> This is all very basic liberalism. I'm an atheist but I will defend people's right to worship and, in doing so, I am defending my own right not to worship. It

> This is all very basic liberalism. I'm an atheist but I will defend people's right to worship and, in doing so, I am defending my own right not to worship. It's disturbing to me to see how the basic tenets of liberal civilization have become cliche in people's minds. The woke bullying and intimidation tactics are just too powerful at shutting down debate. It's no longer even permissible to agree on goals but disagree on the means. Disagreement is seen as evidence of bad faith and of secretly being a fascist. E.g., suppose that one values racial equality highly but thinks that defunding police is harmful to this end (see [0] for some evidence that decreased policing harms the poor). It will be extremely difficult for you to advocate this position without being constantly derailed, because people have been trained to see any kind of noncomformity as suspicious. They won't outright accuse you of racism usually, but they will say that you might be racist or that you sound similar to a secret racist. This is incredibly effective at derailing the discussion and avoiding any real debate. Even if you manage to make your points well, they will be forever tainted by the stain of the baseless accusations. You lose even if you win. I think most people are still reasonable and still value liberal civilization, but they're either too terrified to speak out or they're isolated from what's going on and don't see a problem. Of course, by the time the problems are so widespread that everyone can see them, it may be too late to do anything about it. Control over information is the most powerful political tool one can have, and the woke left are too intoxicated with this power to heed any warnings. [0] https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/06/policing-the-police.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/06/po...