When something as gut-wrenching as Thursday's shooting in Minneapolis happens, my first reaction is "don't start making assumptions". Berg's 18tjh Law started as a satirical observation - but I'll stand by it:
Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting, anything – should be taken seriously for 48 hours after the original incident. It will largely be rubbish, as media outlets vie to “scoop” each other even on incorrect facts.
With that in mind, my second reaction is "don't politicize it".
But I live in the Twin Cities. And here, since 2020, everything is political.
Ben Shapiro made a salient point on his podcast on Thursday, pointing out something so blazingly obvious that everyone seems to miss it.
When a spree killer can be tied, however circuitously, to the right, society's chattering class focuses on the shooter's ideology. So we saw earlier in the summer, after the heinous assassinations of former Speaker of the Minnesota House Melissa Hortman and her husband and the attempts on the lives of Senator John Hoffman and his wife. The left and media (pardon the redundancy) bent over 45 degrees past "backwards" to try to tie Boelter, a man who made some conservative noises, but was also nuttier than John Belushi on cocaine and poppers (he clamed Governor Walz ordered the killings) to Trump and the GOP.
But when the atrocity is from someone clearly aligned with Big Left and its various "omnicauses"? it's the guns. End of story. Shut off the debate.
The Annunciation shooter (whose name i wll redact, since I refuse to grant any of them the notoriety they all crave) fit the pattern in some ways - his various scrawlings, writings and statements talked of a hatred of Trump, Israel, Jews and Catholics - and that of the dissociative lunatic in others:
A CNN review of dozens of those pages – most written in Cyrillic letters to mask the disturbing content – raises questions about whether people in [the shooter]’s life missed warning signs that could have prevented [him] from purchasing the array of firearms used in the killings.
Even as [the shooter] carefully plotted out the attack, writing as recently as last week about visiting the church, diagramming the interior and testing out weapons, the shooter also hinted at a desire to be caught. After describing a family member who had remarked on “dark energy” surrounding [him], the shooter wrote: “FIND ME I AM BEGGING FOR HELP, I AM SCREAMING FOR HELP.”
I mean, it wasn't even all that ambiguous:
This is one of the most narcissistic things I have ever seen or read.#Minneapolis #TransViolence #annunciationchurch @JonJustice @WalterHudson @maxrrymer @RepMaryFranson @MikeSharp_MN @mitchpberg @lizcollin @AntGockowski pic.twitter.com/8TMnjWFQnm
— LeftistsofMN (@LeftistsofMN) August 28, 2025
It's notable that among the raft of radical progressive legislation jammed down by Minnesota Democrats in the past three years was a "Red Flag" law that the proponents claimed was designed for situations like this, and opponents (like me) pointed out would be completely useless.
I'd say "guess who was right", but it's getting boring.
One other prediction that was correct? Once word of the shooter's transgender orientation became public, the DFL and media pivoted to focusing on the real victims.
Jake Tapper led it off:
Called it.https://t.co/qcOOGrFA4N
— #NARNShow (@NARNShow) August 28, 2025
And then came Mayor Frey - focusing on not wasting the crisis, and deflecting the blame to Christians:
🚨 Mayor Jacob Frey on the Annunciation Catholic School Shooting
— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) August 27, 2025
- Don’t send Thoughts & Prayers
- Don’t blame the Transgender Community
Catholic children were just slaughtered by a Transgender manic
Shame on him! pic.twitter.com/asrQUd2VXD
Which drew some utterly warranted reactions:
They’ll kill you and your kids in the place where you worship God, then send the “city officials” out to make a speech that mocks your very purpose for being there.
— Samuel Culper (@SamlCulper1776) August 27, 2025
In the meantime, at least one "real victim" brought an, er, inconvenient perspective to the discussion:
Man pretending to be a woman says he doesn't feel bad for the parents of the children kiIIed by the Minnesota transgender church shooter because they are Christians.pic.twitter.com/oMIenz0sZq
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 28, 2025
An amoral creep supporing a deceased, homicidal creep is not a trend. Media prattle notwithstanding, nobody significant is pinning this atrociety on all transgender people.
But suggesting that they are is a cowardly, cynical attempt, as Shapiro noted, to change the subject - and above all, to not waste the crisis.
