I live in Sweden where we've been having similar problems for a long time. I used to look at the US as a flawed (but not flawed beyond repair) example of a stat

I live in Sweden where we've been having similar problems for a long time. I used to look at the US as a flawed (but not flawed beyond repair) example of a state where the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression worked as a bulwark against the oppressive political climate we've become known for in Sweden. I would never have thought that in just a few years time the USA would overtake Sweden on this front. Where the 'åsiktskorridor' (literally 'opinion corridor', more or less comparable to the Overton window) in Sweden is gradually opening up, the opposite seems to be happening in the USA and those constitutional guarantees don't guarantee anything since they only apply to interactions between the state and the individual while the oppression comes from non-governmental groups. This oppressive climate where opinions are not shared has no positives at all, zero, nada, zip, zilch. All it does is create suspicion, doubt and division where in other circumstances a few words would have broken the ice and allowed understanding and trust to grow. In a society where the meaning of words keeps on being changed so as to weaponise them and the wrong word at the wrong moment can get you fired, where the common history is being demonised, where shared culture is divided into ethnic enclaves which are only deemed appropriate for those of the 'correct' ethnicity... the outlook is bleak. This type of activism used to be limited to the most extreme corners of academia but it has escaped into the wild and is spreading like wildfire. The more it spreads, the more violent the reaction will be. In Sweden we will eventually overcome our difficulties now that it has become so obvious that those who pushed the agenda were wrong. These people will not be held accountable, they will keep their jobs, most of them will act as if they had no part in the suppression of those with differing opinions even when confronted with hard evidence of their complicity. This is the way things work here, it is the way things have worked here for a long time - at least since WWII. What will happen in the USA when those who use Orwell's 1984 as a user manual lose momentum is up for grabs. The response better be measured and civilised or the gains of decades of civil rights work stands to be undone. The sooner those of sane mind of all ethnicities get together to call a halt to this madness, the better. Get at it before it is too late.