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Galaxy Gas:
Nitrous oxide (N₂O)
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The legal high ruining American children’s lives ...
Galaxy Gas:
Nitrous oxide (N₂O)
❖
The legal high ruining American children’s lives ...
❖
Nitrous oxide can cause severe injury, paralysis and even death. So why is it easier to get for teenagers than energy drinks or cigarettes?
Published 24 Apr, 2026 23:56
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of 'Midnight in the American Empire,' How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.
@Robert_Bridge
Welcome to America’s next public health crisis, which is being underwritten by big business and ignored by the US government.
Nitrous oxide (N₂O) has been around since the end of the 18th century and is used in a variety of products, including whipped cream canisters and car engines, to give them an extra power boost. It is also popularly known as ‘laughing gas,’ which dentists administer to their patients for pain relief. In the 19th century, laughing gas parties were popular among the middle and upper classes.
Late 20th century drug culture rediscovered nitrous oxide, in the form of ‘whippets’ (from whipped-cream chargers) and laughing gas balloons.
However, only lately has nitrous oxide, marketed under the name of ‘Galaxy Gas,’ exploded in popularity among today’s youth in search of a cheap buzz.
Although ostensibly marketed as a culinary product, Galaxy Gas is sold in colorful bottles with alluring flavors, such as Mango Smoothie, Strawberry Cream and Vanilla Cupcake.
Meanwhile, the product (Galaxy Gas is just one of dozens of brands selling nitrous oxide) has been popularized on social media, where influencers on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have led millions of teens astray in search of a quick and affordable jolt of euphoria.
Various brands of nitrous oxide canisters can easily be bought online from major marketplaces including Walmart, Amazon and eBay.
Though most companies require purchasers to be over 18 to order them, they’ve still found their way into the hands of many teens (Following reports of abuse, Galaxy Gas has paused direct sales from their website and is facing regulatory action due to health risks).
Across the US, more than 25 million people over the age of 12 may have tried inhalants, according to a survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
And data shows adolescents from 12-17 more commonly use whippets than those who are 18 and older.
Galaxy Gas attempts to skirt the law by stating on its canisters that “it is illegal to purposely inhale our product,” which of course has the effect of making the young and impressionable do exactly what they are told not to do. Despite the warning labels, the inhalation of Galaxy Gas is becoming an epidemic in the US and beyond, with an increasing number of victims every year.
In February 2023, Ellen Mercer, 24, died in a British hospital two weeks after she was left bedbound by burning her legs with a nitrous oxide canister.
According to the coroner’s report, Mercer’s death was caused by her substance abuse and a blood clot. The young woman, clearly addicted to the inhalant, was said to have inhaled two to three “big bottles” of the gas per day.
Meg Caldwell is another individual who lost her life due to her addiction to Galaxy Gas.
Caldwell began inhaling the gas during the pandemic. With everyone locked down and little to do, it seemed that a few harmless hits of nitrous oxide wouldn’t hurt.
According to the young woman’s family, her addiction quickly spiraled out of control and wrecked her life.
She died at the age of 23 of an overdose in a parking lot outside of a smoke shop where she purchased the gas.
The Caldwell family has filed a lawsuit against Galaxy Gas and several other companies, alleging that they marketed the substance for recreational use while disguising it as a culinary product.
One reason the inhalation of Galaxy Gas has become so dangerous is people are inhaling the gas directly from the nozzle of the bottle.
“In medical use, nitrous oxide is given in conjunction with a pretty high flow of oxygen,”
says Dr. Bryan Baskin, Co-Director of Operations of the Cleveland Clinic’s Emergency Services.
“ That helps to keep people safe from some of the dangerous effects of the gas. People using it recreationally aren’t taking those precautions. They’re just getting straight shots of it, which can be harmful, particularly with repeated use.”
The nitrous oxide that enters your body starves the brain of oxygen, creating a dizzy, heady feeling that can last anywhere from a few seconds to five minutes.
The user takes a hit, enjoys the feeling, and then wants more of the same, leading to abuse of the product.
Chasing the high again and again deprives the brain and other organs of the oxygen they need for normal bodily function. At the very least, users may lose consciousness while inhaling the gas, thereby sustaining physical injuries like concussions. But there are other worse side effects.
