How the World Left Steven Pinker Behind

The world in 2025 must be a maddening place for the liberal centre. These vanguards of common sense are forced to play witness, powerless as norms are torn down all around them. Donald Trump has personally taken a sledgehammer to conservative politeness codes: he has undermined the shibboleths of the state, stacked the courts in his favour, and introduced a rhetoric of violence into the common lexicon. Meanwhile, the left has allowed itself to become shackled by unpopular luxury beliefs: abolishing the police, opening the borders, the corruption of female-only spaces. Everyone has gone mad. If they just used their brains they would see the universe as clearly as we do.