The current mania, in which self-styled liberals seek progress by creating new speech crimes, is many things.
It is an effort by a threatened elite to build deeper moats around its privilege by creating increasingly complex rules that are opaque to anyone outside of the inner circles.
It is an effort by ideologues to destroy existing society — they use the word “systems” — and replace it with a brave new world.
It is a blunt weapon for partisans to wield against conservatives or other enemies.
It is also, in effect, a total war on curiosity, learning, and inquiry. A huge part of the spasm of wokeness is a crackdown on asking questions and holding debates.
In many ways, the 2010s previewed this for us, with the mindless listicles with titles such as, “Ten things to never ask a mom.” These ubiquitous clickbait posts were just millennials complaining about people making small talk, expressing sympathy, or trying to get to know someone.
Of course, talk about race is at the center of this censorious moment. In some ways, this is confusing. While critical race theory and other left-wing pedagogies try to move race and ethnicity to the center of a person’s identity, it also becomes taboo to ask people about their race or ethnicity.
Here’s a case in point from Twitter this week:
Good Night World pic.twitter.com/8EUDaCrQHF
— cedric mas (@CedricMas) August 25, 2021
Implicit in this snarky cartoon is the notion that there’s no valid reason to be curious about someone’s background. That’s facially false, and the cartoon’s example accidentally makes that point. If I had an Afghan neighbor these days, I might check in on him to ask if he has family still there trying to escape.
Even outside of extraordinary circumstances, it’s simply a fact, that every honest person will realize, upon even a moment of reflection, that people’s ethnicity and background help form who they are. My Irishness is an interesting part of me. My mother-in-law’s Polishness is part of her upbringing, and her upbringing is interesting.
Celebrating diversity used to be something liberals valued. But celebrating diversity requires knowing someone’s background. If we’re never allowed to ask someone their ethnicity, that becomes impossible.
Of course, context and phrasing matter. It would be odd for ethnicity to be the first thing you ask someone.
“What are you?” is an inartful way of asking it — though it simply mirrors the common wording “I am Italian and Mexican” or “I am half-black.” “Where are you from?” is a presumptuous way of asking the question, and it understandably offends native-born people who appear to be of non-European descent.
But if our speech codes expand to bar even something as innocent as asking someone about their ethnicity in any circumstance, we will be further destroying curiosity, kinship, and conversation.
