This is another instance of what can be called the paradox of activism. People tend to think of activism as something dedicated to solutions for a particular cause and on paper, that may be true. In practice, however, the activist has no end game, no point at which victory can be declared. The activism exists for its own sake and becomes more intent on perpetuating the issue than resolving it. Because the cause has become a livelihood and resolution would put the activists out of work. This applies to virtually any cause, from race to feminism to the environment and now, the what we once called liberalism.
Liberalism became so illiberal that even people on the left subconsciously realized it, ushering in the idea of progressivism which turns out to be as regressive as any ideology. When the typical reaction to dissent on any aspect of progressive dogma is to demand one's banishment from the public square, you are dealing with totalitarians who are, thus far, relying on coercion but who will eventually turn to blunt force in their push for conformity.
These are not reasonable people who can be engaged in good faith debate. These are people whose default setting is to label anyone not on board as a racist, sexist, etc., etc. They are blind to reality and impervious to facts. They will turn on their own who dare to question the orthodoxy as people from Bari Weiss to Brett Weinstein to JK Rowling have discovered. Multiple cities are awash in crime over the notion that the justice system is racist or some such, and the victims of this are usually minorities, the very people whom the progressives claim to champion. The old saying of, "with friends like these....." comes to mind.
Perhaps the activists are reaching their common end state - overplaying their hand, but the carnage is piling up as they get there. Public trust in academia, government, the media, and other institutions is at all-time lows, largely due to this endless push to enforce group think. It is a corrosive approach and I'm not sure what equilibrium would look like. The divisions in Covid cannot go away; when someone advocates you losing a job or being banned from the grocery store over rightful skepticism about a vaccine, that cannot be unseen. Same with things ranging from the idiotically reductionist view toward history taken by the left or the redefining of common terms like 'woman.' We are becoming less of a country by the day and more of different tribes constrained by a common border.
This is another instance of what can be called the paradox of activism. People tend to think of activism as something dedicated to solutions for a particular cause and on paper, that may be true. In practice, however, the activist has no end game, no point at which victory can be declared. The activism exists for its own sake and becomes more intent on perpetuating the issue than resolving it. Because the cause has become a livelihood and resolution would put the activists out of work. This applies to virtually any cause, from race to feminism to the environment and now, the what we once called liberalism.
Liberalism became so illiberal that even people on the left subconsciously realized it, ushering in the idea of progressivism which turns out to be as regressive as any ideology. When the typical reaction to dissent on any aspect of progressive dogma is to demand one's banishment from the public square, you are dealing with totalitarians who are, thus far, relying on coercion but who will eventually turn to blunt force in their push for conformity.
These are not reasonable people who can be engaged in good faith debate. These are people whose default setting is to label anyone not on board as a racist, sexist, etc., etc. They are blind to reality and impervious to facts. They will turn on their own who dare to question the orthodoxy as people from Bari Weiss to Brett Weinstein to JK Rowling have discovered. Multiple cities are awash in crime over the notion that the justice system is racist or some such, and the victims of this are usually minorities, the very people whom the progressives claim to champion. The old saying of, "with friends like these....." comes to mind.
Perhaps the activists are reaching their common end state - overplaying their hand, but the carnage is piling up as they get there. Public trust in academia, government, the media, and other institutions is at all-time lows, largely due to this endless push to enforce group think. It is a corrosive approach and I'm not sure what equilibrium would look like. The divisions in Covid cannot go away; when someone advocates you losing a job or being banned from the grocery store over rightful skepticism about a vaccine, that cannot be unseen. Same with things ranging from the idiotically reductionist view toward history taken by the left or the redefining of common terms like 'woman.' We are becoming less of a country by the day and more of different tribes constrained by a common border.