Liberalism in the United States is in the middle of a slow motion suicide by poison. We’re watching the unscrewing of the lid, the last looks about the room, and the multiple sips from the vial. Except we’re seeing it happen at one frame per month with no ability to stop the film.

The far left has effectively blacklisted the thinking or voicing of certain opinions, simultaneously pushed a series of regressive and ridiculous narratives, and then proceeded to witch-hunt at the individual and media levels using outrage porn as its primary weapon.

The effect is slow destruction of the original progressive agenda, with more and more liberals being forced to leap from the hijacked bus. Even worse, though, is that it’s creating a gap in ideology between the extreme left and the extreme right. And the gap continues to grow in both breadth and depth.

We’re approaching a moment where we have just three groups in this country:

1. The Regressive Left who spews social-media-powered outrage, hatred, and labels at anyone who disagrees with their far-left opinions and in turn harms progressivism the way only a friend can.
2. The Alt-right, which is effectively indiscernible from a race-oriented fascist party.
3. And the growing middle ground who suddenly has no home. They are the 70% in the middle who leaned a bit left, or leaned a bit right, but is suddenly forced to pick between safe spaces and Muslim registries.

It’s not a recipe for disaster, it’s the pre-made cake of disaster (because we already know how it turns out).

Arguments from arrogance

Here are some of ways the extreme left is pushing people towards apathy and/or the extreme right.

• Insisting women who are happy being mothers and wives are either lazy or anti-feminist: It’s obviously ok to encourage any group to do better for themselves, but it’s pretty shitty to say to millions of women—who might have actually considered all the options (gasp) and who chose to stay home—that they’re bad people. There’s also a lot of irony in the position, as it assumes an intellectually inferior position for women since they obviously don’t know what’s best for themselves. To be clear, many of these same women are absolutely feminists when it comes to allowing women to enter the corporate world, start businesses, or do whatever. They simply don’t see staying at home as failing to do those things, but rather as alternative and equal choice. Many women see attacks on that choice as a violation of something natural and ok, and it pushes them away from the left even if they leaned progressive on many other issues.
• Equating school shootings caused by mental health issues with Islamic terror: With each mass attack on civilians done by Islamic extremists it becomes increasingly counter-intuitive and offensive to say it has nothing to do with Islam. And when you tell people this untruth, without flinching, and expect them to pass it along to others, it produces a burning anger inside. It’s an anger created by being asked to believe and preach something you know not to be true. We have a problem with extreme Islam that only moderate Islam can fix, and you start that conversation with identifying that we have a problem. Right now, in the entire world, there is no newspaper that will print an image of Mohammed. The reason is because there’s a very high chance that they will be murdered with hours or days of publication. This is not a problem for any other religion on Earth. It’s not a problem with Putin. It’s not a problem with Kim Jung Un. It’s not a problem with the Satanic church. Only Islam. Now add to that the fact that when you ask British Muslims if it’d be justified to commit terrorist atrocities against someone who mock Mohammed, 27% said they had some sympathy for those behind the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, and 11% said they deserved it. That’s 300,000 people who think murdering a cartoonist was justified because they insulted Islam. British Muslims. So, yes, we have a problem with Islam in that it largely doesn’t seem consistent with western values. It’s obvious in these sorts of polls, and it’s obvious in a constant stream of suicide attacks carried out by Muslims. White people (or any ethnicity really) shooting up some place due to not having education, not having a job, not having any meaningful relationships, and basically no prospects for the future is quite distinct from an actual ideology. Extreme Islam is an ideology that has to be actively opposed, just like Neo-nazism or anything else like that. And when you claim equivalency with random mental health related violence it defies common sense and produces even more of this internal anger that cannot be voiced.
• Pushing white male guilt as a solution to every problem: A lot of white people wish they could be proud of something related to their heritage. Something Irish, or German, or English, or whatever. But they know they can’t do that because it means they (according to the crowd with torches) are also then proud of European colonialism. Once again, you have a powerful feeling (loving one’s ancestry) that is forced to be repressed due to far-left ideology. This isn’t healthy, and it isn’t fair. Europeans did some dark shit, without question. But every race and group you can name did similar things if look at the history. We should all be ashamed, and we should all be proud. Anytime you remove one either of these feelings, for any group, you produce a festering and boiling pressure that can only be ugly when it finally says something.
• Insisting that no part of gender or racial representation in various industries/careers has anything to do with their respective interests or talents: The far left wants you to believe that all workforces should have a gender and race distribution that perfectly matches the overall population distribution. And if it deviates from that, the company or industry is purely racist or sexist. Period. Do they notice that most top writers in journalism, comedy, and movies are Jewish? Do they notice that black people make up 18% of the U.S. population while making up 75% of NBA players? Do they notice that countries with the most gender equality also have the most gender-specific industries? Or how about the fact that Jews make up only .2 percent of the world’s population but they have over 20% of all Nobel prizes?

If you’re anything like me you’re probably thinking this is some sort of veiled attack on equality.

