Glenn Beck reacts to Perez Hilton's TikTok ‘horror show’ — and warns of the bigger threat underneath



In March 2026, after a near-death hospital stay with sepsis, celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton publicly proclaimed that a lucid encounter with God inspired him to reconnect with the Catholic faith of his upbringing. He celebrated his new faith and declared his intention to live a holier life and begin taking his children to church.

Tragically, on Tuesday, August 4 — less than five months after his public conversion — Hilton was hospitalized after a TikTok livestream captured him appearing naked and covered in what looked like blood while holding a knife and engaging in self-harm.

Glenn Beck calls it an “absolute horror show.”

“He's cutting himself, and it looks demonic. It really does. He's covered in blood, and thousands of people watched it happen,” he says, confirming that the livestream was “not AI” and that Hilton is currently recovering in the hospital from “all kinds of lacerations.”

Before this horrific incident, Hilton, Glenn points out, appeared to be doing well and continuing down the path of his newfound Christianity based on his public activity, which highlighted his Bible readings, church attendance, prayer life, and sometimes the difficult work of his faith.

“Then Tuesday night comes,” says Glenn bleakly.

Naturally, everyone wants to know how this heartbreaking incident happened.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn offers a deeper and more sobering take on what happened to Perez Hilton — and where the biggest tragedy lies.

Glenn acknowledges the possibility that Hilton’s chaotic circumstances — near-death experience, a very public and raw Christian conversion, a stressful move to Miami, and 3 young children to care for — could have caused him to experience a psychiatric break.

“We could leave that this is medical, okay? And it very well might be,” he says.

But there’s also the possibility, Glenn argues, that Hilton is experiencing the gruesome realities of spiritual warfare.

He notes how he has warned his own friends about sharing God and the gospel on their large platforms.

“You will come under attack in ways you cannot understand,” he says, highlighting his own experience with spiritual warfare.

Glenn urges his audience not to waste their time trying to figure out the exact cause of Hilton’s tragic breakdown.

“I don't know if … something [demonic] had taken hold of him or not. Maybe it was just sickness that had taken hold of him. I have no idea. Neither do you,” he says.

The far bigger concern, Glenn argues, is the thousands-strong audience that sat glued to their phones as Hilton self-harmed — some pleading with him to stop, while others recorded or shared the livestream.

“We're a civilization that is rebuilding the Colosseum, and we put it into every pocket of our children's clothes. We keep it open for 24 hours, and we call the roar ‘engagement,”’ he warns.

“I think the temptation is to look at a suffering man and see a demon and look at a sick man and see a sinner,” he continues, but the “devil doesn't need to possess anybody to win Tuesday night; he just needs 15 minutes and a crowd that just can't look away.”

Glenn pleads with his audience to avoid watching or sharing the video of Hilton and instead pray for him and his family.

“You can't shut down the amphitheater, but you can decline to be part of the roar — and that's the only vote that any of us get,” he says.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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When a nation rejects God, it gets Islam: Steve Deace reacts to Michigan’s primary earthquake



On August 4, Abdul El-Sayed, the radical progressive Muslim activist who has called for abolishing ICE, universal health care, codifying unrestricted access to abortion, and other far-left initiatives, narrowly beat Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.

His victory bodes ill not just for the state of Michigan but for the United States as a whole, says BlazeTV host Steve Deace, because it exposes a chilling reality about America and the direction the nation is headed.

On this episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” the former Michigan resident pulls back the curtain on what’s really fueling America’s downward spiral into radicalization, mental illness, and racial idolatry.

“Gretchen Whitmer is probably the most successful Democrat politician the state of Michigan has had in a generation. … A decade as governor, queen bee of the state,” says Deace, “and she just got rolled by an Islamist in a Senate primary who won despite her endorsement of his opponent.”

What does this say about the direction of the nation?

According to Deace, we’re witnessing an “Islam surge” in the United States because the people have forgotten or rejected America’s intentional design to function like biblical Israel under the Sinai covenant — where the people obey God and receive His protecting and blessing, and as a result, the nation shines as a “city on a hill” that attracts outsiders to the true God.

