Progressive Intolerance

Having experienced the intolerance of "progressives" in the form of comments submitted to this site by assorted trolls, comments that I typically do not publish because that just encourages the trolls, the rest of the world has not yet caught on to this phenomenon as examples of intolerance seem to be increasing.

From Public Discourse the following is by Dr. Rachel Lu. She has published in The Week, America Magazine, National Review, The American Conservative, and other publications. She has a PhD in philosophy from Cornell University, and is a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow. She tries to make an analogy between pagans and Christians in the modern world, and in the course of her exposition she exposes the naked truth that the ultimate goal of progressive ideology is to remove Christianity from the public square.

"Flashing ahead several centuries, consider contemporary progressives and their reactions to Judeo-Christian faith. Overwhelmingly, progressives regard themselves as a tolerant group of people. Yet it often seems reasonable to them to take drastic steps to curb “microaggressions” or combat the “dignitary harm” that religious traditionalists ostensibly do to others by retaining longstanding moral views. Increasingly, progressives want public spaces to be “safe spaces” where they do not have to encounter upsetting ideas (which often just means Judeo-Christian ideas). Also, like ancient pagans, they are enormously concerned about sex. Religious traditionalists are frequently charged with being “on the wrong side of history” simply for maintaining Judeo-Christian sexual mores."

"Traditionalists often observe, reasonably enough, that this is a very intolerant-seeming brand of tolerance. Looking through the lens of the ancient conflict between “immanent” (pagan) and “transcendent” (Christian) spirituality, we can add some nuance to that complaint. Progressives do embrace a kind of cosmopolitan ideal, within certain boundaries. They are prepared to sanction a fairly wide range of beliefs, preferences, and lifestyle choices, just as long as certain “sacred” lines are not crossed. They can have genuine curiosity about global cultures, cuisines, and customs, and are sometimes very interested in history, high culture, or the arts. That broad-mindedness, though, finds its limit when it encounters its ancient Christian rival. Orthodox Christianity is seen as authoritarian, inflexible, and joyless. Progressive cosmopolitanism, like its Roman forebear, has its limits. Transcendent religion is deeply in tension with the social vision of our progressive neo-pagans. That is why, in the eyes of many, Christians must be converted, or else marginalized to the point where they can pose no real threat."

If conversion or marginalization is the case, blog sites such as this will probably eventually be silenced by either threats of litigation, by "hate speech" laws, or by fiat.