#Wokeism — by Christopher Hitchens

One must begin by observing that the very people who pride themselves on their alleged “progressivism” have become, almost overnight, the most censorious and joyless of Puritans. We used to be told — correctly — that words are not violence, that the free exchange of ideas is the oxygen of civilization. Now, in a perverse reversal, every phrase, every joke, every deviation from the approved catechism is treated as heresy, as if the Inquisition had merely traded its cassocks for hashtags.

The great struggle of the Enlightenment was to liberate mankind from dogma to say that no priest, no monarch, and certainly no mob had the right to dictate thought. But today we face the ludicrous spectacle of students, supposedly educated, demanding “safe spaces” not from bullets or bombs, but from opinions. If Voltaire were alive, he would not be invited to a university lecture hall; he’d be shouted down by adolescents convinced that their feelings are more sacred than truth.

This mania for censorship, draped in the dishonest garb of “inclusion” or “kindness,” is nothing more than authoritarianism in its infancy. It infantilizes the public, teaching them not how to think, but how to cower. Worse still, it elevates the mediocre: when debate is stifled, when dissent is punished, the only ideas left are the dull, the conformist, and the banal.

And yet, let us not forget the delicious irony: those who silence in the name of justice reveal themselves to be terrified of argument. If your worldview cannot withstand a jest, a tweet, or a book, then it is not a worldview at all, but a brittle ornament to be preserved only in a glass case, never touched, never tested.

The antidote is the same as it ever was: unapologetic speech, unfettered inquiry, and a refusal to bow to the latest priesthood whether it wears robes or rainbow pins. As I’ve said before, the grave will supply plenty of silence. Until then, we had better use our voices.

— C.H.A.I.