“We want to be, in a civic sense, a covenantal people of the one true God. We want His favor, which means that we need to be a nation of His instruments, and you've seen God bless that,” says Deace. “Otherwise, we wouldn't have lasted as long as we have.”

But as it was with ancient Israel, when the people stray, God’s discipline follows.

“One of the marks of a covenantal people receiving the discipline of the God you have covenanted with that you also see in the Old Testament is you're overrun with foreigners and foreign gods,” Deace points out.

He asks if America’s current predicament — being overrun with illegal immigrants and the rising influence of Islam — could be God’s judgment on a nation that has rebelled against the covenantal design its founders sought to emulate.

“The answer, of course, would be yes,” says Deace frankly.

“We disobey God to a point collectively that He then removes His restraining hand. This is Romans 1,” he adds.

Whether America “lost [its] zeal” for “the one true God” or deliberately embraced “foreigners and their ways,” the “outcome is the same,” says Deace: God gives us over to our sinful ways, allowing us to reap the consequences of our decisions.

That’s why Islam is growing in power and influence in the United States, he argues.

New York City’s socialist Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani “is not an outlier but a herald,” Deace warns.

“After 9/11, we imported almost 4 million people from Islam-dominated countries,” and then we embarked on “a rebranding campaign that [Islam] is not a violent religion but one of peace,” he recounts.

“These seeds,” he says, “were planted many years ago” and are now being “[fertilized]” with “pagan indoctrination,” creating a spiritual "vacuum.”

“And nature abhors a vacuum, and the fake foreign demon gods will fill it for you. And if you won't let them, you're a racist, of course,” Deace observes.

“Normie voters,” he says, mistakenly believe that America’s biggest problems right now are “mental illness,” “racial idolatry," and “radicalization.” But those are merely “symptoms” of a far deeper and more terrifying root problem.

“The disease is you're up against a rival religion,” Deace warns.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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Every long arrest video exposes the same failure



What do Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and a viral body-camera video from the University of Central Florida have in common? More than most people might think.

Last weekend, I attended an instructor-certification program at Gracie University in Torrance, California. It was my third time completing the training since I began studying Gracie Jiu-Jitsu six years ago. Rener and Ryron Gracie have developed a remarkable system that adapts essential techniques for real-world confrontations while prioritizing everyone’s safety.

The objective of every arrest should be simple: The officer goes home safely, the suspect enters custody alive and without unnecessary injury, and bystanders remain safe.

They also helped develop SafeWrap, a restraint system created after medical professionals asked for a safer way to control violent patients. Hospitals sometimes needed five or six nurses to restrain one belligerent person, exposing staff and patients to serious injury.

That problem came to mind while I watched the UCF video. The encounter has become another argument about pronouns, mental health, and whether the officer used the right words. Those questions may deserve discussion. But the video also reveals a more practical failure: It took officers far too long to place one resisting person in handcuffs.

The officer began with verbal commands. When those failed, he warned that he would use pepper spray. Backup arrived. The student continued resisting. Officers threatened a Taser and eventually deployed it, yet the struggle continued before they finally secured the handcuffs.

Whatever one thinks about the politics surrounding the incident, a prolonged physical struggle endangers everyone involved.

Every additional second increases the chance of serious injury. Officers suffer damaged shoulders, backs, and hands. Suspects can strike their heads, break bones, or experience medical emergencies. Bystanders can become involved. A routine arrest can turn into a tragedy when officers lack a reliable method for establishing control without escalating through increasingly severe force.

This is where Gracie training deserves serious attention.

I am a professor, not a police officer or medical professional. But I have trained in Gracie Combatives and SafeWrap, and the underlying principle is straightforward: Use position, leverage, and technique to control a dangerous person quickly while minimizing injury.

RELATED: ‘Just say the right pronoun!’ How one cop-cam video exemplifies the absurdity of 'hands-off' policing

kali9/iStock/Getty Images

Police departments should study Gracie Survival Tactics. The program adapts the same philosophy behind SafeWrap for law enforcement, teaching officers to establish positional control, restrain resisting subjects, and transition safely to handcuffing.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu teaches a smaller or weaker person to overcome a larger opponent through skill rather than brute force. Applied properly, those techniques help officers manage dangerous encounters involving suspects, bystanders, and fellow officers.

