“The West has developed a terminal case of hyper-civility, a reflexive, self-destructive politeness that confuses virtue with submission. It’s the moral equivalent of holding the door open for someone who’s setting your house on fire.
We’ve trained ourselves to believe that any assertion of identity or values is somehow fascist-adjacent. Meanwhile, those who couldn’t care less about our values exploit that squeamishness with surgical precision.
They see the hesitation. They smell the weakness. And they don’t lose sleep over equity audits or hate speech tribunals. This is the paradox.
Civilization creates comfort. Comfort breeds softness. Softness invites challenge. But the rules that built Western civilization were not born of politeness. They were born of fire, rebellion, war and bitter-earned order.” (author unknown)
And we’re squandering it all.