Read more
Legacy media is covering up for transgender murderersAs mentioned, most people choose to inhale the gas directly from the canister, which is incredibly dangerous due to simple physics. Galaxy Gas and other such products seal the nitrous oxide in the canisters as a liquid, which, when released, comes out at extremely low temperatures. So low in fact that it can actually give the user frostbite on the mouth and throat. It can also freeze the lungs.
Long-term users of nitrous oxide report major nerve problems, impaired memory, loss of concentration and loss of coordination. The brain and spinal column could become inflamed, leading to cases of full-blown paralysis.
So what is the US government doing about the problem? Sadly, almost nothing.
The level of regulation of nitrous oxide in the US is shockingly bad.
There’s no official FDA certification; there’s no mandatory purity tests to ensure no contaminants of even more harmful substances; there are no size limits on the canisters; there are no import controls for cheaper, less regulated variants from other countries like China; there’s no guaranteed standardization of manufacturing or the content inside of these bottles.
There literally could be anything inside, like heavy metal residue or hydrocarbons. In other words, a sticker saying it’s safe doesn’t make it safe. The same way that putting a ‘do not inhale’ warning on a canister won’t stop people from doing it.
Even the bottles themselves are dangerous. Keep in mind, these are pressurized metal canisters, weighing up to two or more kilos. Effectively pipe bombs that people can get a buzz from. Due to the pressure inside of the canisters, manufacturing defects, heat or poor handling can result in explosive decompression.
A loosely fitting valve or a poorly fitted seal on the canister could mean the difference between life and death.
Perhaps worst of all is how the product, with its playful packaging, is targeted at a younger audience that is less able to differentiate between what is healthy for them and what is potentially fatal.
It’s time for the US government to get involved and crack down on the peddlers of this dangerous product before it kills anyone else.
Published 24 Apr, 2026 23:56
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of 'Midnight in the American Empire,' How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.
@Robert_Bridge
Welcome to America’s next public health crisis, which is being underwritten by big business and ignored by the US government.
Nitrous oxide (N₂O) has been around since the end of the 18th century and is used in a variety of products, including whipped cream canisters and car engines, to give them an extra power boost. It is also popularly known as ‘laughing gas,’ which dentists administer to their patients for pain relief. In the 19th century, laughing gas parties were popular among the middle and upper classes.
Late 20th century drug culture rediscovered nitrous oxide, in the form of ‘whippets’ (from whipped-cream chargers) and laughing gas balloons.
However, only lately has nitrous oxide, marketed under the name of ‘Galaxy Gas,’ exploded in popularity among today’s youth in search of a cheap buzz.
Although ostensibly marketed as a culinary product, Galaxy Gas is sold in colorful bottles with alluring flavors, such as Mango Smoothie, Strawberry Cream and Vanilla Cupcake.
Meanwhile, the product (Galaxy Gas is just one of dozens of brands selling nitrous oxide) has been popularized on social media, where influencers on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have led millions of teens astray in search of a quick and affordable jolt of euphoria.
Various brands of nitrous oxide canisters can easily be bought online from major marketplaces including Walmart, Amazon and eBay.
Though most companies require purchasers to be over 18 to order them, they’ve still found their way into the hands of many teens (Following reports of abuse, Galaxy Gas has paused direct sales from their website and is facing regulatory action due to health risks).
Across the US, more than 25 million people over the age of 12 may have tried inhalants, according to a survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
And data shows adolescents from 12-17 more commonly use whippets than those who are 18 and older.
Galaxy Gas attempts to skirt the law by stating on its canisters that “it is illegal to purposely inhale our product,” which of course has the effect of making the young and impressionable do exactly what they are told not to do. Despite the warning labels, the inhalation of Galaxy Gas is becoming an epidemic in the US and beyond, with an increasing number of victims every year.
In February 2023, Ellen Mercer, 24, died in a British hospital two weeks after she was left bedbound by burning her legs with a nitrous oxide canister.
According to the coroner’s report, Mercer’s death was caused by her substance abuse and a blood clot. The young woman, clearly addicted to the inhalant, was said to have inhaled two to three “big bottles” of the gas per day.