The goal is not to win a fight. It is to end the fight safely and move the suspect into the justice system.

Good control tactics can reduce the need for repeated strikes, prolonged wrestling, and repeated use of intermediate weapons. They also make officers less likely to escalate out of fear or frustration because they have techniques that work under pressure.

Pain compliance often fails when a person is intoxicated, mentally ill, or in extreme emotional distress. Pepper spray does not affect everyone equally. Tasers do not always produce immediate compliance. The UCF student was tased and still resisted.

RELATED: ‘Back the blue’ cannot mean blind obedience

gorodenkoff/iStock/Getty Images

When those tools fail, officers need a dependable way to control the person. Simply forcing a suspect prone and placing a knee on the back is neither reliable nor always medically safe. A subject can still posture onto his hands and knees, and prolonged pressure can create additional risks.

Safe restraint training offers a better option. Departments around the country have trained with Rener Gracie, and law enforcement professionals have provided favorable testimonials. The Los Angeles Police Department has also discussed the program’s effectiveness here.

America spends enormous sums on police technology while devoting comparatively little time to ensuring that every officer has competent grappling and restraint skills. We would never expect firefighters to rely on better hoses while neglecting rescue training. Policing deserves the same practical standard.

The objective of every arrest should be simple: The officer goes home safely, the suspect enters custody alive and without unnecessary injury, and bystanders remain safe.

Viral arrest videos will always invite political arguments. But anyone who wants fewer injuries, lawsuits, and controversial uses of force should support one practical reform: Train officers to control resisting suspects safely, efficiently, and humanely before the encounter spirals into something worse.

I train at Gracie Glendale in Phoenix and value every trip to Gracie University in Torrance. Medical and law enforcement professionals should consider SafeWrap and Gracie Survival Tactics. Citizens who want policing to be both effective and humane should ask their local departments whether officers receive this kind of training.

'Vile' leftist podcaster is right: Liberal white women terrify the right, and for good reason



When liberal podcaster Jennifer Welch mocked Republicans for being afraid of liberal white women, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales couldn’t help but point out that she’s right — guilty as charged.

“I finally agree with something that Jennifer Welch said,” Gonzales admits on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” though she notes Welch is “one of the most vile people” she’s ever witnessed speak in her life.

Welch was on a “very short-lived Bravo series” called "Sweet Home Oklahoma" before starting her podcast “I’ve Had It.”

“She spews all of her crazy leftist talking points on her podcast. ... However, there was something that she said in a much longer rant, but there was a piece of it that I actually agreed with,” Gonzales says, before playing the clip of Welch.


“The Republican Party has perfectly exploited this personality and moral weakness in this sect of people. And that’s why these people live in fear 24/7, 365. They’re scared of the liberal white woman," Welch said.

“Think about what a bunch of p***ies these grown ass men are that they would be scared,” she continued.

“And they will say it. 'The white liberal woman is ruining America.' I’m just like, go put your pacifier in your mouth you titty baby,” she added.

“I mean, listen, she’s disgusting. She’s crass. But she is right. Like I too am terrified of liberal white women. I actually am. I am scared of liberal white women. I would just say that it’s for good reason,” Gonzales comments.

"Let’s start with the fact that you guys are the ones trying to, I don’t know, like groom children at schools, teach our kindergarteners about sex and sexual positions and, you know, masturbation. That’s you. It’s always you guys,” she says.

“You guys are the ones who are on multiple SSRIs, and you have SSRI eyes all the time because you’re mentally unstable. You guys are the ones who are constantly promoting violence,” she adds.

Gonzales notes that you don’t need to take her word for it; liberal white women are statistically “more mentally ill than conservative women.”

“The science says, according to Pew Research, in 2020, has a doctor or health care provider ever told you that you have a mental health condition?” Gonzales begins, explaining that Pew Research “didn’t even have a graph big enough for liberal white women.”

“It just goes off the charts. Like they almost needed to change their scale,” she says.

However, the poll “gets even worse” when it comes to young liberal white women.

“When asked, ‘Has a doctor or health care provider ever told you you have a mental health condition?’ More than half say yes in the 18- to 29-year-old age range,” Gonzales says.

“That’s scary guys,” she says, adding, “Are you understanding why we’re scared of you yet?”

