Because the Left has shown how effective it is.

Indeed.


“Is this the type of country we want to live in?” That is the question posed by Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson, a pair of waggish conservative commentators, as they ponder the fate of the d.j. who got fired for playing “Blurred Lines.” They are the authors of a new book titled “End of Discussion: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun).” They argue that what might seem like hypersensitivity is actually a form of political combat. Borrowing from the language of soccer, they write, “America is turning into a country of floppers, figuratively grabbing our shins in fabricated agony over every little possible offense in hopes of working the refs.” Kirsten Powers, a liberal—though a heterodox one—and a Fox News pundit, delivers an even starker verdict in “The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech.” She detects, among those she might once have considered ideological allies, “an aggressive, illiberal impulse to silence people,” which often takes the form of meta-intolerance—that is, intolerance of any view that is judged to be intolerant.