Meg Caldwell is another individual who lost her life due to her addiction to Galaxy Gas.
Caldwell began inhaling the gas during the pandemic. With everyone locked down and little to do, it seemed that a few harmless hits of nitrous oxide wouldn’t hurt.
According to the young woman’s family, her addiction quickly spiraled out of control and wrecked her life.
She died at the age of 23 of an overdose in a parking lot outside of a smoke shop where she purchased the gas.
The Caldwell family has filed a lawsuit against Galaxy Gas and several other companies, alleging that they marketed the substance for recreational use while disguising it as a culinary product.
One reason the inhalation of Galaxy Gas has become so dangerous is people are inhaling the gas directly from the nozzle of the bottle.
“In medical use, nitrous oxide is given in conjunction with a pretty high flow of oxygen,”
says Dr. Bryan Baskin, Co-Director of Operations of the Cleveland Clinic’s Emergency Services.
“ That helps to keep people safe from some of the dangerous effects of the gas. People using it recreationally aren’t taking those precautions. They’re just getting straight shots of it, which can be harmful, particularly with repeated use.”
The nitrous oxide that enters your body starves the brain of oxygen, creating a dizzy, heady feeling that can last anywhere from a few seconds to five minutes.
The user takes a hit, enjoys the feeling, and then wants more of the same, leading to abuse of the product.
Chasing the high again and again deprives the brain and other organs of the oxygen they need for normal bodily function. At the very least, users may lose consciousness while inhaling the gas, thereby sustaining physical injuries like concussions. But there are other worse side effects.
Read more
Legacy media is covering up for transgender murderersAs mentioned, most people choose to inhale the gas directly from the canister, which is incredibly dangerous due to simple physics. Galaxy Gas and other such products seal the nitrous oxide in the canisters as a liquid, which, when released, comes out at extremely low temperatures. So low in fact that it can actually give the user frostbite on the mouth and throat. It can also freeze the lungs.
Long-term users of nitrous oxide report major nerve problems, impaired memory, loss of concentration and loss of coordination. The brain and spinal column could become inflamed, leading to cases of full-blown paralysis.
So what is the US government doing about the problem? Sadly, almost nothing.
The level of regulation of nitrous oxide in the US is shockingly bad.
There’s no official FDA certification; there’s no mandatory purity tests to ensure no contaminants of even more harmful substances; there are no size limits on the canisters; there are no import controls for cheaper, less regulated variants from other countries like China; there’s no guaranteed standardization of manufacturing or the content inside of these bottles.
There literally could be anything inside, like heavy metal residue or hydrocarbons. In other words, a sticker saying it’s safe doesn’t make it safe. The same way that putting a ‘do not inhale’ warning on a canister won’t stop people from doing it.
Even the bottles themselves are dangerous. Keep in mind, these are pressurized metal canisters, weighing up to two or more kilos. Effectively pipe bombs that people can get a buzz from. Due to the pressure inside of the canisters, manufacturing defects, heat or poor handling can result in explosive decompression.
A loosely fitting valve or a poorly fitted seal on the canister could mean the difference between life and death.
Perhaps worst of all is how the product, with its playful packaging, is targeted at a younger audience that is less able to differentiate between what is healthy for them and what is potentially fatal.
It’s time for the US government to get involved and crack down on the peddlers of this dangerous product before it kills anyone else.
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It’s time to ban smartphones in schoolsA recent study shows that US students use their phones an average of 64 times per school day ruining concentration and cognitive abilities
Published 31 Mar, 2026 23:07
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of 'Midnight in the American Empire,' How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.
@Robert_Bridge
By this time, we are all familiar with the image of some harried schoolteacher attempting to maintain control over a classroom where the majority of students are transfixed by their smartphones instead of the dusty chalkboard.
The dangers of social media for the minds of young and old alike has already been well-documented, and the amount of time that students spend on their handheld devices is increasing with each new study conducted.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tracked the real-time phone habits of middle and high schoolers and found something that should disturb every teacher and parent. Phone usage appeared during every single hour of the school day, and not a single student in the study went the entire school day without using their mobile phone.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the students who used their phones most often also showed noticeably less self-control.
