The Fury That Led to Nothing

What ever happened to George Floyd Square? Christopher Rufo recently returned to the origin site of 2020’s “social justice” revolution: the Minneapolis intersection where Floyd died in police custody. Soon after Floyd’s death in May 2020, the intersection became a kind of pilgrimage site for the Left. State and local politicians purchased property and pledged to build grand monuments.

Five years on, those promises have gone unfulfilled: a makeshift monument, an abandoned gas station, and vagrants who had “chosen the spot to light fires, fence stolen goods, and smoke fentanyl.”

“I never supported the George Floyd revolution and knew it would end in disappointment,” writes Rufo. “But to witness that disappointment firsthand still stirred a sense of pity. The political leaders who turned that summer’s events into a multibillion-dollar activist apparatus never built anything that would last.”

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter is used by more than a dozen countries, including by Israel in its war with Hamas. In recent months, pro-Palestinian radicals in America and across the globe have targeted the aircraft’s manufacturers and taken increasingly aggressive actions to disrupt its supply chain. The campaign threatens military capacity in America and its allied nations.

The Manhattan Institute’s Stu Smith reports on the individuals and organizations behind the campaign against the F-35. Some of these activists have spoken openly about their intentions to target all aspects of the aircraft’s production. “Activists have a clear picture of the F-35 supply chain,” he writes, “and are looking for opportunities to disrupt it at every node.”

New York Assemblywoman and Health Committee Chair Amy Paulin has sponsored one of three bills in the state legislature to legalize psilocybin for medical use. Last month, she held a hearing on the medical benefits of the hallucinogen.

It’s true that research shows psilocybin can be beneficial for some, but the psychedelic has also been shown to induce suicidal ideation and trigger psychosis, Carolyn D. Gorman points out. And New York State has already tried to build a system that can support controlled and safe consumption of marijuana—with disastrous results.

“Drug legalization is a slippery slope,” Gorman writes. “New York lawmakers should have the courage to admit that the state needs to roll things back, not continue sliding downhill.”

Read her take.

Some New York politicians argue that fare-free buses will help not just to make the city more affordable, but to deliver better public transit. “But eliminating fares could cost the city $1 billion, depriving it of revenue that could be used to make transit faster,” Adam Lehodey writes.

He spoke with dozens of passengers and found that it isn’t free buses that New Yorkers care about. They just want an efficient, more reliable transportation system.

Read what they told him.

Daniel Di Martino, Tal Fortgang, and Rafael Mangual explore the generational divides in activism and what fuels people to mobilize. They share personal stories of political awakening, reflect on how social issues have shaped their worldviews, and question the coherence and direction of contemporary protest movements. It’s a candid conversation about governance, resistance, and American attitudes toward power.

“The people who believe 13-year-olds are capable of making life-altering decisions about their bodies are the same people who don’t believe they should be prosecuted for the crimes they commit ‘because their brains aren’t fully developed yet.’

No one ever said being woke was logical.”

Photo credit: Christopher F. Rufo