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Disfigured Texas Woman Allowed To Sue Therapist For Transgender Medicine Fraud

Patients harmed by the atrocities of transgender 'medicine' may not experience the full effect for years, especially those coerced into treatment as minors.

Mental illness has become a political identity — and SURPRISE, it's on the left: Study



There have been numerous studies in recent years highlighting correlations between political affiliation and mental health.

A 2021 study published in the journal SSM-Mental Health, for instance, concluded — on the basis of an analysis of depressive attitudes among conservative and liberal 12th graders from 2005 to 2018 — that "conservatives reported lower average depressive affect, self-derogation, and loneliness scores and higher self-esteem scores than all other groups."

'These findings have far-reaching consequences.'

A 2023 study conducted by Gallup on behalf of the Institute for Family Studies found that adolescents with "very conservative parents are 16 to 17 percentage points more likely to be in good or excellent mental health compared to their peers with very liberal parents."

A 2025 study published in the journal PLOS One found that "even after accounting for a variety of other factors, there is a clear propensity of conservatives to provide more positive assessments of their mental health in comparison to liberals" — although the researchers ultimately attempted to credit this tendency to stigma or survey terminology.

The American left's mental health issues show no signs of clearing up. In fact, while conservatives continue to enjoy relatively superior mental health, the sickness on the other side appears to be attracting sufferers into a political identity all its own.

In a study strongly recommending "replication and further exploration" that was recently published in the journal Political Behavior, Lauren Van De Hey of Utah State University found that "mental health identity has begun to function as a political identity for some individuals," particularly among "younger (Gen Z) and more liberal Americans."

RELATED: Actress Elliot Page mocked ruthlessly after trying to define 'healthy masculinity'

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Utilizing data from the national Cooperative Election Study administered by YouGov in 2022, the Utah researcher determined that a great many people now "categorize themselves as having had a mental illness, the vast majority of whom view mental illness identity and mental illness alienation as important to their sense of self."

"People who have experienced mental illness feel close to others who have experienced mental illness," wrote Van De Hey. "They are also likely to self-categorize as having or having had a mental illness, share a sense of group consciousness with others who have or had mental illness, and recognize the need to work together to change laws that are unfair to people with mental illness."

This obviously has political implications, explained the researcher, as it correlates with "support for increased state spending on health care, education, and welfare."

The study cited Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) as an example of a political elite for whom mental health appears to have become a "politicized identity."

Smith has on numerous occasions discussed her past experiences with depression, grouped herself with sufferers, and identified "mental health parity" as a legislative priority.

"Those more likely to categorize as having a mental illness are more likely to have a college degree; be a Democrat, liberal, and white; and have slightly lower family income," said the study. "For both the [Mental Illness] Identity and [Mental Illness] Alienation scales, the only consequential variable is ideology: Those with higher MI identification or MI Alienation are more likely to be liberal."

Van De Hey concluded, "These findings have far-reaching consequences for mental health advocacy and the role mental health identity will play in the political sphere — especially as Gen Z matures as a cohort."

Dealing with a sample of 860 respondents, Van De Hey found that 26% categorized themselves as having had a mental illness in their lifetime, 22% categorized themselves as having had a physical disability, and 168 categorized themselves as having had a serious chronic physical illness.

Of the 220 respondents who said they had mental illness in their lifetime, 70% identified as "liberal" or "very liberal," 24% identified as "moderate," and 32% identified as "conservative" or "very conservative."

Of the same 220 respondents, about half stated that their identity as a person with a mental health illness was "important" or "very important to them."

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Actress Elliot Page mocked ruthlessly after trying to define 'healthy masculinity'



A decade after starring in "Inception," lesbian actress Ellen Page committed to her most challenging role yet: living her real life as an effeminate, short-haired transvestite named "Elliot Page."

Page had her healthy beasts surgically removed, then announced in a Dec. 1, 2020, social media post, "I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot."

'Sure sounds a lot like femininity.'

Having now played the role of Elliot for over five years, the biological female — who divorced her "wife" and leaned into her LGBT activism following the "transition" — now apparently feels sufficiently qualified to define what constitutes "healthy masculinity."

