# The Authoritarian Moment by Ben Shapiro - Blinkist

What’s in it for me? Shape the future of America.

In 1776, the Founding Fathers of America declared independence from a despotic king.

Their words laid the foundation for a free nation.

And now, the democracy they so carefully created is under attack.

In classrooms, newsrooms, boardrooms, and beyond, authoritarianism has permeated America’s major institutions – from sea to shining sea.

The woke minority aims to cement a culture of top-down censorship and conformity.

Their truth is the only truth, and they won’t hesitate in silencing anyone who begs to differ.

But freedom will always be worth fighting for.

In these blinks, you’ll learn how America’s silent majority can stand up, speak out, and shape the future.

In these blinks, you’ll learn  how “wokeism” has hijacked higher education; the dirty secret of most major corporations; and why the silent majority should invoke the Founding Fathers for inspiration.

Inalienable American rights are under attack.

Freedom of speech is foundational to American life.

And now, it’s under attack.

According to a poll by the Cato Institute, more than 60 percent of modern Americans are afraid to say what they think – including a majority of liberals, 64 percent of moderates, and 77 percent of conservatives.

So who are the people who do feel confident in voicing their beliefs?

Those who self-identify as “strong liberals.

”  Censorship and conformity have infiltrated America’s major institutions, transforming classrooms, boardrooms, and newsrooms into bastions of authoritarianism.

The radical left’s truth is the only truth.

Feelings trump facts.

And all ideological dissent must be silenced.

The key message here is: Inalienable American rights are under attack.

Take the social media platform Parler, for instance.

In September 2018, the app was launched as a “town square” where people of all political stances could freely voice their viewpoints.

Just over two years later, it met its demise at the hands of the authoritarian left.

Parler’s downfall started on January 6, 2021, when a group of radicals stormed the U.

S.

Capitol in an act of violent protest.

Soon after the riot came another unexpected event: Google removed Parler from its app store.

Apple swiftly followed suit.

Finally, Amazon Web Services – the world’s biggest provider of cloud-based web service infrastructure for companies – took Parler offline altogether.

With that, the app had been canceled completely.

But why?

According to the speculations of Big Tech, Capitol rioters might have used Parler to coordinate their actions.

In a reversal of the American criminal justice system, the platform was thereby deemed guilty until proven innocent.

Meanwhile, reports showed that nearly 100 people involved in the January 6 riot were on Facebook or Instagram.

Only eight were on Parler.

No one could explain why Parler posed a greater threat than these larger platforms.

Of course, the powers-that-be at Facebook and Instagram didn’t take their own platforms offline.

Similarly, President Trump was banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube after the events of January 6, despite the fact that he had advocated for peaceful protests only – and publicly told the rioters to go home.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader who calls the United States his “number one enemy,” was still welcome on social media.

Big Tech, it seemed, had no consistent rhyme or reason.

They simply wanted to silence the opposition.

And actions like these spell out a frightening future for American democracy.

Wokeism has hijacked higher education.

Picture a lecture hall packed with college students.

The professor steps on stage and scribbles on a blackboard.

When he turns to face the crowd, the message behind him reads: “Welcome to Wokabulary 101.

” No, you’re not hearing things.

This isn’t Vocabulary 101.

It’s Wokabulary 101: the language of microaggressions, trigger warnings, and preferred pronouns spoken by the “woke” social-justice-warrior class.

And while this scenario may sound far-fetched, it could be the future if the authoritarian left has its way.

The key message here is: Wokeism has hijacked higher education.

Modern American universities are engines of progressive political advocacy, offering students practical training in authoritarian left activism.

In fact, wokeism is so widespread that many major university departments can’t identify a single conservative on staff.

Consider two of America’s top Ivy League institutions, Harvard and Yale.

A 2020 Harvard survey found that 83.

3 percent of the university’s faculty members identified as liberal or very liberal, while a mere 1.

46 percent said they were conservative.