Published in JAMA Network Open,
this new study monitored the phone habits of 79 students aged 11 to 18 over two consecutive weeks and found the average teen racks up more than two full hours of screen time during school time alone. That’s approximately one-third of their total daily phone use – and over a quarter of the entire school day! But the more disturbing discovery wasn’t how long students were on their phones.
The alarming factor was how often the students were reaching for their devices, and how that nervous, knee-jerk habit appears to be linked to concentration levels.
Like infants reaching out for their favorite security blanket, students reached for their phones an average of 64 times during the school day, and those who grabbed their devices most often scored worse on a standard test that measured concentration and self-control. The study shows a link not just between phones and distraction, but between compulsive phone use and the kind of mental discipline adolescents need to learn and develop.
That’s pretty alarming … It’s too much, not only because of the missed learning opportunity in the classroom,” researcher Lauren Hale, sleep expert and professor at Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine told The 74.
“They’re missing out on real life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable for growth during a critical period of one’s life.”
To say that smartphones have become a pervasive feature of adolescents’ daily lives would be a gross understatement.
More than 95% of American teens reported access to a handheld device and nearly half described themselves as “almost constantly” online as of 2024. The authors of the study aim to determine how this omnipresent force, which acts just like a drug for its millions of users, shapes adolescent development, “particularly in contexts such as school that are designed to foster sustained attention, academic engagement, and social growth.”
The authors of the study wrote: “Developmental theories of self-regulation suggest that adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to distraction, given ongoing maturation of prefrontal cognitive control systems alongside sensitivity to rewarding social information.
The constant availability of smartphones therefore will increase social media distraction during school hours, creating unique challenges for adolescents’ ability to regulate attention and maintain focus on academic tasks.”
In other words, teachers face greater obstacles than ever before when it comes to controlling their classrooms. Needless to say, teachers should not be required to compete against smartphones in the classroom.
Across the study, phone use was monitored during every hour of the school day, from 8 AM until the final bell at 3 PM. On average, screen time increased progressively from about 16 minutes at 8 AM. to more than 22 minutes by 2 PM. One particularly distracted student racked up more than five hours of phone use during school across the study period.
Read more
Why children should be kept off social media ...
Read more
France moves to ban social media for minors ...
High school students accessed their smartphones significantly more than middle schoolers, averaging roughly 23 minutes of screen time per hour compared to about 12 minutes for younger students.
Researchers also monitored which apps were getting the attention. It’s no surprise that social media behemoths, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, combined with entertainment apps like YouTube, accounted for almost 70 percent of total school-hours screen time. Incredibly, students averaged about 75 minutes on social media during the school day and nearly 50 minutes on entertainment apps, the report showed.
Did all of this screen time negatively influence the ability of students to concentrate? To find out, researchers tested the high school student’s concentration using a go/no-go task, a standard exercise in which participants are instructed to activate a button in response to one image but hold back when they see another.
This test measures a person’s ability to override an automatic impulse, a key attribute of self-control. Among those examined, students who picked up their phones more often during school performed worse.
The results of the study will assist school administrators and parents in the ongoing debate as to whether or not smartphones should be banned from school. Some nations, meanwhile, have gone further. Australia has banned children under 16 from registering on social media and Malaysia introduced a similar ban in January. The European Parliament is openly discussing following the example of these two countries.
Perhaps we should end here with a quote by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who allegedly said his children were not allowed to use smartphones and computers, “because it takes two weeks to become an advanced user, but a childhood spent staring at screens costs something far more valuable: time for real development.”
Published 31 Mar, 2026 23:07
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of 'Midnight in the American Empire,' How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.
@Robert_Bridge
By this time, we are all familiar with the image of some harried schoolteacher attempting to maintain control over a classroom where the majority of students are transfixed by their smartphones instead of the dusty chalkboard.
The dangers of social media for the minds of young and old alike has already been well-documented, and the amount of time that students spend on their handheld devices is increasing with each new study conducted.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tracked the real-time phone habits of middle and high schoolers and found something that should disturb every teacher and parent. Phone usage appeared during every single hour of the school day, and not a single student in the study went the entire school day without using their mobile phone.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the students who used their phones most often also showed noticeably less self-control.