As part of a broader media tour for her new LGBT propaganda film, "Second Nature," Page recently sat down with the eponymous host of "It's Open with Illana Glazer" for a heart-to-heart.

After claiming that the "gender binary ... just doesn't exist" and alluding to testosterone's transformative impact on her baseline aggression, Page stated that healthy masculinity is "leaning away from whenever there is some sort of impulse or expectation you've put on yourself to, like, shut down or conform in a way that usually feels like this — like I am closing off."

Page cited the reluctance among some men to smile in photos as typical of such emotional closure.

"To me, healthy masculinity would be, well, you know what — healthiness for anyone to just, you know, love themselves; be able to care for themselves; ideally get rest when they can, you know, like, just the practical basic — drink water, like, eat a banana. You know?" said Page.

RELATED: 'Why don't men go to therapy?' It all comes down to one very good reason

The actress formerly known as Ellen Page, 2017. Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Page, 39, added in her rambling definition that healthy masculinity is "also just, you know, doing what you can to be intentionally and mindfully not letting yourself get, like, swayed or twisted by the rules that I feel like end up, like, leading to so many of the problems that we see that are, you know, do get inflicted by toxic masculinity, violence and abuse, just general cruelty."

The actress, whose memoir details her history of depression and self-mutilation, padded her tortured definition by adding, "Healthy masculinity could just mean a really good cry."

Critics relentlessly have mocked Page's definition, which went viral on social media over the weekend.

Chris Elston, the anti-gender-ideology activist better known as Billboard Chris, quipped, "This is the most female conversation ever."

Not the Bee, the non-satirical news companion to the Babylon Bee, wrote, "Wow, the healthy masculinity she’s talking about sure sounds a lot like femininity."

"It’s so interesting that she embodies every female stereotype while trying to do her best impression of a man," tweeted author and homeschooling advocate Rachel Wilson.

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GOP-Run Indiana City Considers Democrat-Run, California-Style Homeless Center

Hundreds of billions spent nationwide on homeless services have only resulted in more homelessness. Councilman Russ Jehl says Fort Wayne should try a third option besides doing nothing or enabling addicts.

Why leftism as a mental illness is a ‘comforting fiction’



As the divide between the right and the left continues to deepen, BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre explains that Americans are writing off what they don’t understand about each other as a “form of mental illness.”

“This is understandable when it comes to horrific crime. Someone like a serial killer is so violent and twisted that it's hard for us to comprehend their actions, and there is certainly a fair amount of mental illness that plays a factor,” MacIntyre says. “But today people often use this explanation when it comes to political disagreements.”

“Abortion, hatred for Christians and white people, the mutilation of children to turn boys into girls — these beliefs are so horrible that they can only possibly be explained by a malfunctioning brain,” he continues. “Of course, that's not the only explanation.”


“The other option is that some people have a very different set of values that drive them to pursue goals that we view as evil. The average American would like to avoid this truth, because it comes with an unnerving conclusion: Your political enemies aren't crazy; they are sane people who hate you and want to hurt you,” he adds.

MacIntyre explains that believing that a radical leftist who wants to mutilate children is mentally ill “is far easier than addressing the alternative.”

“The idea that half of America is crazy because they don’t share your political views is obviously absurd," he says. "The truth is much darker. We’re at least two societies, with mutually exclusive understandings of morality and purpose, trapped in one country.”

“The theoretical neutrality of the liberal system allowed this drift to occur under the surface, but the differences have become too extreme to ignore. Both sides have their own internally consistent understanding of the world, but they’re entirely incompatible with each other,” he explains.

“One side is going to win and one side is going to lose, and the winning side is going to impose its way of life on the other. There is no way to avoid this reality,” he continues. “And obscuring the truth with comforting fictions about mental illness only ensures that you’ll be on the side that loses.”

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Your enemies aren't mentally ill. They apparently just want to kill you.



In our modern world, it is very common to conflate motives we do not understand with some form of mental illness. This is understandable when it comes to horrific crime. A serial killer is so violent and twisted that it is hard for us to comprehend his actions, and there is certainly a fair amount of mental illness that is a factor.

Today, however, people often use this explanation when it comes to political disagreements. Abortion, hatred of Christians, the mutilation of children — these beliefs are so horrible that they can only possibly be explained by a malfunctioning brain. But that is not the only explanation. The other option is that some people have a very different set of values that drive them to pursue goals we view as evil.

