From C.J. Ciaramella at Reason Magazine:

This phenomenon started in the states, and none have pursued it with more intensity than Florida and Texas, where governors and legislatures have competed to show that they're fighting the hardest against what they call "woke" excess and leftist hegemony. Now this style of governance—using criminal law, mass surveillance, tip lines, and the threat of police violence to wage the culture war—is going national. This doesn't just implicate the freedom of trans people or high schoolers who want to read Toni Morrison; it's a danger to every American who wants to live, work, and travel without being monitored and menaced by the state.

You probably don’t need me to tell you how scary this stuff is if you play it out. For most of my adult life, conservative-leaning folks have told me how important “freedom” is, and slowly but surely we’ve seen what they actually mean by that. Freedom for them to live how they want, and for the rest of us to fall in line.

We’re watching the slow legislation of morality, where lawmakers use “values” as a cover for control. None of it is about protecting anyone – it’s about enforcing a single worldview. What’s worse is that most of these laws don’t even need to hold up in court to do damage. The vagueness is the point. People self-censor, schools and libraries overreact, and the chilling effect spreads quietly and efficiently.

This is not what freedom looks like. And it’s not an accident. We’ve allowed a warped definition of freedom to take hold, one that means “my comfort matters more than your rights.” Whether by design or by ignorance, it’s become the rallying cry of people who have been convinced that equality is an attack on their way of life.

I can’t help but think about how much of this has been fueled by media that profits off fear and outrage.Looking back over the past 25 years, it’s clear that FOX News & social media algorithms will be blamed for whatever state we end up in. They’ve trained people to see enemies around every corner. It’s poisoning our politics and our relationships, and it’s only getting worse because division keeps the clicks coming.

We have to start pushing back. Not in abstract ways or clever tweets, but through the simple blocking and tackling of democracy. Call your representatives – seriously, it’s easy and only takes a few minutes. Vote in local elections. Speak up when you see injustice or when government steps into places it doesn’t belong. Staying quiet because it feels hopeless is exactly what they’re counting on.

If we don’t draw the line now, we may wake up one day in a country that still calls itself free but no longer remembers what that word ever meant.