Published in JAMA Network Open,
this new study monitored the phone habits of 79 students aged 11 to 18 over two consecutive weeks and found the average teen racks up more than two full hours of screen time during school time alone. That’s approximately one-third of their total daily phone use – and over a quarter of the entire school day! But the more disturbing discovery wasn’t how long students were on their phones.
The alarming factor was how often the students were reaching for their devices, and how that nervous, knee-jerk habit appears to be linked to concentration levels.
Like infants reaching out for their favorite security blanket, students reached for their phones an average of 64 times during the school day, and those who grabbed their devices most often scored worse on a standard test that measured concentration and self-control. The study shows a link not just between phones and distraction, but between compulsive phone use and the kind of mental discipline adolescents need to learn and develop.
That’s pretty alarming … It’s too much, not only because of the missed learning opportunity in the classroom,” researcher Lauren Hale, sleep expert and professor at Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine told The 74.
“They’re missing out on real life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable for growth during a critical period of one’s life.”
To say that smartphones have become a pervasive feature of adolescents’ daily lives would be a gross understatement.
More than 95% of American teens reported access to a handheld device and nearly half described themselves as “almost constantly” online as of 2024. The authors of the study aim to determine how this omnipresent force, which acts just like a drug for its millions of users, shapes adolescent development, “particularly in contexts such as school that are designed to foster sustained attention, academic engagement, and social growth.”
The authors of the study wrote: “Developmental theories of self-regulation suggest that adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to distraction, given ongoing maturation of prefrontal cognitive control systems alongside sensitivity to rewarding social information.
The constant availability of smartphones therefore will increase social media distraction during school hours, creating unique challenges for adolescents’ ability to regulate attention and maintain focus on academic tasks.”
In other words, teachers face greater obstacles than ever before when it comes to controlling their classrooms. Needless to say, teachers should not be required to compete against smartphones in the classroom.
Across the study, phone use was monitored during every hour of the school day, from 8 AM until the final bell at 3 PM. On average, screen time increased progressively from about 16 minutes at 8 AM. to more than 22 minutes by 2 PM. One particularly distracted student racked up more than five hours of phone use during school across the study period.
Read more
Why children should be kept off social media ...
Read more
France moves to ban social media for minors ...
High school students accessed their smartphones significantly more than middle schoolers, averaging roughly 23 minutes of screen time per hour compared to about 12 minutes for younger students.
Researchers also monitored which apps were getting the attention. It’s no surprise that social media behemoths, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, combined with entertainment apps like YouTube, accounted for almost 70 percent of total school-hours screen time. Incredibly, students averaged about 75 minutes on social media during the school day and nearly 50 minutes on entertainment apps, the report showed.
Did all of this screen time negatively influence the ability of students to concentrate? To find out, researchers tested the high school student’s concentration using a go/no-go task, a standard exercise in which participants are instructed to activate a button in response to one image but hold back when they see another.
This test measures a person’s ability to override an automatic impulse, a key attribute of self-control. Among those examined, students who picked up their phones more often during school performed worse.
The results of the study will assist school administrators and parents in the ongoing debate as to whether or not smartphones should be banned from school. Some nations, meanwhile, have gone further. Australia has banned children under 16 from registering on social media and Malaysia introduced a similar ban in January. The European Parliament is openly discussing following the example of these two countries.
Perhaps we should end here with a quote by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who allegedly said his children were not allowed to use smartphones and computers, “because it takes two weeks to become an advanced user, but a childhood spent staring at screens costs something far more valuable: time for real development.”
❖
Legacy media is covering up for transgender murderers
Can we stop pretending there is no correlation between transgenderism
and dangerous mental instability?
Published 19 Feb, 2026 19:54
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of 'Midnight in the American Empire,' How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.
@Robert_Bridge
Within hours of the third-worst mass shooting in Canadian history, the mainstream legacy media has once again gone to great lengths to cover up the real identity of the shooter.
On February 10, residents of Tumbler Ridge, a remote town in British Columbia, Canada were left reeling from a shooting spree that left 9 dead and 27 wounded. Judging by the screaming headlines and stories that followed the attack, the majority of readers would certainly believe that a female shooter was responsible for the carnage.
