What Phillips has learned, and what Herrera is learning, is that the “openness” and “diversity” we celebrate today are not openness and diversity at all. They are the “openness” and “diversity” of the corporate human-resources department, that great incubator and policeman of conformity, homogeneity, and obedience. They are not the diversity of the street, the bazaar, the free port, the crossroads. The raggedy and the disreputable have been abolished: Jello Biafra’s “suede-denim secret police” have taken charge, and they are vicious.

The cool kids in Silicon Valley advertise their love of “disruption.” Ask James Damore or Brendan Eich what disrupting the tech bosses in their ceaseless hideous worship of banal platitudes actually gets you. Disruption is the one thing sure to get you fired, sure to get your book deal tanked. Challenging the basic assumptions of culture and flouting the public consensus — try smoking a cigarette within sniffing distance of the nice people.