Free Speech

Andrew Doyle: How the 'New Puritans' Created a 'Frenzy of Conformity'

The journalist and comedian makes the case that "new puritans" espousing the religion of social justice have captured the Western world.

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Over the past decade, no social critic has been more withering toward identity politics and cancel culture than Andrew Doyle, the playwright, comedian, and journalist from Northern Ireland. Whether it's creating the parodic Twitter personality Titania McGrath or penning a best-selling defense of free speech, the Oxford-educated Doyle has never missed an opportunity to show the folly of the political correctness currently eating its way through our universities, corporations, and politics like termites through soft wood.

His new book is The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World, and I spoke with him about the sources of and solutions to what he calls the "frenzy of conformity" that characterizes so much of contemporary media, academia, and policy.

Previous appearances by Doyle on The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie:

"Andrew Doyle: Free Speech and Why It Matters," June 2, 2021.

"Meet Titania McGrath, the Wokest SJW on Twitter," February 5, 2020.