This article takes aim at a specific segment of urban leftist women — labeled AWFUL — arguing their ideas and behavior threaten public safety, civic norms, and common sense approaches to crime and punishment.
Movies like “Ghostbusters” joke about giant monsters as city-killers, but the piece argues that the real threat wears suburban or urban fashions and carries progressive slogans. The term affluent white female urban leftist (AWFUL) is used to describe women who, the author contends, favor ideology over safety. The criticism mixes cultural observation with pointed political disagreement.
The column begins by calling out a rising tendency among some left-leaning women to insist certain speech and actions be silenced in the name of feelings and identity. It argues many of these women treat “hate speech” as anything that offends them personally, and that this approach corrodes free expression and open debate. The writer frames this as an attack on constitutional norms and civic tolerance.
There is a charge that many in this group have allowed politics to replace traditional roles and responsibilities that once kept communities stable. The argument suggests that when people channel maternal or civic instincts into public scolding rather than building families or community ties, the result is social fragmentation. That claim is presented as a cultural diagnosis rather than a clinical one.
To illustrate the problem, the article reproduces a striking quote from an interview subject: “I think my answer is yes, even though that’s a challenging answer to say,” the woman says when asked if a rapist should be free to roam the streets. The piece then includes a longer passage from the same speaker that many readers will find jarring: “I have been raped, and they are out in the street, and I’m not sure, like, them going to jail is a solution to whatever’s going on inside their heart, or even my own heart that contributed to the experience that I’m having,” she continues.
“Even in my own heart that contributed to the experience that I’m having … “ appears as a separate, emphasized fragment in the original reporting, and the author leaves that language intact to let readers judge its implication. The column presses the point that framing criminal acts as opportunities for self-blame or therapeutic intervention misunderstands the purpose of punishment in law. The writer insists prison is about removing dangerous people from society, not about spiritual counseling.
“And I don’t want more people to get raped but I don’t know for certain if going into a jail in the United States is going to shift anything inside of their operating system so they’ll make a different choice again,” she says, and the article pushes back hard on that view. The argument is that some harms are not solved by soft treatments or expanded welfare and that expecting money and services to erase violent behavior is naive. The column takes a firm stance that public safety requires accountability.
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The piece contrasts that perspective with stories of older generations who endured hardship without turning to crime, using family anecdotes about the Great Depression to argue that poverty alone does not explain violent behavior. The author calls the notion that poverty is the primary driver of crime “a load of horse crap,” and frames that belief as an insult to the poor who make moral choices. This reflects a broader Republican critique of criminal-justice narratives tied too closely to economic explanations.
There is also criticism of progressive education policies the writer sees as excusing bad behavior in schools in the name of cultural sensitivity. The column argues that excusing lateness, rudeness, and disruption as cultural traits ends up harming vulnerable students and lowers expectations for everyone. That argument is used to underscore the author’s belief that straight talk and standards matter.
The article cites a high-profile local controversy to show political hypocrisy, noting a case where alleged sexual misconduct was tolerated until it threatened an election outcome. It says second accusers hesitated to speak out because they “liked his politics,” and that partisan convenience can determine how justice is pursued. The piece uses that example to warn of a corrosive double standard when ideology trumps truth.
The closing sections drive home the claim that ideologies minimizing punishment and elevating feelings over facts will damage communities. The writer argues that treating criminal behavior as a social construct to be solved solely with funding and therapy ignores moral responsibility and the need to protect victims. The tone throughout remains combative and unapologetic about defending law, order, and traditional civic norms.
