The 1950s saw an unusual wave of illiberalism: the Red Scare. The specifics of that moment—post-war uncertainty, widespread fear of the threat of foreign influence and nuclear war, loyalty and patriotism being elevated to sacred values—left a liberal society especially vulnerable to a particular kind of accusation: Communist. On today’s college campuses, the combination of ideological homogeneity and the sacredness of social justice, alongside the backdrop of the country’s hypercharged political tribalism, similarly created an unusual vulnerability to a particular golem: Social Justice
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