The Devils We Know: How Destruction Replaced Debate in Modern Politics

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In this episode, we examine the growing trend of political vandalism and digital vigilantism — from firebombed EV charging stations to viral videos celebrating chaos. But this isn’t resistance. It’s not even politics. It’s a spiritual sickness, one Dostoevsky foresaw in The Devils: the thrill of destruction disguised as justice. Join us as we explore the deeper meaning behind these acts, the collapse of democratic discourse, and the dangerous allure of nihilism masquerading as progress. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Conservative Opinion Podcast
brought to you byConservativeOpinioncom.
Now here's your host, jordanRickards.
Hey everybody, welcome to theConservative Opinion Podcast.
Thanks for joining us.
This is your host, jordanRickards.
Today, I want to talk about thiswar against Tesla and, in
particular, the criminalactivities that are accompanying
it.
A strange trend has begun totake shape Tesla's being

(00:25):
vandalized, electric vehiclecharging stations firebombed,
and videos of the destructioncirculating online like war
trophies, cheered on by acertain subset of digital
revolutionaries who fancythemselves warriors for justice.
Watch closely, though, andyou'll see what they're really
celebrating Not resistance, notreform, but ruin and the

(00:46):
thrilling power they feel whileinflicting it.
It's not political, it'sspiritual and, in a word, it's
deranged.
I wish I could take credit fororiginating this insight, but it
was actually the great Russianauthor Dostoevsky who diagnosed
this pathology, long before theage of social media or
billionaires with rocket ships.
In his work the Devils, hegives us not a political novel,

(01:09):
but a prophetic one, a vision ofideologues so hollowed by envy
and resentment that they ceaseto be reformers and become
saboteurs of civilization itself.
They do not build, they do noteven really oppose.
They simply destroy for thethrill of it, for the illusion
of agency for the satisfactionof dragging others into the pit

(01:29):
they call justice.
The desire for destruction is acreative desire, one character
proclaims this we are meant tounderstand is not wisdom, it is
a sickness.
That same sickness is visibletoday.
It once marched under slogansof justice.
Now it hides behind hashtagsand anarchist chic Mobs that

(01:50):
loot stores and torch policecars are defended as mostly
peaceful.
The assassination of ahealthcare executive is met with
celebration and a distressingamount of equivocation.
Well, I don't support murder,but and now, in this new phase,
the symbols of innovationelectric cars, clean energy
infrastructure have becomestand-ins for heretics to be

(02:11):
punished.
Why?
Because Elon Musk has committedthe cardinal sin of being on
the other side.
It's worth pausing on that fora moment.
Musk is now public enemy numberone, not because of his products
or his business practices, butbecause he refuses to play the
role they've assigned him.
He speaks out, he platformsdissent, he challenges orthodoxy

(02:34):
and he has ascended to theforefront of a political
movement yes, the one led byDonald Trump that his opponents
claim threatens democracy.
But let us ask plainly what isdemocratic about smashing
someone's car because youdislike its manufacturer?
What is democratic aboutthreatening people into silence
or intimidating them intoboycotts.

(02:54):
What is democratic aboutbreaking the laws that democracy
has decided on?
No-transcript.
Donald Trump was elected.
His agenda, like it or not, waschosen by voters, and he has
engaged Elon Musk to help himachieve his ends.
Whatever else one might sayabout Trump, he has acted within

(03:17):
the framework of our democraticsystem.
The vandals, on the other hand,have not.
They have no mandate, no office, no support beyond the mob, and
so, like all those who fail inthe marketplace of ideas, they
turn to coercion.
And so, like all those who failin the marketplace of ideas,
they turn to coercion.
This is not dissent, this is notprotest.
It is naked anti-democraticfury, a tantrum disguised as

(03:39):
resistance, a jihad againstcivilization waged by people who
could not win at the ballot boxand so seek victory in the
ashes.
Destruction, after all, isseductive.
It is the cheapest substitutefor creativity, the easiest path
to feeling powerful.
To build something, an idea, abusiness, a nation requires

(03:59):
effort and talent, discipline,self-denial, risk and time.
To destroy it, just throw arock through a window, just
light a match and ignite somegasoline.
It's the preferred method ofthe envious, the embittered and
the irrelevant.
I used to say our politics weredivided between the makers and
the takers, but that's no longerquite right.

(04:21):
We are now divided between thebuilders and the breakers,
between those who labor tocreate and those who take
perverse satisfaction inannihilation, between those who
believe the future is worthinvesting in and those who can
only find meaning in wreckingwhat others have made.
Because, in the end, theseanarcho-progressives don't
actually want progress.

(04:41):
They don't want dialogue, theydon't want solutions.
What they want, what they enjoy, is the chaos, the breaking,
the smoke and the noise and thefalse sense of power that comes
from destruction.
They have nothing to offer theworld, and so they've convinced
themselves that the worlddeserves nothing better than to
burn.
This isn't justice and it's notdemocracy.

(05:02):
It's just vandalism dressed upin slogans, and until we stop
pretending otherwise, the devilswill keep dancing in the ruins.
This has been Jordan Rickards.
Thank you for listening to theConservative Opinion Podcast.
Be sure to join us atconservativeopinioncom.