As I listen in frustration to my liberal friends complain about encroaching authoritarianism in the United States and the danger of letting people express their opinions on X, I stand amazed at their admiration for allies in Europe, such as the UK or the European Union cracking down on people who aren’t in lockstep with the ruling regimes.
It is a testament to the power of groupthink and the power of propaganda and gives us a window into how otherwise civilized societies descend into barbarous madness that results in crimes against humanity.
The analog isn’t so much the rise of Nazism–that sprang up out of the humiliating defeat of World War I and the economic turmoil of the post-war and Great Depression years when social upheaval would be expected. Rather, we are witnessing something akin to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, in which a years-long…