The New York Times, in its early coverage of the massacre, would only describe the killer as a “female in a dress with brown hair.” While the Grey Lady was playing it safe, not revealing details until all of the facts were known, later reporting reserved just a single line to acknowledge that the killer, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, was “born as a biological male and chose to identify as a female.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press completely and unforgivably failed to mention the fact that Rootselaar was a biological male. In its description of the killer, AP would only say that “she was an 18-year-old who had a history of police visits to her home to check on her mental health…”
That is a critical omission, since millions of people depend on the AP for their daily news consumption. News stories collected by the agency are published and republished by more than 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters. Founded in 1846, the AP attracts more than 128 million monthly website visits, making it one of the top 10 news websites in the US.
Meanwhile, Reuters performed only marginally better, informing its readers that the shooter was “born male but began identifying as a female six years ago.” However, that information was buried more than halfway down in the story, thus guaranteeing that only the most ardent readers would discover that crucial detail.
One thing all of the mainstream stories had in common is that the headlines declared the killer to be “female” as opposed to “trans”.
This brings us to the elephant in the room: Why does the media downplay the fact that an increasing number of shocking attacks being carried out today are by people who identify as “trans”? Unless you’ve been getting all of your information from the left-leaning mainstream media, you’ll know that the tragedy in British Columbia was not some aberration.
On March 27, 2023 in Nashville, transgender person Aiden Hale, 28, killed three nine‑year‑old children and three adults before being shot and killed by police officers. CNN, in a lengthy article on the shooting, only briefly mentions that Hale was “transgender” deep in the story.
On August 27, 2025 in Minneapolis, Robin Westman, formerly known as Robert Westman, opened fire through the stained-glass windows of a church at Annunciation Catholic School, killing two children and wounding 17. Once again, AP, The New York Times, CNN and the rest of the liberal media reported in passing that Westman identified as a woman.
Meanwhile, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the alleged murderer of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, had transgender associations and beliefs. Not surprisingly, information on Robinson and his ongoing court case has practically vanished from the news cycle.
Just this week, transgender father Robert Dorgan, who also went by the name Roberta Esposito, was identified as the Rhode Island hockey shooter who gunned down his family during a game.
Given the low number of individuals who actually identify as transgender, the number of killings carried out by this miniscule group seems disproportionate and deserves some serious attention. Yet the mainstream media would prefer to treat its readers like children.
Every time a violent event takes place involving a transgender person, it pulls the wool over our eyes and polices pronouns in a desperate attempt to control the narrative and make people stop asking questions.
Does the mainstream media have a duty to have a serious conversation with its readers about the biological makeup of suspected killers, with the same sort of enthusiasm it has when slamming gun rights? It seems to be the appropriate time to begin speaking about mental illness. After all, can we say with absolute certainty that believing oneself to be the opposite sex is truly a harmless behavior, or does it point to deeper psychological issues?
Whatever the case may be, we have come to the point in history when it is considered acceptable for young adults to pump their bodies full of hormone blockers and psychiatric drugs, and force scrupulous doctors out of business when they question such practices.
Anyone who questions the procedures is outright deemed a bigot. None of that can be described as remotely sane or normal.
At the same time, the media regularly describes these impressionable transgender youths as victims in a world that is pitted against them. In a world dominated by social media, this is exactly the sort of programming that will cause them to seek attention and ‘15 minutes of fame’ by becoming transgender in the first place. It may even provoke a handful to strike back at their supposed ‘tormentors’, thus causing the death of more innocents.
This does not mean that every person suffering from gender dysphoria is a time bomb waiting to go off, of course. Nevertheless, we need to be honest with ourselves and speak out on the early warning signs of mental illness.
To that end, the mainstream media must stop pretending that there is nothing to learn from an individual’s professed sexual self-identification. It could literally mean – as yet another stricken community has tragically learned – the difference between life and death.
Can we stop pretending there is no correlation between transgenderism
and dangerous mental instability?
Published 19 Feb, 2026 19:54
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of 'Midnight in the American Empire,' How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.
@Robert_Bridge
Within hours of the third-worst mass shooting in Canadian history, the mainstream legacy media has once again gone to great lengths to cover up the real identity of the shooter.
