Any sane person, meaning anybody to the right of the median Democrat, knows that Liberalism and prosperity depend on free markets, the rule of law, and basic civil liberties.
Without a high degree of social trust, none of those things is possible.
Robert Putnam’s 1993 book, Making Democracy Work, explored this very topic by examining Italy’s regions and asking, “Why are Northern and Central Italy prosperous, but Southern Italy and Sicily not?”
It’s simple enough: Northern Italy has a long history of civic engagement and social trust developed over time, and Southern Italy is tribal, run by extended gangs called families.
The difference between the worst and best countries to live in usually comes down to social trust, which depends on trustworthiness.
Look at all the countries that Trump so artfully called “s**thole countries,” and they all have one thing in common: disdain for the rule of law and a social structure based on what amounts to gangs or tribes that fight for resources, either literally or at least in non-cooperative ways.
EUROPE’S HIGH-TRUST ERA IS ENDING
An unattended flower stall in Poland is one of those small details that instantly tells you a place still runs on trust.
That kind of thing is getting harder to find in Europe after years of mass migration.pic.twitter.com/qdX8crFTSC
— NewsForce (@Newsforce) March 17, 2026
That’s why the argument that “diversity is our strength” is asinine. Homogeneity may not lead to societal health, but genuine diversity, where people don’t share the same basic values and identity, everywhere and always leads to social discord. That is why the idea of the melting pot was so powerful: out of many, one.
You need people to identify with each other.
Otherwise, you get this:
Detroit officials are begging residents to not steal fire hydrants, which are going missing across the city pic.twitter.com/6tlB7M5HQv
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 22, 2026
Few things are more basic and universally beneficial than fire hydrants, right? If you don’t have hydrants, you can’t fight fires, and fires are bad. Everybody knows that.
But in a society where nobody has genuine empathy with people they see as “other,” one’s own benefit, even if it is small, outweighs the social harm, because there is no “social” to begin with for these people.
That’s why you can walk into any urban store and see everything behind plexiglass, and the ice cream in locked freezers. And such things don’t just happen naturally; they happen when the rule of law is replaced by an indifference to the consequences of actions to others, and the authorities’ comfort with social decay.
It doesn’t just happen. It’s not like people who live in the suburbs have to go through this. It’s a phenomenon specific to places where the culture has broken down.
That’s how we get the fraud culture we have, and why the fraudsters tend to be concentrated in certain groups who don’t identify with the larger society. Whether it is the Armenian or Russian mobs, the Somalis in Minnesota, or the African Americans in Detroit, there are people immersed in cultures that endorse theft from the “other.”
There’s nothing genetic about it. While Northern and Southern Italy are not genetically homogenous, they aren’t exactly that widely separated either. Culturally, though, they are separated by a wide gulf.
Liberal policies emphasize differences, create divides, create social hierarchies that set people against each other, and divvy up the spoils by taking from some and giving to others.
The result is a collapse of social trust, even in some of our culture’s foundational institutions, such as the public schools.
Who would have thought, even 25 years ago, that schools would have policies promoting children to hide basic facts about themselves from parents? For doctors to keep secrets about children from them? That teachers would be helping kids secretly get abortions?
How about decriminalizing shoplifting, or, as The New York Times just did, encouraging people to steal as a form of social justice protest?
The destruction of social trust in liberal societies has been a key goal of Marxism from its inception. Exacerbate divisions. Create hostility. Further the revolution.
That’s why George Floyd was turned into a hero, and BLM became the darling of the left.
Stoke that hatred! Rioting is good for public health!
What’s most striking about this liberal movement is how it is the biggest beneficiaries of social trust—affluent women—who seem most determined to destroy it. Woke is the most anti-social trust movement I can imagine, because it exists precisely to set groups against each other and exploit the chaos, yet its most vocal adherents are AWFLs and college students, and neither group could survive for long in a society without it.
I understand why the Marxists are in love with intersectional hierarchies; they work in their favor.
But I still have trouble understanding why liberals are willing to commit societal suicide.
Editor’s Note: Every single day, here at HotAir, we will stand up and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT against the radical Left and deliver the conservative reporting our readers deserve.
Help us continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration and its successes. Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
