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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 1, 2024

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You claimed you do take them on their word

No, I said I don't:

"I do [see a reason not to take them at their word]. The issues of the late 18th century..."

Why does it matter?

Because you seem to think it does and are making inferences based off that. Otherwise why bring up the idea that I'm a progressive?

Perhaps it would help if you could clarify what you mean when you say "progressive".

So that means what Amadan, and people like him, are saying is correct

Could be. Could be a story they tell themselves to feel better about swinging right. Could be they were always kind of right-wing but didn't like to think of themselves that way and the low salience of their views meant that self-perception never got challenged. Contra Moldbug, political currents move in all directions.

And how do you decide those specific beliefs are conservative?

Context and judgment.

Well, in that case progressives need to stop pretending they have any principles other than change itself.

I'm not sure how you get from here to there.

you can't honestly guarantee that at some point everything that was old won't become new again, and the divine right of kings won't be declared progressive.

This is true but has nothing to do with the contemporary progressive movement as opposed to just human nature. Look no further than the libertarian -> nrx pipeline if you need an example of old ideas being revived. There is no magic wand that will perpetually banish an idea to the dustbin of history.

It's a lot more useful than pretending that things that are moving are standing still, and vice-versa.

On the contrary. Understanding that motion is relative is extremely useful, whereas collapsing the distinction between hundreds of years of political philosophy is obfuscatory.

No, I said I don't

Oh, I completely misread that, thanks for explaining.

Because you seem to think it does and are making inferences based off that.

I don't think I anything I said relies on your views as an individual, or even getting general progressive beliefs right.

Perhaps it would help if you could clarify what you mean when you say "progressive".

I use it as a noninflammatory catch-all term for left leaning people analyzing society through lenses of identity and privilege.

Could be. Could be a story they tell themselves to feel better about swinging right.

That argument was irrelevant to anyone swinging right. You were talking about past positions no longer counting as left wing, if this is what happened, it's everyone else that swung left.

Context and judgment.

That's not enough to dismiss someone out of hand, or call them full of shit, when they say they've been left behind.

Im not sure how you get from here to there.

It's pretty straight forward. If not keeping up with change is what gets you booted from the movement, than it's change that is the actual principle, rather than anything being professed in the moment.

Look no further than the libertarian -> nrx pipeline if you need an example of old ideas being revived.

The difference is that you correctly identify it as a pipeline - something with the function of moving stuff from one end to the other. You're not claiming that actually libertarianism is about bending the knee to the One True King, and that the left behind ancap that refuses must actually be a communist, even if he won't admit it to himself.

On the contrary. Understanding that motion is relative is extremely useful

Oh, I suppose you're right, if you reframe people who keep their old opinions as moving, and your changing opinions as remaining stationary, you never have to ask yourself "am I going too far?". In that sense it's very useful.

whereas collapsing the distinction between hundreds of years of political philosophy is obfuscatory.

Well, first of all, I wasn't discussing a timespan of hundreds of years. We were talking about 10 years or therabouts, and even that doesn't give justice to how sudden it was, because the change in question was very front loaded.

Secondly, I'm not collapsing anything. My approach allows just fine for describing the various ideological changes we went through. It's quote a bit more precise than just calling whatever is currently happening "liberalism".