The American standard of living is so high that young people petition the government for deprivation. I can find no other example of this in all of human history. There have been times where interest groups petitioned the government for vicarious deprivation—that is—they wanted the state to levy burdens on clearly defined “others”. This is no simple case of identity politics. This is different. I. President Trump’s recent listening session featured a student who survived the Parkland shooting. Tearfully, he contemplated the circumstances which brought him there: “…I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war.” I know this because the media has been exploiting this young man and other recently traumatized classmates without pause for the last 24 hours. As is customary, the most emotionally charged sound bites were spliced together to create a 30 second propaganda piece, entirely devoid of actual news. This particular moment of grief may have t...