A Violent Start to the Year
  January 2, 2025 Howdy, Meteor readers, Welcome back to the grind. I spent the entire holiday break trying to bake sourdough bread, watching videos about sourdough bread, and learning about microbakeries. I’ve pretty much joined a cult. And you?  ONE OF MY FAILED BUT AESTHETICALLY PLEASING LOAVES In today’s newsletter, we look at the common thread running through the mass violence of 2025’s earliest days. Plus, a huge power outage and another layer to the Baldoni/Lively situation. Bulk fermenting, Shannon Melerdough  WHAT’S GOING ONOff to a bad start: 2025 is only two days old but has already seen three mass violence events. Yesterday a veteran in New Orleans drove through a crowd of pedestrians, killing 15 people and injuring 30 more. Hours after that, in Las Vegas, a Green Beret driving a Tesla Cybertruck pulled up to the Trump International Hotel and allegedly triggered an explosion from within the vehicle, injuring seven and killing himself. Later that same night, in Queens, four men opened fire outside a nightclub, wounding ten bystanders, most of them women, in what appears to be an act of gang-related violence. Investigators do not currently have reason to believe the incidents are related; the FBI is calling the New Orleans killing an act of terrorism but has not designated the Las Vegas incident as such. But regardless of motivation, if these crimes weren’t what you talked about all day at work, it’s just another sign that violence in America is now considered something…normal. And as journalist Anand Giridharadas highlighted in his analysis of the events of January 1, one contributing factor we may not be taking seriously enough is the ease and speed with which men are becoming radicalized. In the New Orleans example specifically, the suspect was “inspired” by ISIS, and people who knew him say he had become withdrawn as he “descended into a rabbit hole of radicalization” and anger over the things that had gone awry in his life. (He also allegedly threatened violence against his ex-wife—another common thread among perpetrators of mass violence.) “Part of what makes the crisis facing men so dangerous is the fact that such radicalization pathways exist and are so easily accessible for men who find themselves in free-fall,” Giridharadas writes. “A whole lot of men are lost…and someone needs to figure out how to meet them where they are.” Unfortunately, as he notes, men are being met where they are—online, by violent and extremist movements that promise a return to virility and domination. And, as is evident by the Queens shooting, they’re being embraced by violent groups in real life as well. This theme—that men are being lured toward extremism—is not new, of course. Writers like Liz Plank, Jia Tolentino, and Jonathan Metzl voiced similar concerns throughout 2024 about what Tolentino calls “an era of gendered regression” fueled by ideological divides on things like masculinity, healthcare, gun rights, and bodily autonomy. But their work (and Giridharadas’s point) is a reminder that we can’t talk about these first bloody hours without talking about how men are being weaponized. How we start this year, though, does not have to be the way we continue it. Since we know solutions won’t be pouring out of the White House, let this be the year we dedicate to fortifying our communities and pushing for action. Support local organizations providing mental health to veterans or other at-risk groups. Push for gun reform in your city (and then for your state). Talk to the young men in your life about what they’re consuming online. We’ve got us. AND:
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