When you tell liberals that slavery existed throughout history in every human civilization, they interpret it as a prescriptive statement. They think you are telling them that you want to re-enslave African Americans.
The roots of the misunderstanding lie in a different view of human beings. For conservatives, human beings are naturally extremely flawed. The default human existence is “nasty, brutish, and short.” Human beings can get better and live more civilized lives by constantly editing their originally shitty nature.
For liberals, on the other hand, the human nature is originally that of a noble savage. We are all good at first, but then social relations distract us from our original goodness. We have to disinter this original un-polluted self in order to achieve true happiness.
You can see this difference in my story about the local perv from yesterday. I believe that he should edit down his need to pose as a little girl in front of children for the good of the community. Defenders of his behavior believe that, as he sits there in his brightly pink skirt and pink sandals, he is accessing some deeply authentic part of his self, and that that experience is so valuable that any societal considerations pale in comparison. I also think he’s accessing a deeply authentic part of himself. The difference is that I think this is a bad thing.
To return to the example with which I opened this post, for a conservative, the idea that something was bad and then we worked together to control our mean evil impulses to get things better is completely normal. But for a liberal, the original state means something good. If primitive tribes did it, it must be wonderful. This is why, for example, Howard Zinn argues sincerely in his books that primitive indigenous tribes of the Americas were feminist and pro-gay. Because if they weren’t, it means that feminism and gayness are bad.
The freedom that is so important to liberals is freedom from civilization, because civilization requires limits to individual whims and appetites. Their ultimate goal is complete freedom of humans from each other. The ecstasy of the (neo)liberal subject is to be completely alone and not participate in society through work, relationships, or procreation. All of these activities require experiencing discomfort for the sake of others. And that makes them unbearable.
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