The modern Left does not merely argue policy anymore. It manufactures meaning. And when meaning runs dry, it goes shopping for martyrs. Every week feels like a casting call for the next saint of progressive politics. Someone must be oppressed, harmed, and then elevated. Because without a victim, the movement has no moral fuel.
Enter Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05), who was recently “attacked” when someone squirted vinegar from a syringe at her. Vinegar. A household condiment. The sort of thing you put on fries, not something that sends a democracy into cardiac arrest. Within hours, the press predictably swung into action. Headlines swelled. The Left leaned forward in anticipation.
For more details and video, see this article by RedState Deputy Managing Editor Susie Moore.
READ MORE: MN Rep. Ilhan Omar Sprayed With Unknown Substance at Town Hall Event
In a post on X regarding Tuesday’s incident, Omar stated:
I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work.
I don’t let bullies win.
Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 28, 2026
How inspiring.
Then, President Donald Trump said what many Americans were already thinking. In a phone interview with ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, Trump dismissed the incident outright. He said he had not seen the video of it.
“I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,” Trump said. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
Cue the outrage.
Now, let us be clear. Whether the incident was staged, exaggerated, or exactly as described is almost beside the point. The deeper issue is not vinegar. It is the desperate hunger for symbolic blood.
This is not new. We have watched this movie before. And its sequel. At this point, we’re on a Rocky V level of disappointment.
The Left has become addicted to narrative martyrs. Not heroes in the traditional sense. Not men and women who sacrificed, built, protected, or stood for something larger than themselves. But symbols. Faces that can be printed on posters, graffiti’d on walls, chanted in streets, and weaponized against political opponents. You know, an excuse to break the law, destroy towns, and skip work.
Consider George Floyd. His death was tragic. It deserved serious examination and justice where warranted. But what followed was not justice. It was mythology. A deeply flawed man with a violent criminal history was transfigured into a secular saint overnight. Facts were flattened. Context was erased. Any attempt at nuance was treated as heresy.
Why? Because the Left needed him.
A movement that defines itself entirely by grievance must constantly feed that grievance. It must find new villains and new victims to justify its anger. The problem with our liberal neighbors is that reality does not always cooperate. So the stories get stretched. Then twisted. Then, eventually, completely invented.
This is what happens when a political ideology loses its moral compass.
To recognize a hero, you must first understand good. To identify a villain, you must acknowledge evil. But modern progressivism rejects those categories outright. Good is whatever advances the cause. Evil is whatever resists it. There is no objective standard. No transcendent truth. No moral north star.
So heroes are not discovered. They are assigned.
That is why the Left’s icons are so fragile. One scratch of the surface and the story collapses. Facts become inconvenient, body camera footage ruins the vibe, and court transcripts interrupt the soapboxes. And when the truth emerges, the media quietly moves on to the next candidate.
The press plays a critical role in this cycle as legacy outlets no longer see themselves as referees. They are participants. Activists with press badges. Their job is not to inform, but to anoint. Every incident must be framed as systemic, while every accusation must be amplified. Every conservative doubt must be labeled cruelty. And every progressive figure must be treated as a victim first, a public servant second.
But the deeper rot here exposes an infection deeper than politics.
Now you have the brainwashed and mentally deranged convinced that they’re “brave” and “courageous.” I’m watching these narcissists attack law enforcement, interrupt lawful orders, and call themselves “peaceful protesters.” They are being led like lambs to the slaughter by a propaganda machine that wants to use their blood to write more slogans.
Every loss of life is tragic. But the Alex Prettis and Renee Goods weren’t born this way. They’re products of a movement that has no standard of morality, no objective truth to lean on, being “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching… influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.” Galatians 4:14
A society that cannot define good will eventually glorify the wrong people. A culture that denies evil will excuse it. A movement that cannot produce real heroes will fabricate them, no matter how thin the material.
Real heroes build. They sacrifice. They tell the truth even when it costs them. They do not need a press release to validate their courage.
The Left does not lack intelligence. It lacks grounding. It has untethered itself from any moral framework older than the last news cycle. And so it lurches from crisis to crisis, desperately trying to fill a spiritual vacuum with political theater. Martyrs are easier than repentance. Victims are easier than responsibility.
America deserves better than manufactured sainthood and media-assisted melodrama. We need fewer invented heroes and more moral clarity. Until then, expect more syringes, more headlines, and more desperate attempts to turn tragedies of foolishness into “clear symbols of systemic issues.”
Because when you abandon truth, symbolism is all you have left.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy RedState’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join RedState VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
