The Rise of Cultural Socialism, and What to Do About It

Eric Kaufmann argues against the seductive libertarian idea that cultural liberals can exit the
mainstream and create new institutions to drive out the bad. This is true only for sectors like media
with lower barriers to entry. But where there are strong network effects, as with universities, social
media platforms, government agencies and even motion pictures, elected government – the only
major institution that is free of cultural socialist control – must proactively intervene to withdraw
power from these intermediate institutions while compelling them to obey our classically liberal
laws on free speech and equal treatment. Government, in these instances, protects freedom.
Intervention in the school curriculum to prevent indoctrination into cultural socialism is likewise
compatible with cultural liberalism so long as it does not extend to universities. Economic liberals
who decry government intervention are effectively abandoning the field to cultural socialism. While
the cultural argument must be won, it is wrong to sacrifice several generations of political minorities
to progressive illiberalism.