Posted on 09/13/2025 9:10:11 AM PDT by EBH
The Day the Lone Wolf Myth Died
In the valley below my house, the coyotes call at night. Except, they aren’t just coyotes anymore, they’re hybrids, part wolf, part coyote, something harder to categorize and harder to fight. You rarely see the whole pack at once. More often, you hear them, a scatter of calls, laughter that isn’t quite laughter, an echo that makes you realize you are surrounded without ever seeing the circle close.
That’s how it feels watching society now. A few flashes here and there, a stray comment from a leader, a celebration of someone’s death online, an act of violence that shocks the headlines. But those are just the howls. The pack itself is much larger, and mostly hidden.
We tell ourselves these are lone actors, isolated incidents, the occasional bad apple. It’s easier that way. But what if they aren’t? What if the noise we hear is only a signal of something already embedded in the landscape; something hybrid, adaptive, thriving in the margins where we least expect it?
The Lone Wolf Myth
The lone wolf myth works because it’s easy. It lets us believe that radicalization is personal, not cultural. That safety can be restored by removing a single threat. In Western societies, we cling to this individualist framing as if ecosystems of grievance, ideology, and rhetoric don’t matter. As if violence never grows in clusters, networks, or cultures.
But myths break. And this one has been breaking for a while.
Look elsewhere in the world and the contrast is striking. In the Middle East, for example, we would never describe a suicide bomber or an armed militia fighter as a “lone wolf.” Analysts talk in terms of networks, cells, recruitment pipelines, grievances, and ideological ecosystems. They examine the social soil that produces extremists poverty, humiliation, propaganda, fractured governance and recognize that even if one attacker acts alone, he emerges from a collective climate that shaped his rage.
Here at home, though, we’ve resisted that framing. We call it aberrant psychology rather than cultural radicalization. We prefer the comfort of believing in “bad apples” rather than facing the orchard. But when assassinations, church shootings, and targeted killings come in waves, and when they are openly celebrated online and by public figures, the orchard can’t be ignored.
What we once studied in faraway conflicts is now echoing here, and pretending it’s otherwise is the most dangerous form of denial?
The Timeline of Howls
Butler, Pennsylvania (July 2024): A shooter grazes a former president at a rally, killing an attendee and wounding others.
Florida golf course (Sept 2024): Another rifleman takes aim during a quiet game.
New York City (Dec 2024): A Fortune 500 insurance CEO is gunned down outside his hotel.
Austin, Texas (Mar 2025): An alternative media figure is killed in his own neighborhood.
Minnesota (Jun 2025): State legislators and their families shot in what officials call a politically motivated attack.
Annunciation Catholic Church (Aug. 2025): Attack during school Mass, children killed/injured — ruled domestic terrorism & hate crime
Utah Valley (Sept 2025): A young activist is cut down mid-speech.
Different names. Different places. Different motives, at least on paper. And yet the rhythm repeats. Each time, the headlines trot out the lone wolf. Each time, the story shrinks the pattern down to one man and one gun.
But listen closely and the echoes line up. This isn’t one howl. It’s the valley alive with them.
The Mask Slips
For me, the breaking point wasn’t just the killings. It was the celebrations. Professors and teachers posting gleeful comments. A city council president sneering that the victim “wasn’t one of the good ones.” Bluesky threads filling with threats against the next names on the list.
This is when the lone wolf myth dies. Because when violence is no longer hidden, when it is cheered by officials and echoed in mainstream platforms, you’re not dealing with one unstable person anymore. You’re hearing the pack in the open.
Fairview Park City Council President Michael Kilbane’s Comment — A Clear Line Crossed
On social media, Kilbane wrote, “A lot of good people died today. Charlie Kirk wasn’t one of them.” That statement didn’t happen in the heat of campaign politics—it followed a tragic assassination of Kirk at a public event. https://www.cleveland19.com
Words matter—especially from elected officials. When someone in his position publicly names another man not “one of the good ones” after death, it's not just poor taste—it signals acceptance or validation of political violence, and normalizes cruelty. News 5 Cleveland WEWS
The outrage followed—and not just from your usual critics. Fellow city leaders, neighbors, and ordinary residents condemned his words. He eventually resigned as Council President. https://www.cleveland19.com
The Danger of Answering in Kind
Anger rises easily in moments like these. It feels like clarity. But anger is no more reasoned than grief or fear. History shows that once societies answer predator with predator, something irretrievable is lost.
Once the line is crossed, you don’t get to choose which part of yourself makes it back. The part that loves your family, values decency, wants to hand down a future worth living. That part is the first casualty when cruelty becomes the currency.
Coywolves thrive because they cross lines other animals won’t. Decent people underestimate that. Their strength, restraint, humanity, loyalty is also their weakness if they think it will protect them against a culture that revels in cruelty.
The Pack You Don’t See
Coywolves don’t need wilderness anymore. They survive in the margins, alongside us, in the gaps we leave unguarded. The same is true of radicalization. It no longer lives only on the edge. It’s in our councils, our schools, our media feeds. You don’t see the whole pack, but you hear the cackles from every direction.
The lone wolf myth died the day the celebrations grew louder than the mourning. The day the mask slipped and the slogans were no longer performance but belief. The day the pack stopped hiding.
And once you’ve heard them in the valley, you can’t pretend it’s just one lone wolf anymore. The hardest part isn’t hearing the howls. It’s realizing they mean it. That the laughter isn’t parody, but hunger. You don’t always see the pack at once, but once you recognize the pattern, you can’t unhear it. And that’s when the valley gets very quiet — because you know what comes next.
Fine, but where does this "no response" idea leave us as a country? The last correct response to organized violence in America was Kent State. And yet the reaction of horror to that incident has lead us as a society to passivity and acceptance of crime and violence.
Something irretrievable is indeed lost. When decent Americans fail to respond in kind.
You are absolutely correct. The few perpetrators of these violent acts have been stoked by an entire pack of people. They’ve been calling for violence for a long, long time. Their entire pack needs to be hunted down and extinguished. Sadly, our leaders won’t have the balls to do it.
Total Depravity....
Having No Restraint or Natural Love.
.
Book of Romans.
Appreciate the ping, EBH. you are truly talented.
The expanded analogy is almost scary with truth.
Excellent writing.
You’re good at it.
Poke around on their websites. There’s probably an email link for submissions or suggestions.
Thanks!
Not only a pack, but they’ve taken on a hybrid method. One that we’ve been watching develop over decades, never realizing the full extent of what has happened until just a few days ago.
I have a hunch that looking at EBH’s FR profile, he/she is a professional writer. Just the writing on his profile would make an excellent thread...Would we be surprised to learn that the FReeper is a well known writer?
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