Political violence has long been a pathology of the radical left, and it remains so. Though Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-4) has occupied a political space traditionally identified with the right, he and a growing number of aggrieved dissidents have traveled the political circumference and arrived, as Rush Limbaugh once observed of ideological extremes, at the interstices of the totalitarian left. This is the New Left — a tumorous and metastatic pathology bulging from the right wing of the body politic.
Massie’s congressional voting record makes the new distinction important. He was no conventional progressive. He built his reputation as an idiosyncratic libertarian — a fiscal rube, opposing necessary and strategic spending, foreign intervention, and concentrations of federal power anywhere except in spheres susceptible to his influence. In 2025, he voted against President Trump’s signature tax-and-spending legislation and a full-year continuing appropriations measure, arguing they were insufficiently fiscally conservative. He opposed Trump on Iran and partnered with Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) to amplify the Epstein Files canard. Those positions eventually contributed to his complete annihilation in Kentucky’s 2026 Republican primary by Trump-backed Ed Gallrein.
Not to mention his dalliances earning him the nickname “Pinecone.”
My argument isn't that Massie suddenly began voting like Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). The New Left I am describing is defined less by marginal tax rates than by something far more dangerous: the politics of delegitimization, demoralization, and accelerationism.
Massie increasingly called Trump’s government the “Epstein administration,” even accusing Trump of remaining part of an “Epstein class.” Words acquire significance through repetition and context. “Epstein administration” doesn't merely criticize a disclosure policy. It delegitimizes an elected government by associating the entire administration with one of the most reviled sexual predators in modern American history.
Then consider the UFC Freedom 250 plot.
Eight men have now been federally indicted in an alleged conspiracy involving explosive drones and sniper teams intended to murder President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, other federal officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Elon Musk, and others. Prosecutors allege the conspirators discussed assassinations, accumulated weapons and tactical equipment, trained, assigned operational roles, and planned escape routes.
Investigative records also describe grievances involving the Epstein files and deeply held convictions that Trump and his administration are actively covering up for crimes committed by Epstein and other powerful individuals. This is precisely the messaging relentlessly trumpeted by Pinecone Massie and his goons. Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old from Ohio, allegedly told investigators that members believed the United States needed to be “torn down” so it could be rebuilt and that the attack could help produce a revolution. Precisely the aim of accelerationism.
If it all needs to be torn down, the ballot box becomes useless while the violence of the destructive brute becomes a virtue.
We should pay attention to the radicalizing ecosystem in which phrases and ideas migrate from political commentary flavored with sedition into communities increasingly convinced that American government itself is illegitimate.
That brings us to stochastic terrorism.
Stochastic terrorism describes public rhetoric — typically repeated, inflammatory, and directed against a person, identifiable group, or institution — that increases the probability that an unpredictable individual will commit violence, even though the speaker does not explicitly order, coordinate, or necessarily intend that violence.
The phrase I find particularly ominous is: “We can’t vote our way out of this.” Follow that proposition to its logical conclusion. If elections cannot fix the country, if Trump is merely another front for an “Epstein administration,” if law enforcement is hopelessly corrupt, if constitutional institutions have betrayed us, and if voting itself is futile — what exactly remains? This isn’t just advocacy for a third party; it’s encoded rhetoric designed to incite political violence.
That question becomes particularly relevant after the FBI arrested Jessica Bowie in Albany. Federal authorities allege Bowie was plotting an ISIS-inspired bombing of the New York State Capitol. Before her reported contact with an FBI source, prosecutors say Bowie was already expressing support for terrorism online. She allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, selected targets, repeatedly surveilled the Capitol, sought weapons, and wanted to kill lawmakers and responding police.
Yet when the FBI controlled the operation, substituted an inert explosive for a real bomb, and arrested her before anyone died, the predictable chorus began: “the FBI orchestrated the charge.”
In other words, “entrapment.” Government involvement in a sting does not establish entrapment where the defendant was predisposed to commit the crime. If the government proves Bowie possessed the requisite criminal intent before FBI intervention, providing an inert bomb doesn't magically transform her into a victim.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to pull a trigger, plant a bomb, or activate an explosive. Had Bowie instead found a genuine terrorist facilitator and obtained a functional weapon, many of the FBI’s loudest critics would undoubtedly have demanded to know why the Bureau failed to stop her.
This is occurring while Kash Patel’s FBI is producing remarkable results. In 2025, the Bureau made approximately 34,000 violent-crime arrests — 112 percent more than the previous year — and disrupted approximately 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises. Operation Summer Heat produced 8,629 arrests. In Memphis, FBI personnel assigned to the Safe Streets Task Force actually helped solve cold-case homicides.
How does the FBI directly impact violent crime numbers? Task forces.
The FBI isn't replacing local police. It is multiplying their capabilities while simultaneously preserving the counterterrorism infrastructure built after September 11. That is precisely why the campaign to persuade MAGA that nothing is happening is so pernicious.
Listen for the vocabulary: “Nothing is happening.” “The Left won.” “We can't vote our way out of this.” “There won't be a next time.”
The cumulative message is hopelessness. Its logical destination is the destruction of confidence in constitutional remedies. Once someone believes voting is meaningless, institutions are illegitimate, and peaceful reform is impossible, the moral barrier to extra-constitutional action becomes easier to cross.
The old Left once told Americans the system was irredeemably corrupt and revolutionary action was necessary.
The New Left delivers the same message while under a false flag.