The slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is the sort of self-important verbiage expected of a 20 year-old man in university whispering to a woman cornered in a campus bar, explaining that he’s “different than other guys,” and that he truly understands how tax cuts lead to fascism, or whatever.

It’s certainly not the sort of language that should be adorning an austere publication, such as the Washington Post, but it does, unfortunately. That the paper adopted the slogan shortly after Donald Trump assumed the presidency in early 2017 probably explains the childish wording. American journalists truly have envisioned themselves as superheroes resisting what they see as the coming night. If Christian Bale uttered “Democracy Dies in Darkness” in his gruff, growly Batman voice, it wouldn’t seem out of place.