Watch What You Say, The New Liberal Power Elite Won’t Tolerate Dissent

From Joel Kotkin at the Daily Beast:

The new liberal ruling elite, a mix of academics and cultural powerbrokers, is like the old clerical orders—wielding it’s wealth and power to enforce “truths” and punish dissenters.

In ways not seen since at least the McCarthy era, Americans are finding themselves increasingly constrained by a rising class—what I call the progressive Clerisy—that accepts no dissent from its basic tenets. Like the First Estate in pre-revolutionary France, the Clerisy increasingly exercises its power to constrain dissenting views, whether on politics, social attitudes or science.

An alliance of upper level bureaucrats and cultural elites, the Clerisy, for for all their concerns about inequality, have thrived, unlike most Americans, in recent years. They also enjoy strong relations with the power structure in Washington, Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Wall Street.

As the modern clerisy has seen its own power grow, even while the middle class shrinks, it has used its influence to enforce a prescribed set of acceptable ideas. On everything from gender and sexual preference to climate change, those who dissent from the official pieties risk punishment.

This man is a true intellectual. He does not let party affiliation color his views. He tells it like it is.