Tea at Trianon: Dark Woke, Rage Rooms, and the Blinding Narcissism of Online Tribalism

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Dark Woke, Rage Rooms, and the Blinding Narcissism of Online Tribalism

From Chronicles:

Why are white liberal women from affluent backgrounds willing to man the ramparts and put their lives on the line to protect illegal immigrants, some of whom are rapists and murderers, from deportation? There are many possible answers: a self-perceived need to oppose injustice, or to have a sense of agency, community, purpose, or even an antidote to loneliness. All are plausible explanations considering the average progressive’s mindset is like layers of onion skin. But I believe there is a simple answer.

Over the past decade, Gallup World Poll data show that women globally have become 6 percentage points angrier than men. Forget the gender wage gap—there’s now a gender rage gap. Thomas Sowell may have been right: not all disparities come from discrimination. Women are mad as hell, and they aren’t going to take it anymore. This surge in reported anger hasn’t gone unnoticed—in fact, it’s now being actively commodified through the growing popularity of “rage rooms.”

A rage room is a place for women to vent pent-up anger. When a middle-aged liberal woman is denied the chance to speak with a manager or is mansplained to, she can simply pay to smash items in a padded, soundproofed room. Just book a slot, grab a sledgehammer, and let off steam. It’s a commercialized catharsis that’s cheaper than therapy, or a divorce lawyer. Capitalism at its finest. (Read more.)

From The Capitalist:

The phenomenon of these deeply unhappy individuals is so commonly experienced in society that we have even given it a name: “The Karen.” And these Karens saw themselves in Spanberger who treated them as want to be treated: victims.
Virginia’s Karens are victims of Donald Trump who twice has denied them an equally miserable woman Presidency. They are victims of Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts to their government funded nonprofit which raises awareness about heart disease in lesbian snails. Victims of the “Republican shut down” which furloughed them from their Department of Whatever day job under the cruel moniker “non-essential personnel”. Victims of male Justices on the Supreme Court who threatened their sacred right to abortion. Victims of War Secretary Pete Hegseth who said they must train at the same physical standards as men. (Pete perhaps they hate the most because no man who looks like Pete winks at them anymore).
Winsome Sears did not coddle these women. The former Marine did not indulge their Karenocity, feed their Karenness, ignite their Karenisms.
Sears, the black immigrant Republican, does not see herself as a victim. Spanberger did, as all liberal women do, and they loved her for it.
For a Karen, elections are not about who is the better leader or which policies best serve society. No, elections are a rage-filled debate on The View, a self- empowering episode of Oprah, or a candle-lit bathtub and a well-worn copy of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Electoral politics are affirmation. They are therapy.
Think about it: The pointless “No Kings” protest last month was mostly comprised of white women in their 40’s, and that is very odd. This is not 1970’s, where women are called “toots” with their fanny’s smacked in smoke filled offices. These Karens are not Norma Rae demanding the right to unionize. Women have overcome legitimate trials, and triumphantly so. But that is not today’s Karen who almost certainly has experienced nothing comparable without an immediate HR action, lawsuit, or exposé in a print magazine.
Today’s 40-year old women have only known a red-carpet life in the majority with every effort of institutions and corporations catering to their needs. The majority of college and university students are women. The majority of post- graduate and doctoral students, medical school, law school students are women. Women out-earn men in the same professional field, a statistic that makes them apparently so unhappy, they have to invent the “pay gap” myth.
No Kings? If anything, the protest should be called “No Queens”. Women in America have it so good they can yell at a man for holding open a door but still demand they exit first in a fire. (Read more.)