itll only get worse. More people will get beaten with sticks in 7/11s. More college students will get shot on the subway. Eventually, law-abiding citizens wont take it anymore. A critical mass of voters will demand the El Salvador solution: suspend civil liberties, round up the criminals and throw away the key. Thats the way these things always go. The lesson of history on this point is very clear: people can only take so much.