On February 10, residents of Tumbler Ridge, a remote town in British Columbia, Canada were left reeling from a shooting spree that left 9 dead and 27 wounded. Judging by the screaming headlines and stories that followed the attack, the majority of readers would certainly believe that a female shooter was responsible for the carnage.
The New York Times, in its early coverage of the massacre, would only describe the killer as a “female in a dress with brown hair.” While the Grey Lady was playing it safe, not revealing details until all of the facts were known, later reporting reserved just a single line to acknowledge that the killer, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, was “born as a biological male and chose to identify as a female.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press completely and unforgivably failed to mention the fact that Rootselaar was a biological male. In its description of the killer, AP would only say that “she was an 18-year-old who had a history of police visits to her home to check on her mental health…”
That is a critical omission, since millions of people depend on the AP for their daily news consumption. News stories collected by the agency are published and republished by more than 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters. Founded in 1846, the AP attracts more than 128 million monthly website visits, making it one of the top 10 news websites in the US.
Meanwhile, Reuters performed only marginally better, informing its readers that the shooter was “born male but began identifying as a female six years ago.” However, that information was buried more than halfway down in the story, thus guaranteeing that only the most ardent readers would discover that crucial detail.
One thing all of the mainstream stories had in common is that the headlines declared the killer to be “female” as opposed to “trans”.
This brings us to the elephant in the room: Why does the media downplay the fact that an increasing number of shocking attacks being carried out today are by people who identify as “trans”? Unless you’ve been getting all of your information from the left-leaning mainstream media, you’ll know that the tragedy in British Columbia was not some aberration.
On March 27, 2023 in Nashville, transgender person Aiden Hale, 28, killed three nine‑year‑old children and three adults before being shot and killed by police officers. CNN, in a lengthy article on the shooting, only briefly mentions that Hale was “transgender” deep in the story.
On August 27, 2025 in Minneapolis, Robin Westman, formerly known as Robert Westman, opened fire through the stained-glass windows of a church at Annunciation Catholic School, killing two children and wounding 17. Once again, AP, The New York Times, CNN and the rest of the liberal media reported in passing that Westman identified as a woman.
Meanwhile, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the alleged murderer of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, had transgender associations and beliefs. Not surprisingly, information on Robinson and his ongoing court case has practically vanished from the news cycle.
Just this week, transgender father Robert Dorgan, who also went by the name Roberta Esposito, was identified as the Rhode Island hockey shooter who gunned down his family during a game.
Given the low number of individuals who actually identify as transgender, the number of killings carried out by this miniscule group seems disproportionate and deserves some serious attention. Yet the mainstream media would prefer to treat its readers like children.
Every time a violent event takes place involving a transgender person, it pulls the wool over our eyes and polices pronouns in a desperate attempt to control the narrative and make people stop asking questions.
Does the mainstream media have a duty to have a serious conversation with its readers about the biological makeup of suspected killers, with the same sort of enthusiasm it has when slamming gun rights? It seems to be the appropriate time to begin speaking about mental illness. After all, can we say with absolute certainty that believing oneself to be the opposite sex is truly a harmless behavior, or does it point to deeper psychological issues?
Whatever the case may be, we have come to the point in history when it is considered acceptable for young adults to pump their bodies full of hormone blockers and psychiatric drugs, and force scrupulous doctors out of business when they question such practices.
Anyone who questions the procedures is outright deemed a bigot. None of that can be described as remotely sane or normal.
At the same time, the media regularly describes these impressionable transgender youths as victims in a world that is pitted against them. In a world dominated by social media, this is exactly the sort of programming that will cause them to seek attention and ‘15 minutes of fame’ by becoming transgender in the first place. It may even provoke a handful to strike back at their supposed ‘tormentors’, thus causing the death of more innocents.
This does not mean that every person suffering from gender dysphoria is a time bomb waiting to go off, of course. Nevertheless, we need to be honest with ourselves and speak out on the early warning signs of mental illness.
To that end, the mainstream media must stop pretending that there is nothing to learn from an individual’s professed sexual self-identification. It could literally mean – as yet another stricken community has tragically learned – the difference between life and death.
❖