{"id":592222,"date":"2026-04-28T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=592222"},"modified":"2026-04-28T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:55:00","slug":"the-moral-malaise-the-new-york-times-makes-the-case-for-microlooting-to-murder-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=592222","title":{"rendered":"The Moral Malaise: The New York Times Makes The Case For “Microlooting” To Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Moral Malaise: The New York Times Makes The Case For “Microlooting” To Murder<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jonathan Turley<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so hard to live ethically in an unethical society.\u201d <\/strong>That lament heard this week from New York Times opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman could well be the Democratic Party\u2019s epitaph.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Spiegelman was interviewing two left-wing influencers about how everything from shoplifting to murder may be excusable today in light of the unfairness they see in society.<\/p>\n

The podcast, a product of the nation\u2019s newspaper of record, reveled in the moral relativism that has taken over the American left<\/strong>. It featured the ravings of the antisemitic Marxist streamer Hasan Piker, who calmly explained how the murder of United Healthcare executive\u00a0Brian Thompson\u00a0<\/a>was perfectly understandable. His rationalization came from Marxist revolutionary\u00a0Friedrich Engels,<\/a>\u00a0who had called capitalism \u201csocial murder.\u201d If capitalists are \u201csocial murderers,\u201d then why not kill them? The logic is liberating and lethal for some on the left looking for a license for violence.<\/p>\n

Mind you, this same newspaper had once\u00a0condemned and effectively banned a U.S. senator<\/a>\u00a0for writing an op-ed advocating the use of the military to quell violent protests during the summer of\u00a0George Floyd\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>death<\/strong>. The Times even\u00a0forced out its own opinion editor<\/a>\u00a0for having the temerity to publish such an opinion.<\/p>\n

But glorifying murder? The suggestion of open hunting season on corporate executives did not appear to shock or repel Spiegelman. After all, we are living in \u201can unethical society.\u201d She explained that many felt that the murder of Thompson, the father of two, meant that \u201cfinally, someone can actually do something about health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even liberal comedians are practicing a literal version of slapstick.\u00a0Margaret Cho this week\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cwe need a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be fair, Spiegelman did concede that it might seem a bit \u201cscary\u201d for some to start murdering our way to social justice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She also explained that shoplifting can be justifiable because people are \u201cstealing from Whole Foods \u2014 not just for the thrill of it, but out of a feeling of anger and moral justification.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino also contributed to the podcast, titled \u201cThe Rich Don\u2019t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0She immediately threw in her own experience with \u201cmicrolooting\u201d and explained why it is arguably moral: \u201cI have, under very specific circumstances. I will say, I think that stealing from a big-box store [isn\u2019t] significant as a moral wrong, nor is it significant in any way as protest.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

She detailed her own past thefts and added, \u201cI didn\u2019t feel bad about it at all, in part because the store was a corporation. And it certainly felt, in a utilitarian sense, I was like, this is not a big deal. Right, guys?\u201d<\/p>\n

Not in the confines of the New York Times, where apparently you are entitled to all goods that are fit to pilfer.<\/p>\n

The bizarre exchange highlighted the moral chasm that is opening its maw on today\u2019s political left. In my book\u00a0\u201cRage and the Republic<\/a>,\u201d I write about how rage helps people excuse any offense or attack<\/strong>. It dismisses the humanity of others and provides a license to hate completely and without reservation.<\/p>\n

It is not really murder or theft if there are no real humans on the other side, is it?<\/p>\n

Other columnists have defended such property crimes. Washington Post writer\u00a0Maura Judkis<\/a>\u00a0ran a\u00a0column<\/a>\u00a0mocking shoplifting stories as the \u201cmoral panic\u201d of a nation built on \u201cstolen land.\u201d It is reminiscent of those who excused rioting in past summers \u201cas\u00a0an expression of power<\/a>\u201d and demanded that the media\u00a0refer to looters as \u201cprotesters.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Former New York Times\u00a0writer (and now\u00a0Howard University Journalism Professor<\/a>)\u00a0Nikole Hannah-Jones\u00a0<\/a>went so far as to call on journalists not to cover shoplifting crimes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At its core, it is a denial of transcendent values and rights. It is a decoupling of our society from a grounding in moral or universal truths. It is a trend that extends not only to attacks on individuals but also to attacks on our constitutional system. There is a growing denial of our founding based on Enlightenment principles of natural rights, which come not from government but from God.<\/p>\n

Some people seem to have forgotten this. In 2024, a celebrated political journalist\u00a0memorably asserted<\/a> that belief in God-given rights is a form of \u201cChristian nationalism\u201d \u2014 an odd claim about a concept the nation\u2019s founders literally wrote into our Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

Last year, Sen.\u00a0Tim Kaine\u00a0<\/a>(D-Va.)\u00a0\u2014 a man who represents\u00a0Thomas Jefferson\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>own state \u2014\u00a0attacked a witness<\/a>\u00a0in committee for espousing Jefferson\u2019s immortal assertion that human beings\u2019 natural rights are endowed by their Creator.<\/strong> Kaine disparaged this idea as something worthy of Iran\u2019s mullahs.<\/p>\n

The result is the type of moral free-fall and rejection of personal responsibility expressed on the New York Times podcast. Simply because they condemn our entire age as unethical, they feel justified in asserting a moral right to commit any offense, from microlooting to murder.\u00a0This underpins the increasingly frequent justifications made for attacks against conservatives or law enforcement as a form of \u201cdefending democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the feeling of \u201canger and moral justification\u201d does not make an act moral. It is the morality of mayhem; a spreading decay within our society. History has shown us how democracies can become mobocracies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the French Revolution, journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan observed that \u201clike\u00a0Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.\u201d The sad fact is, it is not just the danger of fellow revolutionaries deciding that you are the next reactionary to be guillotined. It is the self-consumption of radicals who untether themselves from any higher order or purpose. It is the knowledge that all mortals carry the Saturn gene; all mortals share the capacity to become monsters.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of \u201c<\/em>Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 04\/27\/2026 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Moral Malaise: The New York Times Makes The Case For “Microlooting” To Murder Authored by Jonathan Turley, \u201cIt is so hard to live ethically in an unethical society.\u201d That lament heard this week from New York Times opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman could well be the Democratic Party\u2019s epitaph. Spiegelman was interviewing two left-wing… Continue reading The Moral Malaise: The New York Times Makes The Case For “Microlooting” To Murder<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-592222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=592222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/592210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=592222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=592222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=592222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}