It is important to debate ideas. Debating those who disagree with you clarifies your own thoughts and shores up weaknesses in your reasoning. Civil argument is wonderful exercise for the mind. Healthy minds make good citizens. Good citizens maintain strong societies.
It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to conclude that one of the first signs of a crumbling society is the inability of its people to argue peacefully among themselves.
I think most people born before 1990 would agree that public debate has disintegrated over the last three decades. We are no longer able to argue passionately — perhaps even shouting at each other — and end our disagreements by shaking hands, smiling, and moving on. Everything today is a vicious grudge match that participants treat as existential in nature — either I win this debate or my worth as a person is zero!
Ideological zealotry has replaced thinking. Thinking requires a person to accept the limitations of his knowledge and the possibility that he might be wrong. Ideological zealotry short-circuits the mind’s capacity for reason and prevents those so afflicted from enjoying true creativity.
In my experience, this affliction primarily torments those who would identify as being part of the political left. No doubt they would call me a partisan and explain all the ways my Christian beliefs trap me in a mental prison. They would be wrong. People who are confident in their beliefs should welcome outside challenges.
At some point as we move from adolescence to adulthood, those with enough curiosity to chase answers in this life have an epiphany: Truth abides regardless of how vigorously it is tested. It is only when we are willing to leave the relative safety of what we already know to ask questions about what we do not that we can intellectually, morally, and spiritually prosper. A person’s convictions are only as strong as that person’s willingness to test those convictions daily. Faith leads us to truth, and truth leads us to faith.
In this regard, modern leftists fail. They are currently unwilling and unable to test their beliefs. They are not capable of admitting past mistakes or acknowledging the limits of their knowledge. Perhaps because so many reject the existence of God, they are more inclined to see themselves as gods in this world. To question their beliefs, in other words, is to question their theology and their religious devotion to themselves.
This was not always the case. There was a time when leftists debated me on many subjects, and when we were done, we shook hands and continued as friends. What has changed? Two observations stand out — one moral or philosophical and the other institutional.
First, it was not so strange to find Christian leftists in the past. No matter how much they might depend upon Marx as a crutch, their charitable inclinations, suspicions of free markets, or anti-war worldviews was grounded in their Christian faith. As such, they knew that they did not have all the answers and that the surest path toward truth required an acknowledgment of one’s limitations, a willingness to seek penitence, an eagerness to heed one’s calling, and a desire to obey God’s will.
In my estimation, scientists who believe in God are much more creative intellectuals than their atheistic colleagues. I have long suspected that this is so because the former are certain that there is much that they can never know, while the latter are certain that they will know everything. When one believes that man is master over everything, an intellectual dullness sets in. When one knows that God is master over everything, scientific exploration is like getting a backstage pass to see some of God’s handiwork.
The second major change over the last few decades is that the political left cemented its control over the university campus, creative arts industry, and government bureaucracy. Although this “march through the institutions” has been a century in the making, it wasn’t so long ago when non-leftist thinkers still occupied valuable territory in the worlds of academia, publishing, and government. If for no other reason than ensuring their own professional survival in environments where diversity of thought continued to exist, leftists once interacted with non-leftists more civilly.
Any vestige of that past is now long gone. As leftists came to dominate the institutions, they became much more vocal in pronouncing their beliefs as undeniable and much more adamant in imposing those beliefs upon everyone else. In fact, leftists seem to have misinterpreted their present perch atop the institutions as veritable proof that everything they believe is the absolute truth. They have no interest in debating people with contrary worldviews because they have convinced themselves that their current cultural superiority is unimpeachable evidence that all other worldviews are wrong. They will not defend their beliefs with logical reason because they are certain that conflicting beliefs are ipso facto unreasonable.
For decades, Americans mocked “political correctness” as something foreign to our culture. It was common to hear leftists and non-leftists alike preface a joke by saying, “This isn’t politically correct” before laughing about politically incorrect things. One of the unifying elements of American society was a general agreement among Americans of all political stripes that free speech is invaluable and that self-censorship is anti-American. I had many conversations with leftists and non-leftists over the years who all expressed a similar sentiment — that American society would demonstrate that it had grown beyond petty racial, ethnic, sexual, and class divisions when everyone learned to “take a joke.”
Tragically, nobody can take a joke this century. Words must be analyzed with intense scrutiny. Hidden biases must be diagnosed. Innate privileges must be identified. Language must be policed. People are desperate to have their feelings hurt and to express publicly how they have been offended. Were I to tell everyone with pronouns in his bio, “Toughen up, buttercup,” I would be guilty of various -isms, supremacies, and general “hate speech.”
When hate is criminalized, the powers that be need only adjust their hate knobs accordingly to censor all dissenting speech. “Political correctness” in America is no longer a laughing matter. Good people have been fired, canceled, stigmatized, and even prosecuted for offending the political left. Free speech in America remains on life support because leftists have imported foreign self-censorship.
Perhaps most bemusing is how many leftists born before 1990 now embrace this malignant oppression. Leftists who once would have laughed at the idea that men should compete in women’s sports or that kindergarteners should be forced to attend “drag queen story hour” now speak of “transgenderism” as if it were a sacred “truth.” Leftists who once advocated for a “colorblind” society now obsess over race. Leftists who once argued that free speech is worth any fight now demand that governments and social media companies censor everyone with whom they disagree.
Leftists will not debate because they cannot debate. They are ideological zealots no longer capable of independent thinking.
In this regard, writer Michael Schwarz recently brought a hilarious video from The Babylon Bee to my attention. In this satirical gem entitled “Liberal Goes Back in Time to Kill Hitler,” a “woke” social justice warrior reluctantly realizes that she and Adolf have much in common — including their love for socialized medicine, abortion, gun control, government censorship, environmental regulation, antisemitism, and authoritarian expertise.
The whole thing is a hoot. But beware: This video is “politically incorrect.” You might be “canceled” for promoting it. And leftists certainly won’t understand it. They are simply not capable of appreciating how much they now have in common with Hitler’s Nazis. They no longer know how to think. They know only how to repeat slogans, impose “correct” beliefs, and punish apostates. Besides, it’s hard to laugh when you’re busy goose-stepping.
Hat tip to the irreplaceable Lloyd Marcus.
