5 Feet of Fury

NYT accidentally summarizes ‘progressivism’ in half a sentence

…the only thing more important than making the world better can be keeping Woodstock the same.

***
“Progressives” live in the past — a past that (like the one they so often accuse conservatives of romantically yearning for) didn’t exist:

Rosa Parks wasn’t just “tired — she was a semi-professional activist, trained at a Communist “school”; Alger Hiss was guilty; so were Sacco and Venzetti; there really were Communist spies in the State Department; FDR prolonged the Depression; “busing” increased racial hatred; Bush’s verbal SATs were higher than Kerry’s…

Once you realize that liberals live in a nostalgic past of their own invention and on-going promotion (like Mrs. Havisham or a tragic Tennessee Williams “heroine”) almost everything “progressives” do then makes “sense.”

Sailer adds:

As a man of conservative disposition, I sympathize with Woodstock’s many conservatives, even if they claim to be progressives.

I don’t particularly believe that the 1960s were about “values” or whatever. I think it was more a struggle for dominance and the talk about principles was more a smokescreen. Much of contemporary politics, therefore, consists of the the winners of the 1960s trying to preserve their gains. That’s only natural.

He also provides a funny punchline you won’t want to miss.