In cities around the world—from Paris to New York to Los Angeles—what began as political demonstrations has spiraled into something far more dangerous. This is no longer protest. It is an unraveling of civil society, driven by manipulated narratives, political cowardice, and a media establishment that has spent years redefining violence as activism.
Los Angeles is the latest flashpoint. What we are witnessing there are not peaceful encampments or First Amendment gatherings. These are riots—coordinated, sustained, and dangerous. They are acts of destruction, not dissent. As police cruisers are firebombed and bricks rain down from overpasses, the question is no longer, “What are they protesting?” but rather, “Why are we letting this continue?”
These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a growing global movement where the rule of law is being challenged, not by idealistic reformers, but by ideologues with no respect for democratic institutions. In France, the situation has grown so dire that public safety is deteriorating in broad daylight. In the U.S., the Trump administration has deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles—a staggering but necessary response in a city where elected officials appear more concerned with appeasing agitators than protecting citizens.
Let’s be honest: the public has been conditioned to tolerate this. For years, violent protests have been romanticized. During the 2020 unrest, neighborhoods were burned and looted, yet the media branded the chaos as “mostly peaceful.” Politicians downplayed the destruction, arguing that the anger was justified. That messaging stuck. A generation has now internalized the idea that violence is an acceptable tool for change—as long as the violence comes from the “correct” side of the ideological spectrum.
This moral relativism has led us to the current crisis—one that intensified dramatically after the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Double Standard in Defining Insurrection
We’ve seen this play out before. On January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol, every major media outlet and political leader rushed to label it an “insurrection.” Elected officials invoked sedition statutes, and participants were branded enemies of democracy. Fast forward to these left-wing riots: the exact same tactics—storming public spaces, assaulting officers, and destroying property—are now dismissed as “justified protest” or “mostly peaceful.” The Left’s rhetorical cartwheels expose a two-tiered system: one set of rules for conservatives and another for progressives. This blatant hypocrisy undermines faith in institutions and sends a message that violence is permissible if you hold the right beliefs.
What Hamas did on October 7 was not complex. It was evil—barbaric rape and murders of civilians, kidnappings of children, and the deliberate targeting of innocent people. Yet within days, that clarity was erased by protests claiming Israel was the aggressor and Hamas the victim. Crowds poured into the streets waving Palestinian flags, chanting genocidal slogans, and glorifying terrorism as “resistance.” And once again, politicians and media figures equivocated.
They condemned the violence in theory but refused to name its perpetrators. They mourned the dead but could not bring themselves to say who killed them. In some cases, they even justified the attacks, parroting talking points that blamed Israel for its own victimization. This is not advocacy. This is complicity.
Anti-Semitism has surged as a direct result. Jewish students on college campuses are harassed and threatened. Synagogues are defaced. Pro-Hamas rallies openly call for the eradication of Israel. Muslim extremists call for the end of Israel and the end of the Jewish people, by any means necessary. And the same public figures who scream about systemic hate in every other context fall inexplicably silent.
This isn’t just hypocrisy—it’s cultural suicide.
What we’re seeing is a systemic failure of leadership. Universities, media outlets, and elected officials are more afraid of social media backlash than they are committed to moral clarity. They are unwilling to say that terrorism is wrong. That rioting is wrong. Vandalizing stores and stealing items is wrong. That attacking police officers and firebombing cars are not valid expressions of political thought—they are crimes.
It is also a profound failure of education. For years, radical ideology has crept into the classroom under the cover of social justice. Students are taught that power structures are inherently evil, that history is nothing more than oppression, and that resistance justifies any action—no matter how violent or discriminatory. They are not taught the value of civil debate, rule of law, or even basic civics. The result? A generation that no longer understands—or cares—how democracy functions.
In this worldview, the ends always justify the means. If your cause is righteous, your violence is tolerated. If your target is “privileged,” your hatred is excused. It is not hard to see how that moral framework makes anti-Semitism socially acceptable again. Which is how and why many of the famous people in entertainment and media who are practicing Jews remain silent to this day. It is a very sad but true consequence of the world we find ourselves in.
The question now is: what will we do?
If we continue to excuse this behavior, we are actively participating in the dismantling of our society. Law enforcement cannot function if officers are demonized and assaulted without consequence. Democracy cannot thrive if facts are replaced with feelings. And freedom cannot survive if we only defend it selectively—depending on who is speaking or what they believe.
This is not about silencing protest. It is about restoring the boundary between protest and anarchy.
The First Amendment protects the right to speak, not the right to destroy. It does not protect violence, incitement, or terrorism masquerading as activism. The time has come to draw a line. The law must be enforced. Public officials must have the courage to name and condemn hatred—even when it’s politically inconvenient. And the media must be held accountable for its role in enabling this descent into chaos.
We did this to ourselves. We excused lawlessness when it suited our politics. We rewarded violence with media coverage. We taught people that burning down cities was a form of justice.
Now the fire is spreading—and unless we act decisively, it will consume us all.
RibotskyInstitute.com 
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