It used to be that liberals were open to new ideas and
would engage in rigorous debate to support their point of view. Not so much anymore.
Kirsten Powers, a self described liberal who lays claim to being raised in a
liberal household full of that rigorous debate, is columnist for USA Today and
The Daily Beast as well as a Fox News contributor, who in her new book makes a
solid case that it is the left who are on a mission to kill free speech.
In The Silencing –
How The Left is Killing Free Speech, Powers sets the nail in the heart of
what she renames the illiberal left and proceeds to drive it home again and
again; making her case almost to the point of redundancy. The reaction that she
has received from her fellow liberals reiterates her points; rather than trying
to engage Powers in a debate the left resorts to name calling.
While the left loves to wrap themselves in the banner
of being the smartest people in the room, clearly smarter than the backwards,
science hating conservatives; Powers clearly outlines that the left has become
as she puts it, “isolated from the marketplace of ideas.” Rather than trying to
engage those with differing points of view, the left has been reduced to
tactics that involve an almost non-stop creation of “phobias” which created the
illusion that those who disagree with the liberal viewpoint are somehow mentally
challenged. Thus we get things like homophobe
or Islamophobe; which really are nothing but name calling and
intimidation.
Rather than challenging conservatives, the left resorts
to trying to remove those who dissent from the playing field. How many times
have you heard the left call for the firing or removal of those they disagree
with? Powers cites nearly countless examples. The problem for the left is this
has amounted to a weakening of their ability to make their case and as a result
their point of view is dying a slow, painful death of a thousand self-inflicted
wounds.
I have engaged numerous, supposedly highly educated college professors, and
been able to swat aside their arguments like child’s play; only to be attacked
and called names for pointing out their flawed thinking. Because I have a
different perspective on things does not make me a denier, a phobic, or a fill
in the blank - ____ist of some variety and it’s not my goal to have you removed
from the debate, but to make the case why my viewpoint is the correct one;
something Powers clearly makes the case that liberals are no longer interested
in.
