My phone dings. “New text message.”

I open it up and see a picture with the caption, “CC in NR.”

The picture shows a page from the latest National Review magazine discussing a nasty hit against Caitlin Clark (presumably by Chennedy Carter of the Chicago Sky) and Clark being passed over for the 2024 Women’s Olympic Basketball Team.

“Plenty of people are interested in taking her down.” the article stated, pitting Clark against “plenty of people.”

Caitlin Clark, the Unwitting Darling of the American Right

Since being drafted by the Indiana Fever as the number one overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Caitlin Clark has unintentionally become the poster girl for the American Right.

She had a rough start to the season, as the Fever played eleven games in twenty days and played the best teams of the previous season multiple times during that stretch.

There were hard hits, tough defenses, and plenty of jawing between players in the first quarter of the WNBA season.

Angel Reese established herself as a rebounding powerhouse and double-double machine, as Rookie of the Year talk started early for both players.

Then, Caitlin Clark was seemingly “snubbed” by the USA Olympic Team.

Social media and mainstream media lit up with stories of the poor midwestern white girl being bullied in the predominately black “woke” WNBA.

• Caitlin Clark vs the WNBA Elites
• Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese
• Caitlin Clark vs Christie Sides (her coach)
• Caitlin Clark vs Sheryl Swoopes
• Caitlin Clark vs the Left?

Though, as far as I can tell, she has never uttered a political word or opinion in her life and always talks positively about everyone (off the court), she became the darling of the American Right. They have projected onto her all of their perceived persecution in this country and pitted her against everyone they feel has wronged them.

They might be shocked to learn that Caitlin’s longtime boyfriend has regularly supported Kamala Harris and Democratic candidates via his social media.

Does that mean Caitlin is a Democrat? Not necessarily, but she certainly doesn’t hate people who support Democrats.

Everything is War When Everyone Feels Alone

This image showed up on my Facebook feed recently.

You might take it one of two ways.

1. The man in the center is an arrogant narcissist who honestly believes he’s the only person correct among thousands of idiots.
2. The thousands of people are actually just “sheep” following along with popular opinion, and the man in the center is the sole beacon of truth in society.

The implication was scenario two.

A comment on the post suggested that thinking for yourself now gets you labeled a racist or hater (assuming thinking for yourself means you have conservative ideas.).

When I look at this picture, I see a third scenario.

A world where each of us thinks we’re the only one who has the “truth.” The world is against us and at war with our way of life. We’re surrounded and must prepare for battle.

Life feels like the scene from Game of Thrones where Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) finds himself completely engulfed in a violent sea of humanity in the thick of the “Battle of the Bastards.”

Though surrounded by thousands of warriors, Jon Snow was entirely alone, the life being squeezed out of him.

Or, as one of my favorite lines by Dustin Kensrue (Thrice) puts it,

On the edge of a knife, it’s like you’re living your life on the stage. You’re talking through glass, we’re just square photographs on a page. Oh, we’re never alone but we’re each in our own little cage.

Thrice – Salt and Shadow

It seems like everything is meant to divide us and isolate us.

Scared people follow. Scared people donate. Scared people vote. Scared people stay in line.

The more alone and afraid we are, the more we assign ourselves the role of “victim” in the story and ache for a hero to come and save us from the villains we’ve been told to fear. We willingly give up our agency and rely on a hero to save us.

Too many in America feel persecuted. Most of us will never truly know the meaning of the word.

Putting our struggles in context

It’s easy to feel persecuted. As humans, our brains are wired to survive at all costs. We surround ourselves with the familiar as a safety mechanism.

Familiar people. Familiar routines. Familiar ideologies.

Anything outside the familiar can quickly feel like an attack on our well-being. Our lizard brain kicks in.

Over the last few years, I’ve realized just how NOT under attack my way of life is, even when my comfort zone of the familiar feels at war.

For eighteen months, I led a weekly public safety walk through an apartment complex that was experiencing a rash of homicides and shootings.

I witnessed one man bleeding out on the ground in front of the complex office after being shot three times. I watched his shooter flee into a building.

For two summers, I have helped lead a weekly mobile food bank. Over 500 households show up each week to receive free food to get through their week, some clearly living out of their cars.

Recently, less than a 2-minute drive from my house, a 3-year-old was shot and killed as collateral damage after the driver of the car he was in was targeted by a rival.

• How will my 401K survive with the next President?
• Is my faith under attack in this country?
• Does providing free meals to preschool children cause them to grow up entitled and jobless?
• Should elected officials and candidates be able to say anything they want on Twitter/X?

Honestly, while these can be important, they seem petty in the grand scheme of things.

People starving. Children dying. Huge populations throughout the country feeling unsafe in their homes.

The majority of us have nothing to feel persecuted about. Our politicization of celebrities, social media networks, school systems, is often merely a reaction to feeling persecuted, and is beneath us.

For most of us, the feeling of persecution is simply just the possibility of discomfort, not actual persecution.

We need to get a grip on reality and spend more time focusing on what truly matters, and helping people who are truly being persecuted and face far worse lives than our own.