To start from caring about the oppressed and ending up supporting Jihadism is quite the transformation. I doubt they see it that way, which is fairly damning for them. I hope they cede ground.
The contemporary progressive movement and moment always alienated most people, but that did not stop them from gaining control of almost all elite institutions, and this control will persist even if Trump is elected. Which raises the question: is the moment waning or does its capture of elite positions herald the collapse of western society? The stakes require a return to reconsider elite theory in general.
Watching a party with its own Hamas caucus in congress and intimidating people on the streets screech nonstop about democracy is one of the sights to behold in 2024.
Money and influence is coming from (at least partly) sources like Qatar and Iran, whose goal is to spread Islam worldwide. I doubt that many college protestors actually want to convert to Islam. But it’s still very destabilizing,
Of course Iran and Qatar also seek the destruction of Israel.
The progressive movement has not peaked, it has been countered and is now consolidating power and control of key institutions (education, the arts, non-profits, government agencies, HR departments).
For the future, just look at Canada. +1% annual net migration, vastly increasing the "Greens" in the Red-Green alliance. This rapid, irreversible demographic change could change the political balance of power back towards progressives. (In 2021 Canada was 23% foreign born, this could increase to 30% by 2030).
Excellent analysis. My take is a bit different. I think we need to understand that progressivism is not an offshoot of liberalism, but another disguise for Marxism. It parallels Islamic terrorism. Hamas, Hezb-allah, al qaida, isis, antifa, etc. are merely the costumes. So
Marxism will assume a different persona when progressivism bites the dust. It all scrapes against the grain of human civilization, morality and ethics The anti-Semite, anti-Israel extremists have contributed to the downfall. People are starting to arouse from their slumber or stupidity or "mass formation". Having pushed the propaganda too far and too fast, the people are resisting, having realized that they have lost control of their individual sovereignty. Some groups of people, blacks and Jews, are now awake to the fact that they were used as tools by the demonrats (socialist/communists). How quickly this whole scheme disintegrates depends on how many people react and their intensity. We can and should facilitate the end of this evil for humanity to survive. L'Chaim.
I don’t agree with the “disguised Marxism” theory. I think both progressivism and Marxism are part of a very long continuum of revolutionary and messianic movements going back to ancient Israel, Greece, and Rome. Sometimes these movements have a positive effect, sometimes they’re utterly toxic and destructive. At the moment, sadly, progressivism is the latter.
Simple power and humans desire to wield it explains far more than Marxism does. Excellent article. I’d have highlighted the trans phenomenon as an important recent innovation in the area of identity politics, but otherwise an excellent summation. Thanks.
My family member who is deeply woke pontificates non-stop on the virtues of Stalinism! Not some soft core vague version that might turn out better than prior tryouts. She‘ll also educate you that her N Korean friends confirm that the Western portrayal of that country is all lies. Origin of the intellectual premise may be less relevant than how it is spreading in the wild.
Contemporary Progressivism was doomed to fail, because it was revived, at least in part, to be a movement in which hatred of Jews and Israel was acceptable. Race radicals of the 1960s tried kicking the Jews out of the Black Civil Rights Movement, but most Jews refused to be pushed out. By the time Progressivism emerged, Jews should have understood they were being further isolated but, again, they refused to listen. I never identified as Progressive, because I always understood kicking Jews out of the coalition of minorities was on the agenda. I may have shared some values with them, but I always understood where they were headed. The Jews who were shocked by the Jew-hatred that exploded on October 7th, 2023 are the Jews who refused to see, for decades, what was happening. They shouldn’t have been shocked.
I don’t know if Progressivism will die out. I hope it will. Hopefully, because people recognize it was wrong for a movement to put hatred of Jews and the Jewish homeland on its agenda. In a country where we had to put enormous amounts of energy and resources into fighting white supremacy, it should have been a no-brainer to reject an Arab and Muslim supremacist cause from the Middle East. The Progressive movement was rife with Jew-hatred and hypocrisy, right from the beginning. It’s time people began to reckon with that.
Despite its abject stupidity, progressivism lingers like the cancer it is. I would say, sadly, it is not even in remission. At best a few tumors have been shrunk. It needs a further blast of radiation, which happens to be orange with really bad hair and an endless well of unforced errors. Still, it is the only treatment available at this time. Vote!
Chiming in from the future, this essay was absolutely stellar. Americans roundly rejected progressivism at almost all levels. But like some commenters here have said, it’s just in remission. There’s been no real autopsy of the party. They’re even floating AOC for 2028. I mean on one hand, let them keep making massive errors and stay in their ever shrinking hermetically sealed bubbles.
Maybe you are seeing a reasonable response to effective efforts by Hamas’ supporters in the Middle East to showcase the suffering of Palestinian children being used as shields by Hamas militants.
The sympathizers are not unreasonable. The Israelis efforts to defeat Hamas are not unreasonable. Hamas fighters know that they will quickly be defeated without the human shields. Is that unreasonable?
The Egyptian government will not allow Palestinians to flee across the border, is that unreasonable?
This makes a lot of sense and I’d like to believe it. But I don’t, really. The argument puts an artificial separation between progressive anti-semitism and the more general sort. I think the former is a subcase of the latter. For example, why do cops not suppress the rallies when they cross the line, as they often do? Because the cops identify with the idea that maybe the Jews kinda deserve it, that it’s permissible to other the Jews.
To start from caring about the oppressed and ending up supporting Jihadism is quite the transformation. I doubt they see it that way, which is fairly damning for them. I hope they cede ground.
The contemporary progressive movement and moment always alienated most people, but that did not stop them from gaining control of almost all elite institutions, and this control will persist even if Trump is elected. Which raises the question: is the moment waning or does its capture of elite positions herald the collapse of western society? The stakes require a return to reconsider elite theory in general.
