“Almost every institution the left controls and has weaponized in the culture wars,” the conservative writer and editor Ben Domenech argued this week, “was created by and depends upon special, favorable treatment — even funding — from all Americans.”

This is true of public entities, public schools and universities, the locus of so much controversy right now, but it’s also true of the internet behemoths, beneficiaries of a regulatory system that largely immunized them from content responsibility (via the famous Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act). Or the Wall Street firms bailed out in 2008. Or the sports leagues that rely on antitrust exemptions and stadium subsidies. Or Disney — because, as Domenech writes, “it’s only by the generosity of the American people” that Disney has been successful in its decades of lobbying to extend copyright protections.

All of these institutions enjoy First Amendment protections from being discriminated against, this line of argument suggests. But forms of discrimination that work in their favor — meaning all their privileges, immunities and tax breaks — are political fair game if they enter the culture-war arena.