And now, with the silencing of conservative voices on social media, the removal of alternative platforms from mobile app stores and the revoking of their server access, old grievances remain unaddressed and new ones built off the back of this unprecedented gaslighting and censorship.

If my experience with extremism teaches me anything, it’s that such moves can only boost haters. If the choices are the dour church ladies of establishment-approved opinion, on one hand, and an edgy underground movement claiming to speak forbidden truths, on the other, the latter will thrive.

Democratic elites, moreover, risk conjuring the very demon they claim to fear. It seems they plan to frame the stupid hooliganism of Jan. 6 as a sort of 9/11 redux and ­respond accordingly: with censorship and constant talk of “domestic terror,” which can only serve to legitimate wider crackdowns.