We Need to Talk About Liberalism

Twitter’s announcement last week that ads featuring “climate denialism” are now banned was one such tree. The social media firm’s decision to join Google in restricting advertising that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus” is as chilling as it sounds.

The right to voice banned views as opposed to curated mainstream opinions — a.k.a. free speech — is under threat, but it’s doubtful whether many in our community worry.

That’s a mistake, because America’s culture wars and the ravings of progressives might seem very far from our shuls and yeshivahs, but they affect us all too directly. We face a new battle for the legitimacy of our values, and so far, we’re woefully unprepared.

Take climate change. Whether or not the planet is heading toward environmental disaster has no particularly Orthodox angle — we’ll all fry together if it comes to that — but the way that debate on the subject is being shut down has very real implications for us.