One of the downstream consequences of contemporary American society's sweeping war on men and manliness is that far too many young people have entirely lost basic moral sense and intuition about valor and heroism. As I wrote in a March 2021 column for Newsweek: "[M]anliness itself is increasingly viewed not as a virtue to be nourished and cherished, but as a 'toxic' vestige of a bygone barbarism that must be tamed and ultimately excised. A society that loses its belief in the importance of manliness qua manliness will necessarily fail to appreciate the virtue of a home- and hearth-protecting paterfamilias."

Sadly, we have been seeing this play out in recent weeks. Compare two cases out of New York City: those of Daniel Penny and Luigi Mangione.

Daniel Penny is, rightly understood, a bona fide hero. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who leapt into action on May 1, 2023, when he saw a mentally ill homeless man, Jordan Neely, threatening his fellow subway car passengers and yelling that he didn't care if he was sent back to prison. Penny, a true "sheepdog" in the phraseology of the 2014 blockbuster, American Sniper, leapt into action to protect the "sheep" (the innocent straphangers) from the "wolf" (Neely). Deploying tactics he learned and honed during his USMC training, Penny put Neely in a chokehold. Unfortunately, Neely, who as a deeply disturbed individual never should have been permitted to board the subway to begin with, ultimately died. Penny was finally acquitted, thankfully, but the damage was done. As one USMC infantry officer friend told me, the message now sent by blue-city jurisdictions like New York City is clear: Good Samaritans are not welcome. It will take years, perhaps decades, for us to see the full, harrowing effect of the pro-villain, anti-hero incentive structures that blue metropolises have put in place.

Luigi Mangione is, rightly understood, a bona fide villain. He is a zealot and a deranged fanatic who murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood on the streets of Midtown Manhattan. Thompson was a husband and a father, and he did nothing "wrong" whatsoever other than helm one of the nation's largest private health insurance companies. Once upon a time, rising to the ranks of CEO of a major corporation would have been viewed as laudable. But Mangione had an axe to grind with United and with private health insurance in general, and he took it out on Thompson. The result was that a wife lost a husband, and children lost a father. Incredibly, a number of high-ranking Democrats who advocate for government-provided socialized medicine, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have come dangerously close to justifying or outright excusing the murder. Perhaps even more disturbing, a new poll indicates that 41% (!) of young people think the murder is acceptable.

A society that does not readily intuit that Daniel Penny is a hero and Luigi Mangione is a villain is a morally unserious one. Actually, it's even worse than that—it's a borderline evil one. Something has gone deeply, deeply wrong in this country, and with younger generations of Americans in particular. It is unclear what, if anything, short of a spiritual and religious awakening might shake us out of this self-inflicted descent into a dark moral abyss. This holiday season is a particularly timely occasion to do that which so many Americans have done ever since the beginning of the republic: beseech God Himself.

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Our highlighted recent Newsweek op-eds include selections from Derek McCall, John Spencer, Andrea Justus, Nicholas Creel, and Andrew Yang.

Have a great rest of your week, everyone. This newsletter will be off the next two weeks, but it will return on January 8. In the meantime, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Blessed Chanukah, and a Happy New Year!