As I’ve noted before, identity politics and the academic focus on ‘texts’ from which it emerged is uniquely suited to the internet and for keyword-based censorship. The other side is to corral ‘troublesome‘ people into talking in ways more technically amenable to control.

— scientism (@mr_scientism) October 19, 2019

Agreed. Outside of academia, ideas like “privilege” and “toxic masculinity” are probably more harmful than helpful. Regular people just don’t and absolutely never will think that way.

The left believes in the magic power of words, though, because academic types live in a cosmos of words and normal people do not. Hell, I live in a cosmos of words too, so I understand. I probably read more in a day than even most academics do in a month or even a year.

But I also know how to look outside my bubble and recognize that for most of the left, the power to punish and to harm for thoughtcrime and wrongspeak is the real driver of a lot of this, if not nearly all.