Dave Rubin has done the country a service by resurfacing a 2009 clip of Christopher Hitchens that ought to be required listening for every American who still believes in free speech and common sense. In the clip Hitchens warned that the word “Islamophobia” would be introduced into our culture as a way to shut down criticism of an ideology, and Rubin is exactly right to say that those warnings are sounding truer by the day.
Hitchens didn’t mince words: “Resist it while you still can,” he said, predicting the next step would be the removal of the right to complain because criticism would be painted as bigotry. That prophetic language isn’t academic; it maps directly onto how discourse is policed today, with nuance and honest debate too often labeled as hatred.
For years now the term islamophobia has functioned less as a descriptive word and more as a cudgel wielded by those who want to freeze public debate and shield dangerous ideas from scrutiny. The pattern Hitchens pointed out—elites and multicultural authorities opening the gates while ordinary people are told to be quiet—has been repeated across institutions and platforms, and we are watching the consequences unfold.
Rubin ties Hitchens’s warning to a modern reality: politicians and gatekeepers are openly talking about censoring “misinformation,” and that censorship binge will predictably be applied unevenly. When the people who control the microphones decide which questions are allowed, hardworking Americans lose more than a debate; they lose the means to defend their families and their country.
This isn’t some abstract fight over words. It’s about whether a free nation will tolerate the left’s new rulebook that sanctifies certain ideas while criminalizing dissent. Conservatives must stop pretending the playing field is level: when elites grant immunity to an ideology and label critics as bigots, they weaponize empathy and silence the very people who built and defend Western freedoms.
Now is the moment for clear-eyed resistance, the kind Hitchens urged. Defend the right to question, debate, and criticize without being smeared; demand that universities, media, and Big Tech stop acting as thought police; and insist our public square remain open to honest scrutiny of all ideologies, no matter how fashionable it may be to look the other way.
Patriots don’t cower when speech gets uncomfortable—they push back. Take Hitchens’s plea seriously: vote, speak up, support outlets and platforms that won’t muzzle tough conversations, and refuse to hand our future over to an elite consensus that values conformity over truth.
