“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.”

I would tell you, dear reader, who this quote is attributed to, but unfortunately its provenance has been in dispute since it first appeared at the end of the 19th century in France. I first discovered it as an epigraph within the pages of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel, “Children of Dune,” where he attributed it to French Catholic journalist and polemicist Louis Veuillot. Herbert wasn’t the first to incorrectly name Veuillot as the author, something the Frenchman denied back when he was still alive in the late 1800s.

Whoever authored that quote, far too many Americans seem to be operating under its premise, inflicting sweeping changes to norms from the top-down, but poisoning any chance of half the country ever embracing them organically from within. As tolerance is compelled by the threat of force, it can never be genuinely won, leaving vast swathes of the country with no choice but to live by lies rather than virtues and principles they believe in.

Our current situation has created a series of vengeful pendulum swings in jurisdictions across the country. Most of this discord springs forth directly from the latest metastasizing of the American Culture War, a previously cold ideological conflict over what beliefs or expressions are permissible in an increasingly intolerant and vengeful society.

If we’re going to boil everything down on both sides to its most basic it is this: in a country dominated by a brainless bureaucratic leviathan that is the federal government, the primary concern people have is making sure the uncaring beast steps on somebody other than themselves. Some even would hope to put reins on the beast rather than guard rails, directing the brute toward their political or ideological enemies instead of finding ways to corral it as much as possible from running roughshod over anyone and everyone.

Nobody wants to be the party on the receiving end of the federal government’s might, which might explain why it’s the primary motivator our political animals must whip up their voting bases with to win elections. When every vote is the one on which the “future of our democracy/republic” hinges, it only inspires hysteria rather than sober vigilance when the time comes to fill in a ballot.

Look at the impunity with which the Republican Supermajority here in North Dakota feeds into the culture war priorities of this rabidly red state. There are the wholesale abortion restrictions being contested in court, not to mention the so-called “Slate of Hate” that has been met with an outcry from drag queens, gender theorists and special interest groups on both sides of the issue. Fundamentally, the impetus for these bills is the concerning overreach by authorities and activists in other jurisdictions, where the rights of parents were shredded in the name of prioritizing the progressive ideology of state-mandated affirmation for all things queer without question or nuance.

Historically, gays, lesbians, and those exploring their gender identities were suppressed and marginalized at best and assaulted or murdered at worst. Despite the consternation of conservatives and religious fundamentalists, our society has made great strides in affording those identity groups more dignity and rights than they have had before. The LGBT movement is quite rightly motivated to find a cure for the deaths of despair experienced by many in their community, which fuels their push to normalize and destigmatize the ever-growing number of identities in their rainbow. But there is no room for debate for those who view their struggle as existential.

Eight years ago, when gay marriage was legalized in the United States, the concerns from the skeptical were often dismissed for invoking “the slippery slope.” To call such concerns a fallacy now is a denial of a couple dozen examples recently that show how in some respects we are being pushed over the edge to careen toward things that supposedly no one wanted.

There’s the growing number of crazies advocating on behalf of pedophiles, pushing to rebrand them as “Minor Attracted Persons.” This effort to destigmatize this unforgivable deviation from human decency as something beyond an individual’s control serves as the ultimate example of thoughtless tolerance employed only for the sake of being more tolerant than those you disagree with politically; the safety of children be damned.

There are also those that think all children should be raised in a quantum state where they are neither male or female until the child decides for themselves who and what they are. While true believers of this progressive dogma view such practices as wholesome, the results are often horrific for those who were guided toward permanent choices before they could really understand what they were doing. Look no further than the latest clips coming out of the TLC show about Jazz Jennings, the poster child for the consequences of early onset gender dysphoria by proxy.

A child can’t legally consent to much in this country, but in the worldview of a gender activist suddenly anything is on the table whether parents or even the child like it or not. It is indisputable that a growing number of parents have found themselves in the crosshairs of the state simply for not bending to the wisdom of doctors and administrators about how they should handle their child questioning their gender identity.

All I’m trying to convey is that nothing happens in a vacuum or is solely the result of campaigns by out-of-state interest groups. These bills got traction in this state because the voters here made it clear to their representatives that securing safety from such ideological overreach was a priority. Simply dismissing the concerns of those we disagree with will do nothing but engender further enmity rather than understanding, and both sides, especially the supposedly tolerant, need to reckon with that.

We shouldn’t be so eager to criminalize and marginalize people we don’t agree with or understand, but in the language of political vengeance there is no quarter made for understanding or grace, with the local pedophile being the obvious exception, at least for now. But when we have a significant amount of public discourse mourning a school shooter right alongside the innocents that they slew because of their alleged gender identity, I think it’s safe to say some have lost the plot a bit to put it kindly.

It’s obvious at this point where progressive dogma and Joe Biden’s belief in individual human liberty ends. While our president preaches from his pulpit that transgender Americans “shape our nation’s soul,” the man has nothing but contempt for notions like an individual’s right to bear arms, their right to privacy, and in particular bodily autonomy, with the patrons of abortion and gender clinics being the only exception.

It’s pretty clear that there are many in this country who disagree with the cult of affirmation, and we’ve all seen what this administration will allow to be done to those breaking from progressive dogma. Just ask that concerned parent from Loudon County who was arrested for taking administrators to task after his daughter was raped by a boy in a dress, or former All-American swimmer Riley Gaines who was assaulted after a talk at San Francisco University by a vitriolic mob or even our Supreme Court justices who dared to send the question of abortion back to the states.

“When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.”

In the balancing act between society’s degrees of freedom and tolerance, denying either from anyone puts the whole American Experiment in the peril of falling victim to a terrible gravity. If history has taught us anything, the landing is never soft. Those baying for retribution during their “Day of Vengeance” are probably counting on that.