Nothing Happens In A Vacuum

In a few short years, one virtually unknown person potentially can have a profound effect on our national politics — and on our way of life.

We’ve all probably heard of the “butterfly effect” — the component of chaos theory that theorizes that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can cause drastic changes in weather patterns many thousands of miles away. I’ll let you be the judge as to whether that’s literally true or merely metaphorical. But the butterfly effect seems to have become widely accepted and examples of it pop up regularly in our public discourse.

Consider the story of Mark Robinson, a regular Joe — a married guy, an employee of a North Carolina furniture manufacturer, evangelical Christian, and occasional preacher. By some reports, Robinson apparently was also not only a porn aficionado but also someone who liked to boast about his sexual conquests in great detail.

(I’ll spare you those details; there’s plenty of salacious info available via a Google search, if you’re so inclined.)

Let’s go back a few years. In 2018, Mark Robinson became “internet famous” because of a pro-gun speech he made: