Vigilantism on the F Train

Author’s Note: This article concerns a recent story and as such new details are coming out constantly. This writing reflects what is known about this case (as of 5/7/2023) and some details may have changed by the time this article is published. Although, it should not impact the basic premise of this entry.

Recently in the New York City subway system a mentally ill black man named Jordan Neely began harassing other passengers, screaming obscenities, attacking another passenger, and throwing trash. Eventually, several passengers had enough and began to take the precautions necessary to defend themselves, which included physically restraining him. One passenger in particular, an ex-Marine named Daniel Penny, put Neely in a chokehold and Neely would eventually die. The case, as can be expected, has turned into a major bit of media and political malpractice, with politicians calling Penny a murderer on flimsy evidence. Meanwhile, the media is bringing up the rather irrelevant history of Neely’s hobby as a Michael Jackson impersonator, as if he was harmlessly entertaining the people of New York with his rendition of “Thriller” when an evil White man came out of the blue to savagely kill him.

This is all to be expected. Years ago, the media declared White men, especially masculine White men with rightwing beliefs (as of this writing, I have no idea of Mr. Penny’s political inclinations), to be a threat that must be destroyed. They are doing this to Penny, of course. And before I get into the meat of this article, I will say this: Penny did nothing wrong. He and others thought they were under threat and did what they could to protect themselves and others. That being said and as a general rule, I do think that White men, especially those with Dissident Right views, need to avoid confrontations like these as much as practically possible. Now, I do not think it applies in this case, they were on the train and had no way to easily escape. Thanks to George Soros, most major cities, and some not-so-major cities, now have district attorneys that love to prosecute White men. Remember, they want revenge.

Even if the case looks too flimsy to press charges, that just gives the Left an excuse to launch another round of protests until whomever is activated to prosecute and persecute. This is, of course, in the middle of a crime wave occurring throughout the country, and one that no one is willing to crack down on. Sam Francis is right again, anarcho-tyranny is the order of the day in these United States. Even if you do live in a small town without a pool of leftist agitators to draw from, they can just be bussed in. And if that fails, there is always federal “civil rights violations” the Left can deploy. This will be particularly true with an election coming up, the Democrats will be trying to run up the black vote like they did with the Trayvon Martin case in 2012, and they would love nothing more than to find another White patsy. Needless to say, I understand that sometimes there is no other option other than confrontation. I think that’s what happened on the F Train. However, White men must realize just how much the system is against them now and adjust their actions accordingly. This is no longer your county. This is no longer the country of your father or grandfather. This is a country that hates you.

That all being said, I suspect that cases like these will become increasingly common as these United States unravels. Perhaps the greatest contribution Sam Francis made to political thought is the concept of “anarcho-tyranny.” This apparently contradictory term is used to describe a situation whereby the government cannot stop actual lawbreakers (anarchy) but can exercise despotic control over the lives of ordinary citizens (tyranny). No other term better encapsulates the American Empire at this time. But people cannot live under the threat of violent crime forever before they start taking matters into their own hands. Something Thomas Hobbes was correct about is this: fear of a violent death drives human society and people cannot be expected to live under that threat for long. Even as a Christian and Southern Nationalist, where I would welcome martyrdom, both for Christ and Dixie, this still impacts me. Given the choice between dying peacefully in my sleep or at the hands of a random mugger, I would gladly go with the former.

I would not call Mr. Penny a vigilante, least of all because I do not think he intended to kill Jordan Neely. But the Empire’s inability to stop violent crime will make vigilantism more popular. We have observed this before in the 1970s and 1980s, a time period when a very nasty crime wave hit the country, especially the major cities. Escape from New York depicted a future New York City that looked almost plausible at the time, one of the Empire’s most famous cities turned into a prison colony. There was also the rise of the vigilante film, of which Dirty Harry, Death Wish, and Taxi Driver are the best-known examples. These were films about men who finally get fed up with crime and a system unable to stop it. In turn, they took matters into their own hands (note: Harry Callahan is a cop, but functionally is more like a vigilante). I like the genre a great deal, but something that must be remembered about these films is why they connected so well with the audiences of the time. Millions of people were fed up with what was happening and enjoyed watching main characters who felt the same.

Something else to keep in mind is that the genre never could have been popular, or even made, in the 1950s. And while the levels of sex and violence in these films is one reason, there is also a deeper, more profound explanation: they reveal a society in decay. Vigilante films never could have been popular in the 1950s because in that high trust decade it was unthinkable that law enforcement as well as the judicial system would be unwilling or unable to curb violent law breakers. A film like Death Wish could never have found an audience in the 1950s. At that time, there was faith in the system. By the 1970s, this was no longer true; there was a crime epidemic occurring and the mainstream media was doing nothing but lecturing Middle America about how it was really all their fault. That is the society where Dirty Harry can be made. While the vast majority of people were content to live vicariously through vigilante films, some were not. People eventually do have a breaking point (see Bernhard Goetz).

Both the media and political classes can hand wring all they want about this. The fact is, when people feel they can no longer be protected by the system, they eventually defend themselves with violence. Humans will never stop fearing a brutal death. What happened on the F Train, and what will continue to happen, is the result of a crime wave that was caused by a system that refuses to punish violent criminals but will tyrannize the average citizen. Such a system cannot be tolerated for long. No matter what happens to Daniel Penny – as of this writing he has not been changed with anything – it is a sign of more to come, and it will be the responsibility of the political class that imposed anarcho-tyranny.