Cole Allen wasn't mentally ill. His manifesto proves it. That's the most disturbing part — and nobody's talking about it.
When credentialed, employed, socially respected people — teachers, managers, CEOs — post publicly that they wish the assassination attempt on Trump had succeeded, most commentators call it extreme. They're wrong to stop there.
Cole Allen's manifesto isn't the work of a broken mind. It's the work of a coherent one. He apologizes methodically. He sets rules of engagement specifically designed to minimize civilian casualties. He pre-answers five objections — including theological and constitutional ones. He believed he was one of the good guys.
That belief didn't originate with him. It was installed, piece by piece, through years of media framing, institutional rhetoric, and social bubble dynamics that made political violence feel not just acceptable — but righteous.
In this video, I break down the five forces that produce this thinking in otherwise normal, functional people: dehumanization language upstream of the Trump shooter, bubble dynamics that invert the social cost of extremism, pluralistic ignorance that silences moderate voices, moral licensing through victimhood framing, and Hannah Arendt's warning about the banality of evil — applied to American politics right now.
Cole Allen isn't the disease. He's the symptom. The question you should be asking is: who built the pipeline that produced him — and are they going to be held accountable for where it leads?
https://x.com/WalterHudson
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10 min