This One Weird Trick

Maybe doing this one weird trick is worth a try to save entire generations from a future of nihilism.

These are confusing, tumultuous times, brimming with anxiety and uncertainty. At least, it feels that way, doesn’t it?

Yet, most of us reading this find some footing, some anchor that steadies us amid the storm. For me, as a Christian and a conservative, my faith in God and my conservative principles are those anchors. They provide a framework to navigate the chaos. Progressives, though I believe they’re mistaken, have their own anchors - humanism, their agendas, and, whether they acknowledge it or not, strains of Marxism. We are the Yin and Yang of sociopolitical life, natural opposites. Within our respective camps, there’s a degree of predictability, a stability born from the anchors we’ve chosen.

My mind works in peculiar ways, often mulling over seemingly random thoughts for weeks until an event sparks a connection, weaving those threads into a coherent idea. This morning, that spark came while reflecting on the madness of mass shootings targeting children and innocents, and the murders of figures like Charlie Kirk, Iryna Zarutska, Dr. Julie Gard Schnuelle, the veterinarian professor recently stabbed to death, and Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO killed by Luigi Mangione.

These tragedies defy easy explanation, yet humans instinctively try to categorize people and events into neat buckets to make sense of them. The constant clash between the ideological left and right has created a false dichotomy: you’re either one or the other. But what if there’s a third group - people unmoored, without philosophical or theological anchors, drifting like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, believing six impossible things before breakfast?

Consider the perpetrators. It’s tempting to label them as “left” or “right,” but that feels like an oversimplification. Take recent mass shootings by individuals identifying as transgender, or cases like Taylor Robinson and Luigi Mangione. While their actions may align with certain left-leaning objectives, neither seems explicitly ideological in the traditional sense. What unites them, though, is a rebellion - often against family, by proxy. The manifestos and writings of some transgender shooters reveal a deep resentment toward traditional culture and even hostility toward their families. Robinson, for instance, grew up in a Christian, Republican, churchgoing household. Mangione hailed from a prominent Baltimore family, known for owning country clubs, nursing homes, and a radio station. His grandparents were real estate developers who acquired the Turf Valley Country Club in 1978 and Hayfields Country Club in 1986; his cousin is a Republican state lawmaker. These aren’t the profiles of hardened ideologues but of individuals at odds with their roots.

What if our fixation on the left-right divide has blinded us to a deeper issue?

What if an entire generation, caught in the crossfire of this ideological tug-of-war, is left directionless, slipping into a hopeless nihilism? The right is often caricatured as a rigid, heartless, Christo-fascist mob, branded with every evil “ism” imaginable - racism, sexism, you name it. The left, meanwhile, is portrayed as a realm of Godlessness, raw emotion, envy, and costly, ineffective public policies. Neither side offers a welcoming home for those who feel alienated, unmoored, or simply lost. These young people, lacking anchors, may drift into a void where resentment festers, and violence becomes an outlet.

I don’t claim to have all the answers. I’m just trying to wrap my head around the problem, to name it as a first step. Could it be that our polarized battles have created a forgotten middle - a group not defined by ideology but by its absence? A generation adrift, rebelling not just against society but against the very structures, like family or faith, that once provided meaning?

I think we must consider what Charlie Kirk was offering to our youth and why TPUSA is gaining members and influence. To view Kirk as a simply a political animal and his organization as one of only political activism is in error. When one does a deep dive on Kirk and his organization, it is conservative, yes, but conservativism is featured due to its compatibility with Christianity – evangelism was and is TPUSA’s #1 driver. I believe Kirk was conservative because conservativism provided the best path to achieve his overall goal, which was drawing people closer to God though faith, love, and tradition.

I can hear people who disagree with me saying, “There he goes with that God stuff again!”

Well, yeah.

Look, I’m a religious man who is also very skeptical of “organized” religion. I happen to believe there is nothing humans cannot corrupt and that a group of humans cannot find a way to politicize. Humans have done some really bad things in the name of God. I get how people, especially those who hate being told they shouldn’t do something they really want to do, turn from religion – but turning from religion does not have to be turning away from God.

It is hard to argue that long term, loving partnerships through marriage and the stability it brings are bad things. It is hard to say that having children isn’t simultaneously the greatest reward and the most difficult and frightening challenge you will ever face in life. It is hard to dispute that when we let God in our lives, we achieve a peace beyond all understanding, an optimism that we can overcome and persevere.

We have all seen internet advertisements that claim doing “this one weird trick” can achieve miracles.

What if that “one weird trick” is God?

If you are lost, it might be worth trying.