When King Mustache announced the new censorship laws, laying down what he insisted was an electric fence in his country’s marketplace of ideas—that was his attempt at idea supremacy. When the king ordered dissenters to be hanged, the country faced its moment of truth. When no one stood up for the dissenters, allowing their executions to take place, the king’s idea supremacy became real. It was not King Mustache’s orders but the failure of others to defend the country’s constitution that gave the fence its electricity.
