It’s a story almost to ridiculous to tell - but then again, this is 2023 America, where we’ve traded any semblance of basic common sense for the utterly absurd to appease the Perpetually Offended, who will never be happy anyway.
So here we go: a would-be terrorist was just arrested in Arkansas for allegedly making bomb threats in Northern Mississippi. Lily Mestemacher, 29, was arrested in Conway, Arkansas for making several social media reports of explosives in Oxford, Mississippi, all of which thankfully turned out to be false. Which, frankly, would be nothing more than a local news story for the area cops to sort through, and most of us would be none the wiser to it.
Except, here’s Lily’s mugshot:
Notice anything funky, here? And just so we’re clear, saying “no” will lead me to assume you’re either blind, dumber than a mailbox, or lying.
Herein lies one of the most glaring problems with treating mentally ill men like “Lily” here according to their own delusions, which we’ve farcically dubbed “identities” as though the way someone sees themselves in their own mind’s eye somehow alters the tangible reality the rest of us are all staring at. It's mockable when some weirdo over on TikTok smears some lip gloss over his 5 o'clock shadow and claims he's a pansexual quad-gender named Moonbeam. When local authorities and news agencies start running with the lie in official public reports? It's dangerous.
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Let’s say Lily here had gone on the lam, and the cops were trying to track down a potential terrorist who could be armed and dangerous. In many cases, the local PD might put out an alert asking nearby residents to be on the lookout for a person of interest. Makes sense, yes? Now imagine that little PSA starts something like this: “Oxford police are searching for a Caucasian female suspect, blonde, last seen outside the 7-11 at the corner of Randomname Boulevard.”
Is your first thought to be on the alert for a big bearded dude who looks like he just pulled himself off futon in his mom’s basement? I’m gonna go with “no.”
But alas, here we have a legit local news channel filled with journalists supposedly dedicated to truth, and a police department who presumably gave them this “information,” actually peddling this delusion as fact because a person’s self-actualization has become more important than public safety. Or other inmates’ safety. Or children. Or education. Or athletes. Or every other facet of our society, the daily functioning of which depends on rules and structure, but which is being systematically dismantled to affirm the mental illness of Lily here.
The mugshot’s laughable. The consequences of this insanity for civilization? Not so much.