Similarly, in a 2017 Yale survey of the university’s faculty members, 75 percent of respondents identified as liberal or very liberal – and only 9 percent said they were conservative or very conservative.

In the humanities, these ratios were even more imbalanced, with 90 percent of Yale faculty calling themselves liberal.

Diversity of thought is at dire risk on college campuses.

Universities used to be beacons of free thinking.

Now, they’re institutions of indoctrination and intolerance.

When liberal professor Bret Weinstein said that faculty jobs should be rooted in merit rather than race, authoritarian leftist students raged.

When his evolutionary biologist wife pointed out that men are, on average, taller than women, students walked out of the classroom.

At Yale, Professor Nicholas Christakis and his wife, Erika, were forced to leave their faculty-in-residence positions.

Why?

Erika had asked students to be less sensitive about Halloween costumes.

Facts and free thinking no longer fly on America’s college campuses.

Liberal scholars Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay put it best: “Social Justice Theorists have created a new religion, a tradition of faith that is actively hostile to reason, falsification, disconfirmation, and disagreement of any kind.

” In other words, the motto is this: sit down, shut up, and let me speak my truth.

The result?

Come graduation day, college students are fluent in modern wokabulary and ready to join the ruling class of corporate America: yet another bastion of authoritarian leftism.

Corporations are cowards that fear cancel culture.

Once upon a time, American corporations were apolitical – more concerned with protecting profits than pushing progressive agendas.

Not anymore.

In 2020, businesses across America released statements against systemic racism.

It didn’t matter if their products or services were irrelevant to issues of social justice.

Take Ben & Jerry’s, for instance.

Pausing their Cherry Garcia messaging, the ice cream company released a statement that said, “We must dismantle white supremacy.

”  You may be wondering: Why are American corporations so eager to speak the wokabulary of the authoritarian left?

The answer can be summed up in one word: cowardice.

The key message here is: Corporations are cowards that fear cancel culture.

Corporations know that “silence is violence” in the world of the woke.

And the only way to protect their wallets is by avoiding cancel culture at all costs.

(Hence, ice cream companies serving up social justice sundaes.

) But while conformity may protect profits, it also jeopardizes the livelihood of American employees.

In an era of politically driven corporate policies – from mandated diversity training to race-based hiring quotas – expressing dissent just may get you fired.

Does that sound dramatic?

Dystopian, even?

Let’s look at a couple of real-world examples.

In 2020, technology company Cisco fired employees for saying the three words: “All Lives Matter.

” That same year, a university chemist named Tomáš Hudlický printed an essay in a prominent chemistry journal.

There, he argued that the National Science Foundation’s push for diversity over merit in hiring discriminated against the most qualified candidates and jeopardized the standards of chemistry.

The backlash was brutal.

The journal pulled the article.

Two editors were suspended.

Fellow scientists demanded that Hudlický lose his job.

Across industries, this story plays out time and again.

Different characters, different settings, the same ending as woke echo chambers silence the free-thinking majority.

America is now a nation where you can lose your livelihood by simply speaking your mind.

Ironically, studies show that corporate diversity and inclusion efforts may actually breed cultures of exclusion.

In fact, University of Pennsylvania researchers found that diversity training often increases discrimination.

However, businesses aren’t concerned with effectiveness.

Afraid of being “canceled,” their chief aim is evading public backlash.

So cowardice prevails, political agendas are promoted, and silence reigns supreme among anyone who thinks differently.

Even science isn’t immune to the authoritarian left.

Now, let’s travel back to the spring of 2020.

Businesses were shuttered down across the United States.

Strict COVID-19 quarantine orders were in place.

In-person gatherings were largely prohibited, with esteemed scientists profusely warning Americans against the dire consequences of social contact.

Then, a Black man named George Floyd died in the custody of Minneapolis police.

Outrage ensued.

And in an instant, the scientific narrative changed.

The key message here is: Even science isn’t immune to the authoritarian left.

Amid a deadly pandemic, throngs of Black Lives Matter advocates took to the streets: protesting, rioting, looting, setting cop cars on fire.

