Authoritarian, faux-progressive scolds have had a tough run lately. Even with the “Queers for Palestine” contingent stirring things up on campuses, hear me out. The Anglosphere has seen politicians cherished by the media but disliked by the public exiting stage left.
This week, we saw the unceremonious departure of Scotland’s Humza Yousaf. His short reign yielded more ridicule and nicknames—Humza Useless, Humza the Hapless—than positive notes. His Orwellian Hate Crime Act aimed to criminalize thought crimes, alarming voters. Now, only one in five Scots wants the law to stay.
Yousaf, in a masterstroke of self-sabotage, dismantled his own government. Ending his coalition with the Scottish Greens left them angry, unwilling to prop up his minority government. His approval rating sank to -47, worse than the Tories and the Greens.
In March, democrats celebrated Leo Varadkar’s downfall. Varadkar, backed by the parliamentary party, clung to power by partnering with Fianna Fáil. His resignation speech lauded Ireland’s “transformation into a secular progressive state.”
Varadkar tried to censor voters, pushing a draconian hate-speech bill. It mirrored Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act, suggesting a rivalry in censorship. From phone cameras to family dinners, no sphere seems safe from state censors.
Leo Varadkar and Humza Yousaf may not have been the best politicians, but they sure knew how to amuse, even if unintentionally. Their gaffes were unforgettable—Yousaf’s knee scooter tumble and Varadkar’s Monica Lewinsky joke. Nicola Sturgeon, however, was different. The former Scottish first minister and Yousaf’s mentor embodied prickly puritanism, casting opponents as “transphobic, misogynist, homophobic, and possibly racist.” Her “gender self-ID” reforms crumbled when people realized they placed rapists in women’s prisons, a “progressive” position.
The SNP, originally aiming to liberate Scotland from the UK, seemed more interested in liberating healthy genitals from confused youths. Sturgeon’s obsession with “trans rights” derailed her, leading to her downfall. The SNP’s social engineering often overshadowed its Union-ending goal, cracking down on offensive football chants and proposing a “named person” scheme for every child until courts intervened on human-rights grounds.
Our woke, technocratic ruling class increasingly opposes its own citizens, drawing authority from opposing “backward” values. Sturgeon, Yousaf, and Varadkar lamented “populism” and “toxicity” in their resignation speeches, viewing voters as villains for not letting “adults” govern.
Elites have become authoritarian, using illiberal liberalism, greenism, and identity politics to compel, coerce, and punish. Their self-righteousness breeds narcissism. Sturgeon used “I,” “me,” and “my” 153 times in her resignation speech, while “Scotland” appeared only 11 times.
Covid added to the disdain for voters. Politicians locked us down, raged against dissent, and embraced authoritarian tendencies. New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern’s “Zero Covid” experiment was praised by globalists but angered citizens. She resigned as prime minister in January 2023 with her lowest poll ratings, while Labour suffered its worst defeat in decades.
Politicians seem intent on alienating voters, pursuing unpopular policies while stifling debate. On climate, they promote national hardship, expecting the working class to accept being poorer and less mobile. On immigration, they open doors to migrants without public consent or proper vetting. On culture, they endorse new racism under the guise of anti-racism, and misogyny posing as “trans inclusion.” Meanwhile, voters realize that calls to censor “hate” and “misinformation” are really calls to censor them.
Even in Justin Trudeau’s Canada, a land often seen as immune to populism, a backlash is brewing. Trudeau embodies woke authoritarianism in cartoonish form. In 2018, when a woman confronted him at a corn roast about Canada’s influx of refugees, he called her a racist to her face. He once corrected a woman who said “mankind” instead of “peoplekind.” Worse, his clampdowns on dissent make others seem subtle. When truckers protested Covid mandates, he froze their bank accounts, broke up rallies, and cleared the streets. Now, he’s pushing censorship legislation, Bill C-63, which allows house arrest for potential hate crimes—like “precrime” from The Minority Report. Trudeau’s Liberal Party currently trails the Conservatives by 19 points.
Wokeism, climate extremism, and kindly authoritarianism are the Western, “centrist” politics’ operating system. Joe Biden, America’s somnolent president, was hailed as a return to normalcy in 2020. But his sweeping executive orders on “racial equity” and gender ideology, among other policies, make many Americans think Trump might actually be the saner choice. Political leaders everywhere are pursuing authoritarian policies, but colliding with reality and the electorate.
The new authoritarianism is far from defeated; it gives our leaders meaning. But the common sense of the people remains our greatest defense—if we can channel it properly.