Our differences are not based on mental illness but fundamental beliefs about right and wrong.

The average American would like to avoid this truth, because it comes with an unnerving conclusion: Your political enemies are not crazy; they are sane people who hate you and want to hurt you.

As sophisticated and modern people, we tend to avoid language that implies some form of objective metaphysical truth. Evil is a concept that conjures up images of old churches, judgmental Sunday-school teachers, and medieval peasants trying to explain a drought.

We have the technology and understanding to explain everything in the world around us. Explanations that call on unseen forces or divine intervention are no longer required. In this thoroughly materialistic view, humans are simply animals with more sophisticated brains. Any undesirable behavior, therefore, can be understood as a malfunction of that brain.

There is no evil; there is only mental illness.

Modern Americans are universalists in a very strange sense. We assume that our values, beliefs, and customs are the default for all humans everywhere. Americans believe that all our assumptions about the way life ought to be lived are arrived at through individual human rationality, so if another person has a functioning brain, he will, of course, come to the same conclusion.

When we are confronted with someone who has very different understandings or goals, it is assumed that something has happened to his faculties of reason.

We try to argue with these people in hopes that rational debate will help them see the error of their ways. If debate does not work, we begin diagnosing the dissenting individual with all kinds of pathologies that explain why he doesn't see the world the way we do. The explanation for divergent morals or goals is always a defective mental process, never a genuine difference in how we view the world.

The obsession with material explanations accounts for half of this phenomenon, but the other half is explained by our desperate need to avoid real conflict.

One of the major selling points of liberalism was the reduced need for violent conflict by removing existential questions from the political arena. Who is right about God? What is the ultimate good? To what end should we orient our society? These are all important but dangerous questions. The answers are exclusive and all-encompassing.

These are the things that people are willing to kill and die for, so better to make them off-limits and focus on something everyone can agree on — making more money and increasing the standard of living.

RELATED: The liberal guide to committing national suicide

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The desire to end the terrible wars that were fought over religion or identity is entirely understandable, and it is difficult to argue that the focus on economic cooperation did not produce significant benefits, but this was always a trade-off that could never last.

We may like to pretend that we are too advanced and sophisticated to get hung up on these primitive concerns, but under the surface, they continue to define us. Those conflicts do not disappear, and when they re-emerge, you have stripped your civilization of the tools needed to identify and address them, which is exactly what we are seeing now.

Americans no longer have the moral language to discuss good and evil, so they simply apply a clinical diagnosis to their opponents instead. Believing a radical leftist is mentally ill is far easier than addressing the alternative. If the progressive is a perfectly sane person and still wants to take your son if you do not chop off his genitals, then the calculus for what must be done changes radically.

Differences of opinion can be navigated as long as two parties share the same moral assumptions and the same goals. But if there is a fundamental difference in what is considered good or evil — if two groups seek radically opposed outcomes — then no amount of rational debate will ever resolve the core issue.

If our differences are not based on mental illness but fundamental beliefs about right and wrong, then a disturbing conclusion emerges. When rational debate is no longer an option, then the only solution left is the same one our unsophisticated ancestors came to for centuries — one group must win and the other must lose.

In the best scenario, this means an exercise of power from the winning side that allows it to rule over the other, forcing its way of life upon the defeated foe. In the worst scenario, this means violence and war until one side is no longer willing to fight to defend its way of life.

In either case, this is a return to an existential understanding of politics. The stakes are no longer higher taxes or lower taxes, but survival.

It should be said that mental illness is real and can be a factor in some political trends, but the idea that half of Americans are crazy because they do not share your political views is absurd. The truth is much darker: We are at least two societies, with mutually exclusive understandings of morality and purpose, trapped in one country.

The theoretical neutrality of the liberal system allowed this drift to occur under the surface, but the differences have become too extreme to ignore. Both sides have their own internally consistent understanding of the world, but they are entirely incompatible with each other.

One side is going to win, one side is going to lose, and the winning side is going to impose its way of life on the other. There is no way to avoid this reality, and obscuring the truth with comforting fictions about mental illness only ensures that you will be the side that loses.