W&R: Q3, 2026

This image is from the Mt. Saint Helens eruption, showing a giant mass of superheated ash speeding downhill toward the cameraman and destroying everything in its path.

We are now in the midst of a great shift, both political and, more importantly, cultural. As I noted some time ago, we’re watching communism’s end in real time. (See here for background.) This may not be a complete end to communism, of course, as the trick of duping people with promises of free stuff is bound to continue. Nonetheless, the 20^th century’s model of Western communism is being torn apart.

The long march through the institutions is over. The cultural bullhorns are doing their best to keep the old chants going, but they’re fading too. A majority of the American people, whether political or not, have recognized that things went too far. As a result, the old infrastructure is coming apart. Other peoples are following; some more, some less.

The communists, whether calling themselves socialists, progressives or whatever, over-committed, over-reached and truly believed they couldn’t lose. In the process, they broke their own inertia. After receiving the benefit of every doubt for decades, they thought it was as permanent as a force of nature. And so they proudly placed drag queens in kindergartens, following them with gay porn, teaching little Johnny that he might actually be a girl and so on. All that beyond their failed Covid tyranny, when their fanatical mandates failed to secure any significant benefits, despite continents-wide lockdowns, the mass application of social pain, the proud trashing of free speech and more.

Moreover, the pivotal driver of this – the reason moderation is political suicide on the left – remains in place. While mitigation of the damage accruing to the progressives would be slow in any case, it has yet to show up broadly. I know that some old hands have made attempts, but to no avail. (I’ll explain this driver later in this issue.)

But even if such command decisions would be made and enforced upon the progressive rank and file, it would take time before they would have serious effects. And not only would there be many holdouts, but those holdouts would come gunning (maybe literally) for those enforcing moderation. It was, after all, the Democratic convention that some of these same leftists mobbed in 1968, not the Republican convention.

Now, let’s get to what’s happening, because it really does resemble that giant ash cloud.