This year saw a wave of protests in reaction to the death of George Floyd. The stated purpose of the more peaceful ones went well beyond an effort to demand more accountability for police officers. Protesters hoped to trigger a broader awareness about racial injustice and the need for some sort of reconciliation. But such a reconciliation will be made impossible by the Jacobins who refuse to recognize that people can change.

The latest example, which received national attention thanks to a lengthy piece in the New York Times, involves a Virginia teenager who had her life uprooted because, as a high school freshman, she recorded herself using a racist slur.