Power and control are what drives the left. They want the power to run our lives and control our thinking. They also hate the First Amendment: they do not believe in freedom of speech, freedom of association or freedom of religion.

This was on big display with their reaction to Audrey Hale, the Nashville mass shooter. Consider the way the media and activists responded to the serial killing in a Christian school by a disturbed transgender biological female who resented her time at the school.

The Associated Press pitched the story as one about guns, not violent transgender persons. Reuters, its British counterpart, took note of the religion the killer was raised in (Christianity)—and which she rejected—saying, “Former Christian school student kills 3 children, 3 staff in Nashville shooting.” Similarly, the Daily Mail put the blame on her Christian parents.

If the killer had been a white supremacist, the media would be focusing on that, and nothing else.

NBC News was upset that some media outlets were mentioning the trans status of the murderer, even going so far as to say that the real victims are those in the transgender community (they are allegedly fearful for their lives). Newsweek blamed Republicans for opposing “drag queen” shows, somehow tying that noble position to the deranged act of a disturbed person.

Activists have gotten into the act by demanding that Hale’s game plan, contained in a manifesto that the police have yet to release, should not be made public. They want it censored. The head of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, Jordan Budd, flatly said, “It should not be published.” Are they afraid it will detail her hatred of Christianity, a sentiment which is common in left-wing and trans circles?

Some activists are threatening violence, the ultimate expression of power. “If you transphobes do try to come for me I’m taking a few of you with me.” This threat was posted in an online video by Kayla Denker, also known as “Pinko Scum.” Denker was shown holding a gun.

All of this is of a bigger piece: the left does not want the truth to be told about trans people, and nowhere is this more evident than in the academy. Left-wing professors, which is to say most professors, will censor any voice that challenges the reigning orthodoxy, and this is especially true of gay and transgender issues.

Lisa Littman is a physician and a professor at Brown University. After she published a study of trans children and their parents, in a peer-reviewed journal, that challenged the conventional thinking, she was immediately condemned by academicians and activists. Brown even pulled its promotion of her work. In short, the left tried to silence her.

Littman’s experience is the norm, not the exception to the rule.

Dr. Paul Sullins, a distinguished sociologist, knows this subject well, and he recently noted that studies on gay and trans persons reflect the “monoculture” that is prevalent in higher education. “The American Psychological Association, which manages most of the psychological journals in the U.S., has a committee staffed by ‘LGBT’ activists that actively censor what they see as ‘heterosexist’ bias.”

The left rejects the existence of truth, which explains their advocacy of the most pernicious ideology of our time, namely transgenderism. Their animus against science is palpable, and their commitment to politicizing every subject, including mathematics, makes them a danger to a free society.

Trans people should not be scorned. They should be treated for their maladies. But no amount of compassion for their disorders should come at the expense of telling the truth.