James Lileks writes:
When the leadership says that the main definition of your culture is its willingness and ability to include people who are outside of your culture and occasionally ill-disposed to its virtues, and that your objections constitute doubleplus ungoodthink, then you push all that benign national pride into channels outside the realm of polite discussion.
In another era, this might mean than the discussion eventually gets very unpolite, and there’s social upheaval. But I suspect nothing will change. There will be an empty space on the newsstand where Charlie Hebdo used to sit, but something else will fill it. Sports or fashion. The editors will know what not to do. No one will tell them what not to do; no one will have to.
There were chalk outlines on the sidewalks for a while, but that’s what power washers are for.
I’ve read a few voices saying that this is different, this revealed something, this pushed people off the fence, this was the galvanizing event that made everything clear, and the decent will assemble to confront the illiberal threat.
You know, just like after Kristallnacht.
(via)
