Kirsten Powers is a liberal Democrat, but she argues forcefully and persuasively that too often the left are anything but liberal–in the classic sense, meaning that they value religious liberty, freedom of speech, and the free exchange of ideas. The “illiberal left,” as she dubs them, instead deal with differing views by going to great efforts to silence them by any means necessary–the courts, public shaming, pressuring universities to limit dissenters of liberal orthodoxy to Orwellian “free speech zones,” etc. The illiberal left is incredibly vicious and intellectually dishonest with anyone who doesn’t to the line of hard-left thought, and Powers almost overwhelms the reader with countless examples.
This isn’t to say that conservatives never succumb to these deplorable activities, but it’s pretty clear that all of the significant obstacles to religious liberty and fair and honest intellectual debate in America live with the left.
The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech by Kirsten Powers Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook
The last line seems a bit strong to me. (But I have heard it is accurate to the book’s argument). I will have to pick it up at some point.
Seth, the point of the book is talking about the left. But I wonder if she talked about the right as well. Seems to me that there are segments on both sides that can be illiberal, although often in different ways.