New Zealanders are increasingly being made to feel like strangers in their own country, walking on eggshells in their daily lives for fear of being accused of breaching human rights or inciting racial disharmony. When ordinary citizens can no longer speak their minds, question prevailing orthodoxy, or debate religious and cultural practices without the threat of legal sanction, democracy begins to wither. History shows what happens when a society becomes terrified of opposing views: debate is outlawed, state-approved narratives take over, and freedom gives way to the rigid conformity seen in communist states.
