SHANE​ WARREN

Let’s start with a confession that will either make you nod or make you want to throw your phone into the sea: I’m tired of living in an era where being loudly wrong is treated like a personality, and being thoughtfully right is treated like a provocation.

Trump wasn’t a candidate despite his cruelty. He was a candidate because of it. Not because everyone who voted for him is cruel. That’s lazy thinking and it’s not what I believe. But because he gave a certain kind of person, along with a certain kind of impulse, public permission.

I’ve been noticing something lately, and I’m trying to name it without turning into the cranky guy yelling at clouds. It’s this… vibe. A kind of social theatre that plays out in comment sections, on talkback, at family dinners, in workplace kitchens. The place where someone says, “I’m just asking questions,” but it doesn’t feel like a question. It feels like a door gently closing.

These instruments do not “prove” that crowns cause prosperity, freedom, or happiness. They do support a humbler claim: where a democracy already takes law and competence seriously, an apolitical head of state helps it stay serious in bad weather.

Every few years, a chorus emerges: “What if we ran government like a business?” The logic feels neat and tidy. CEOs cut costs, strike deals, and whip teams into shape. Surely, they could do the same with a nation-state.

There are few theological distortions as remarkable, and as dangerous, as the rise of prosperity theology. Rainn Wilson’s words land with force: how did a radical peasant from Galilee, who preached solidarity with the poor, end up rebranded as a cultural mascot for wealth, nationalism, and “God wants you to have a bigger house”?

A strange thing happens when a country starts arguing with itself: we forget who benefits. We trade side-eye with the person down the street who votes differently, while those who profit from chaos quietly toast another bumper quarter. We rage at each other online, and the engagement metrics purr. We are, as the saying goes, taking the bait.

Apparently, the left is destroying society, undermining values, and eroding freedoms. And yet, here’s the inconvenient truth, much of what we call freedoms and values today were delivered precisely because the left fought tooth and nail for them.

What fascinates me and frankly disturbs me, is not whether guns are deadly. That is obvious. The real question is: why are guns clutched so tightly in the American psyche? Why, even after classrooms are turned into morgues, does the national conversation erupt in rage instead of reason? Why do so many cling to the “right to bear arms” as if it is the last thread of dignity they have left?

Multiculturalism does not scare me. In fact, it excites me. It inspires me. It challenges me to be a better version of myself. Because history shows us something very clearly: diverse societies don’t collapse - they thrive. They build richer cultures, stronger economies, and deeper opportunities for all of us to become our better selves.