Authored by John Kass via JohnKassNews.com,

We had some fine traditions in America, though many have been pushed aside because they get in the way of modern politics.

And when it comes to patriotism on the days when we mourn our war dead, you can feel the media groaning. Patriots and patriarchs aren't much appreciated these days. They're now considered just too toxic, too masculine and they're such a bother.

America once prized merit and competition. Now, though, we prize politics and our cultural institutions strive to make Beta males. There are unintended costs to all of this, including all those young men lost, boys adrift without fathers to guide them, lonely confused boys who rage in the anonymous shadows of social media. Add unfettered access to violent violent video games, unfettered access to internet porn, raised by mothers who resent the fathers who walked away, shaped by anger and the social isolation that comes from closing schools for the past few years.

Throw in the absence of a spiritual life and the absence of a common morality. Add guns. This stew of rage boils over into murder sprees, in rural areas, in urban centers.

We ignore what we feel in our bones to be wrong. We'd rather play our politics instead.