I‘d love to believe we’ve hit peak woke, but there’s a lot of articles from 2021, 22 and 23 that also anticipate peak woke. More work may be needed.
Watching a party with its own Hamas caucus in congress and intimidating people on the streets screech nonstop about democracy is one of the sights to behold in 2024.
Money and influence is coming from (at least partly) sources like Qatar and Iran, whose goal is to spread Islam worldwide. I doubt that many college protestors actually want to convert to Islam. But it’s still very destabilizing,
Of course Iran and Qatar also seek the destruction of Israel.
The progressive movement has not peaked, it has been countered and is now consolidating power and control of key institutions (education, the arts, non-profits, government agencies, HR departments).
For the future, just look at Canada. +1% annual net migration, vastly increasing the "Greens" in the Red-Green alliance. This rapid, irreversible demographic change could change the political balance of power back towards progressives. (In 2021 Canada was 23% foreign born, this could increase to 30% by 2030).
Trudeau has been forced by the housing crisis to curtail immigration. But there’s a huge population already here, many of them Muslims.
Excellent analysis. My take is a bit different. I think we need to understand that progressivism is not an offshoot of liberalism, but another disguise for Marxism. It parallels Islamic terrorism. Hamas, Hezb-allah, al qaida, isis, antifa, etc. are merely the costumes. So
Marxism will assume a different persona when progressivism bites the dust. It all scrapes against the grain of human civilization, morality and ethics The anti-Semite, anti-Israel extremists have contributed to the downfall. People are starting to arouse from their slumber or stupidity or "mass formation". Having pushed the propaganda too far and too fast, the people are resisting, having realized that they have lost control of their individual sovereignty. Some groups of people, blacks and Jews, are now awake to the fact that they were used as tools by the demonrats (socialist/communists). How quickly this whole scheme disintegrates depends on how many people react and their intensity. We can and should facilitate the end of this evil for humanity to survive. L'Chaim.
I don’t agree with the “disguised Marxism” theory. I think both progressivism and Marxism are part of a very long continuum of revolutionary and messianic movements going back to ancient Israel, Greece, and Rome. Sometimes these movements have a positive effect, sometimes they’re utterly toxic and destructive. At the moment, sadly, progressivism is the latter.
Simple power and humans desire to wield it explains far more than Marxism does. Excellent article. I’d have highlighted the trans phenomenon as an important recent innovation in the area of identity politics, but otherwise an excellent summation. Thanks.
My family member who is deeply woke pontificates non-stop on the virtues of Stalinism! Not some soft core vague version that might turn out better than prior tryouts. She‘ll also educate you that her N Korean friends confirm that the Western portrayal of that country is all lies. Origin of the intellectual premise may be less relevant than how it is spreading in the wild.
Contemporary Progressivism was doomed to fail, because it was revived, at least in part, to be a movement in which hatred of Jews and Israel was acceptable. Race radicals of the 1960s tried kicking the Jews out of the Black Civil Rights Movement, but most Jews refused to be pushed out. By the time Progressivism emerged, Jews should have understood they were being further isolated but, again, they refused to listen. I never identified as Progressive, because I always understood kicking Jews out of the coalition of minorities was on the agenda. I may have shared some values with them, but I always understood where they were headed. The Jews who were shocked by the Jew-hatred that exploded on October 7th, 2023 are the Jews who refused to see, for decades, what was happening. They shouldn’t have been shocked.
I don’t know if Progressivism will die out. I hope it will. Hopefully, because people recognize it was wrong for a movement to put hatred of Jews and the Jewish homeland on its agenda. In a country where we had to put enormous amounts of energy and resources into fighting white supremacy, it should have been a no-brainer to reject an Arab and Muslim supremacist cause from the Middle East. The Progressive movement was rife with Jew-hatred and hypocrisy, right from the beginning. It’s time people began to reckon with that.
I think, or rather hope, that Trump winning will humble them considerably and discredit the antisemites entirely.
Me, too.
Despite its abject stupidity, progressivism lingers like the cancer it is. I would say, sadly, it is not even in remission. At best a few tumors have been shrunk. It needs a further blast of radiation, which happens to be orange with really bad hair and an endless well of unforced errors. Still, it is the only treatment available at this time. Vote!
At some point in the last year the word “progressive “ became code for antisemitic. Remarkable
Chiming in from the future, this essay was absolutely stellar. Americans roundly rejected progressivism at almost all levels. But like some commenters here have said, it’s just in remission. There’s been no real autopsy of the party. They’re even floating AOC for 2028. I mean on one hand, let them keep making massive errors and stay in their ever shrinking hermetically sealed bubbles.
The only major disagreement I have with this and your other articles is the arbitrary separation of antisemitism from racism.
Antisemitism is a variant of racism. They're not separate. I've yet to meet an antisemite who cared whether or not I went to shul.
Maybe you are seeing a reasonable response to effective efforts by Hamas’ supporters in the Middle East to showcase the suffering of Palestinian children being used as shields by Hamas militants.
The sympathizers are not unreasonable. The Israelis efforts to defeat Hamas are not unreasonable. Hamas fighters know that they will quickly be defeated without the human shields. Is that unreasonable?
The Egyptian government will not allow Palestinians to flee across the border, is that unreasonable?
How about a UN boat lift
evacuation? Reasonable?
IDK
This makes a lot of sense and I’d like to believe it. But I don’t, really. The argument puts an artificial separation between progressive anti-semitism and the more general sort. I think the former is a subcase of the latter. For example, why do cops not suppress the rallies when they cross the line, as they often do? Because the cops identify with the idea that maybe the Jews kinda deserve it, that it’s permissible to other the Jews.
I think it dies earlier with DEI abuse and woke and trans cultural nonsense.