And they did so en masse.

When all was said and done, these protests had attracted between 15 and 26 million Americans – many of whom ditched their masks to chant about racial justice and emitted countless potentially virulent particles in the process.

If anything should have been immune to the authoritarian left, it’s science.

By definition, the field revolves around uncovering objective truths.

Yet, many scientists put politics above public health and promoted the Black Lives Matter protests.

In classic Orwellian fashion, the authoritarian left was now espousing a new, completely contradictory narrative.

Black Lives Matter protests were essential and encouraged.

Meanwhile, all other types of social gatherings were deplorable and denounced.

By this illogic, New York mayor Bill de Blasio declared that only Black Lives Matter marches would be allowed in his city.

As for other social gatherings?

They were prohibited.

In his own words, “We just can’t have that while we’re focused on health right now.

”  Similarly, over 1,000 public health specialists signed an open letter supporting the largest protests in American history – in the middle of a global pandemic.

Their justification?

These protests were “vital to the national public health.

” But they added: “This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-at-home orders.

”  Of course, viruses don’t care whether you’re fighting racial injustice or grabbing drinks with friends.

They can easily spread in either setting.

But the science of the authoritarian left is not science at all.

Rather, it’s politics dressed in a white coat.

According to the author it’s concerned with advancing an agenda, not seeking truth – and it cannot be trusted with matters of life or death.

Fighting for freedom means standing up and speaking out.

In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson put quill to parchment and started penning his now-famous letter to the King of Great Britain.

He listed his grievances.

He asserted his independence.

And with that, a democracy was born.

What can we learn from this iconic moment in American history?

Here’s one timeless takeaway: at some point, enough is enough.

Rather than accepting the ongoing abuse of an overbearing king, the Founding Fathers came together to voice dissent.

Instead of silently succumbing to an oppressive future, they spoke out and actively shaped a new nation.

To preserve the democracy these men built, modern Americans must do the same.

The key message here is: Fighting for freedom means standing up and speaking out.

Step one to lessening the power of the authoritarian left?

Embrace independent thinking for what it truly is: a hallmark of a healthy society.

Americans have the right to disagree and debate – freedom of speech is foundational to democracy.

In today’s society, being “politically incorrect” simply means having the courage to say that which must be heard.

Take a note from Thomas Jefferson and speak the truth in clear, level-headed language – rising above the inflammatory rhetoric of the authoritarian left.

Second, don’t allow the feelings of others to overshadow facts.

Fluent wokabulary speakers may insist that their subjective opinions are objective truths.

They might declare that all white people are inherently racist.

Or that every cop on the face of the planet is evil.

Or that social justice should obviously trump science during a deadly pandemic.

Be wary of blanket statements, seek nuance, and listen to logic.

When the woke minority attempts to emotionally veto your perspective, remain unfazed.

It’s the only way to preserve the plurality of thought.

Third, look past partisanship and recognize that this is not a matter of left versus right.

Rather, it’s about upholding values that are fundamental to the functioning of American democracy.

Authoritarianism must be rejected by people across party lines, and freedom must be protected just as avidly.

The alternative isn’t pretty.

Finally, during moments of intimidation, remember this: The authoritarian left may have infiltrated America’s major institutions.

But you still have a voice.

And the more you use it, the less powerful they become.

So stand up, speak out, and shape the future.

Final summary

The key message in these blinks is that: America’s largest institutions have been infiltrated by the authoritarian left.

In order to preserve foundational freedoms, the silent majority must recognize top-down censorship, conformity, and cancel culture as dire threats to the country’s democracy.

And they must take action, defending diversity of thought and respectful dissent.

And here’s some more actionable advice: Withhold your money from authoritarian-run institutions.

Stop shopping at the wokest corporations.

Unsubscribe from media outlets that tell one-sided stories.

Remove your endowments from universities that refuse to host ideologically diverse speakers.

You’re the silent majority, and money speaks.