The blustering self-righteousness of today’s progressivism aims to mask the vacuum that lies at its core. “We can’t offer you anything, but at least we’ll make you feel good.”
9 responses to “Palliative Politics”
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It’s pure infantilism, a toxic mash of people wanting to shape the past into something that’s palatable, puerile rebellion (topping the mean daddy statues) and playground politics (fighting over what’s cool and who the cool kids are).
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The same could be said for white supremacists.
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Much of what poisons politics is an all-or-nothing mentality where people are either saints or demons. There are people who don’t want to hear a bad word said about any of their historic heroes and will refuse to acknowledge unpleasant facts. And there are others who will see those same historic figures as complete trash, instead of bothering to analyze them; they all become one and the same. In this state of mind, you can’t figure out what are someone’s worthwhile contributions, what are the evils they perpetrated (deliberately or inadvertently), the extent of their influence, and the culture they lived in. You’re either wholly with them or against them – because what trumps everything is your ability to identify with them or use them as a badge, or a collector’s item, and show them off in memes and quotes (sometimes completely made-up or misattributed quotes) on social media as you put on a performance.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. Superficial pseudo-engagement.
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The blustering self-righteousness of today’s
progressivismRepublican party aims to mask the vacuum that lies at its core. “We can’t offer you anything, but at least we’ll make you feel good.”It’s pure infantilism, a toxic mash of people wanting to shape the past into something that’s palatable, puerile rebellion
(topping the mean daddy statues)(rewriting history books to suggest the slaves voluntarily worked; coal rollers) and playground politics (fighting over what’s cool and who the cool kids are)(“Let’s make a law about who can pee where!”).Equally as valid. Which to me calls into question how trenchant that observation is or suggests a great vacuum in the center of American politics.
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Of course. We all live in the same world and the same moment where politics is emptied of all content.
The difference is that I don’t care if conservatism dies off and fades into a distant memory. But I do care if that happens to progressive politics.
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“But I do care if that happens to progressive politics.”
As the structuralist I am, I feel compelled to say that without conservatism there is no progressive politics (and vice versa). A political system with only one viable pole is not a political system, but a theocracy.
I think that a system with no viable poles is maybe slightly (by comparison only) better.LikeLike
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Remember when cliff used to post this guy’s videos on this blog?
https://twitter.com/anthonyLfisher/status/898564522343923712
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Keep up that witch hunt, Stringer! You’re demonstrating Clarissa’s points perfectly! Good job!
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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