CHAD FELIX GREENE: The Stigma Against My Conservative Politics Is Worse Than The Stigma Of Being Gay. “Everything I was told to fear about being openly gay has become a reality in being openly conservative.”

Today I look out across the turbulent sea of political discourse and ask, “Why would anyone choose to be a conservative?” To be a conservative means to openly invite others’ hatred into your life and to lose your humanity in the eyes of strangers who view you exclusively through stereotypes and prejudices.

To be a conservative means to be forced to choose when to speak and when to remain silent, since offending someone on the left, even mildly or by accident, is a social battle you may not be able to win. To be a conservative means carefully regulating your speech and constructing opinions in such a way as to avoid being banned from the public square. To be a conservative means to be a marginalized voice, suppressed and dehumanized; bullied into hesitating to speak out.

You might not be interested in the Gleichschaltung, but the Gleichschaltung is interested in you — and conservatives are by and large uninterested in the Gleichschaltung.