Didn’t you just say that it’s ok that women stay home, that Islam is completely evil, that jews and blacks can only do one thing, etc? This sounds like crazy right-wing stuff!

Right. No. Here’s what I’m saying.

1. If some differences actually do exist in genders and ethnicities then that’s ok. It’s ok for different groups to have, on average, some different kinds of preferences or talents. Even if true it would say nothing about what individuals want or are capable of.
2. Denying obvious things, as a matter of policy, is really bad. There seems to be something going on with certain ethnicities and certain kinds of excellence. There seems to be something going on with certain genders and some overall career preferences. Islam seems to have a problem with extremism. The worst possible thing you can do, if you want to maintain any amount of respect, is 1) deny what’s right in front of you, and/or 2) call someone out as a bad person for noticing those things.
3. This denial plays DIRECTLY into the hands of the extreme right. They harvest it like rotting fruit on the ground. They watch liberals deny obvious things and say, “You see how stupid that is, right? You see they’re lying to you? (nodding) Well, let me tell you what’s REALLY going on.” And they proceed to fill heads full of racist and sexist bullshit.

So what are we to do as decent liberals who a) care about the truth, and b) care about defending and promoting progressive ideals?

We say something like the following:

(turning to the sexists and the far left)

Yes, it’s true. Women appear to like doing different things in a lot of cases. Many appear to find being alone looking at numbers all day to be dumb and worthless compared to interacting with and helping actual people. Maybe that has something to do with being the only gender that creates human life inside their bodies (gasp!). And maybe that makes them awesome.

What this DOESN’T mean is that you know anything about any given woman when you meet her. Maybe she wants to be a mother and a wife, and if so she’s an absolute hero. Or maybe she doesn’t want a family at all, or even a boyfriend (or girlfriend), and instead she wants to be a CEO brain surgeon astronaut. And what I’m saying, as a progressive, is that I will thrash your ass if you imply that she cannot, or should not, be either, because she’s either not capable or because one is inherently better than the other.

(turning to the racists and the far left)

Ok, sure, let’s say it’s true. Let’s say some ethnicities are better at certain things—on average—than other ethnicities. So what? This tells you absolutely nothing about the next person you meet, the next person you’re thinking about marrying, or the next person you’re thinking about electing to run our country. Everyone is an individual, and the spans between individuals are far wider than any group difference could ever be.

Since I’ve probably confused you, that means that all groups have massive ranges of attributes, skills, talents, and abilities that massively overlap, so when you think you know something about a person because of their ethnicity, that’s a symptom of you not being good at math, and that you should get a library card.

(turning to the white people, the white nationalists, and the far left)

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You know what? Europeans have actually accomplished a lot. You did some great things. Have your Irish parties. Have your German parties. Celebrate your ancestry. Being white is cool, just like being every other race is cool. We get it, you do your thing.

(turning to the white nationalists) As for you people, you’re all officially out of work. As you just heard, we’ve removed the ban on white pride. People are now free to be proud of their heritage no matter what their race. So, since you said that’s what your party was about, I suppose you can go home now. (chants in the crowd).

Oh, you want white people to be in charge? You want to subjugate everyone else? Well, then you’re garbage, plain and simple, and the sooner you all get bred out of existence the better. The future is cocoa colored and cyber-enhanced, you silly idiots. Pack up all your dumb Hitler shit and get out of here before we call the police. Your days are numbered, and you are opposed by not just asians, hispanics, and black folks, but by the majority of whites as well. We. Are. The. Future. You. Are. The. Past.

(turning to the Islamaphobes and the far left)

Yes, Islam has some major issues. It’s not gone through a reformation, the books are still in their original forms, and they have a LOT of nasty stuff in them that people can dig up and throw around at will. And we also have a lot of so-called moderate Muslims who support hardline beliefs far too much to be consistent with western values. So that’s a problem.

But we also have hundreds of millions (the actual vast majority) of Muslims who are extremely western, secular, and progressive. They just want to raise families, see their kids become successful, and die of old age. If you care about national security, or even just human decency, what you’ll do is engage THOSE PEOPLE in conversation.

They are our friends. They are our brothers and sisters. They’re the good guys, just like anyone else. And they’re also the people closest to the problem. So the single dumbest thing you can do—without question—IS TREAT THEM LIKE THEY’RE THE PROBLEM. Stop being a xenophobe and be part of the solution.

Summary

There’s one theme here. We cannot let the extreme be the only ones telling truths.

When the left fails to call out differences or pressures or problems that are SO OBVIOUS to see, it starts a kindling that the right is eager to ignite.

Take that power from them. Speak truth. Be honest. Have difficult conversations. And then, afterward, love each other as one progressive humanity. That’s the only thing that will work against hate. Honesty and love.

Liberals must speak truth so that the enemy isn’t the only one doing so, because they twist it, distort it, and use it do evil.

Having the courage to have the difficult conversations and protect your progressive ideals must start and end with honesty about reality, and wherever that fails you will open the door to racists and bigots who will use those omissions against you.