Kerby Anderson

Why do the rioters in the street have so much rage? Trying to find rational answers to irrational actions is often a worthless endeavor. But Ned Ryan has found some reasons for “The Misdirected Rage of Young Rioters.” His recent column parallels some of the insights from the book, The Coddling of the American Mind, that I have discussed in previous commentaries.

He notes that many of the rioters come from a “spoiled, enabled, and poorly educated generation or two. We shouldn’t be so surprised when we see them looting, rioting, and tearing down statues.” Some of this, he believes, goes back to the “self-esteem movement of the 1990s, when children were always told they were the best—even if they really weren’t.” They grew up when everyone got “participation trophies.”

Add to this the fact that they spent years at “indoctrination centers of higher learning where they are spoon-fed all the lies about how evil our country is, that this place is rotten to the core, and that it should just be burned to the ground.” But then they graduate from schools with worthless degrees and staggering debt. They can’t find jobs and so they rage against the system. They blame the free-market capitalist system.

Ned Ryan understands their anger but believes it is misplaced. They rage against a version of capitalism implemented by corporations. He says that what we have today is a “crony capitalist system, filled with vulture capitalists who manipulate markets and politics to their advantage.” They want to burn capitalism and the American society down, but they need to focus their targets and pay closer attention.

Their rage unfortunately stems from the miseducation they received in school coupled with their real concerns about crony capitalism that is misdirected at the free market.