The Closing of the American Mind was Allan Bloom's groundbreaking critique of "absolute understanding" in academia and the way that it undermines critical thinking. If Bloom were with us today, we could imagine him writing a sequel devoted to the way the climate change industry has sought to silence dissent.

Chuck Todd gave a stunning example of the phenomenon this morning in his introduction of a Meet the Press special edition on climate change. Todd quite literally announced that dissent would not be tolerated. Here was Todd:

"Just as important as what we are going to do this hour is what we're not going to do. We're not going to debate climate change, the existence of it. The Earth is getting hotter, and human activity is a major cause. Period. We're not going to give time to climate deniers. The science is settled, even if political opinion is not."

Quick: someone check—are we still in the USA? Or did "democracy die in darkness" and certain positions are verboten from public speech?

And now that Todd has a taste for banning dissent from liberal orthodoxy, the possibilities are endless! Will next week bring us: "Welcome to a Meet the Press special edition on immigration. The matter is settled: open borders are good. Period. We're not giving time to wall advocates."

Note: Todd also managed to slip in a gratuitous shot at President Trump, declaring that it's "extraordinarily difficult" to focus on one topic "in this era of Trump." Sounds like an admission of Trump Derangement Syndrome to us.

Note segundo: As Oren Cass has written at National Review: "The epithet 'climate denier,' intended to invoke Holocaust denial, has always been tasteless and inapt . . . But climate activists delighted in defining their opposition this way." Chuck Todd should know better than to engage in this kind of ugly name-calling.