The Silicon Valley censors have struck again. This time it’s against James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas for sins related to the practice of journalism, namely publishing documents allegedly exposing anti-Christian bias on the social media platform Pinterest. Veritas earned a temporary suspension from Twitter. 

This should come as no surprise. In recent months the technology giants Facebook, Twitter, and Google have increasingly squelched conservative and Christian voices on their platforms.

The tech giants claim to be merely platforms and enjoy legal protections as such. In reality they are acting like publishers, picking and choosing which content they allow. Their favorite tactics are shadow banning, which hides or de-emphasizes social media content they don’t like; demonetizing, which cuts advertising income; and finally deplatforming, which eliminates an entity’s ability to communicate on a social media network altogether.

These rearguard attacks are coming because conservative messages have been so successful online. People are sick of the banal orthodoxies of the Cultural Marxists who occupy the heights of education, entertainment, technology, the administrative state, and mainstream media. They have rejected the American traditions of free speech and public debate, and embraced Nietzsche’s will to power.

Many Americans who hold Christian and conservative views counter to the cultural mandarins are on edge. They know that, depending on their line of work, one wrong online comment or social media post could spell the end of their careers and public reputations.

The only thing holding back the impending tidal wave is the stabilizing influence of the baby boomer generation. As its members age and pass on to their eternal rewards, the culture war will get uglier and uglier as it is waged by the generations weaned on social media. Many will feel forced to comply with the Cultural Marxists, or to make great sacrifices.

But maintaining a culture, country, and civilization cannot be done without sacrifice.

This month the U.S. celebrates Independence Day. It’s easy to take the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers for granted. We may think, America has always been free, why wouldn’t we continue to be?

No, our Founders were far from assured in a permanent victory over tyranny. The sacrifices that they made for freedom must be renewed by each generation. 

We live in a time when that generational sacrifice is required of us, because the current culture war is going to get much worse before it gets better. 

Though all of that is a bit depressing, hope remains. I serve as chief executive of The Charlemagne Institute, which publishes Chronicles and the online news and commentary site Intellectual Takeout. Through our online activities, we encounter millions of young Americans hungry for the lost traditions of Western culture and eager for refuge from the degradation of modern life. They are lost, lonely, and adrift, desperately seeking firm ground upon which to stand.

The good news is that they are slowly rediscovering the traditions and principles of the Christian West. We are proud to be part of that effort, through this magazine, which provides that safe harbor and the intellectual foundation they seek.