And while we’re at it, let’s talk about another thing that has been pissing me the fuck off recently. Lately, in the pages of liberal bastions like Atlantic, Slate, and New Republic, there has been this movement gaining steam largely because nobody wants to give it a name. So let me name this mofo: The Liberal Limit. You know it— in fact it’s been the view of many liberals and leftists, but particularly old white liberal men (yeah I said it), that progressiveness has gone too far, so far that even their privilege now feels attacked.
They’re tired of learning new gender pronouns. Tired of hiding that nigger joke book. Tired of having to figure out how to respond to a Rihanna video. Tired of feminists of colour pointing out fissures in whatever wave of feminism we got right now. Tired of black kids on campus whining all the time. Tired of everybody being so angry because without their alliance all you coloured folk would be doomed. Liberal but up to the point where it scrapes on privilege.
But here’s the news. You’re a progressive. You’re supposed to progress. You’re supposed to be more liberal today than you were yesterday. Yes, we’re supposed to passionately debate (not tear down) even the stance of our allies, even those who agree with us 60% of the time. You’re supposed to keep changing your views on race because even the most positive view is inherently flawed and needs work. The whole point to being liberal, to being progressive is to continuously evolve, continuously question, continuously debate, even continuously knock down and build up, sometimes even ripping everything apart to start again. My views on trans people are different in 2014 that they were in 2004. And you can bet your ass it will be even better in 2024 than it is now, because that's what makes me not conservative. The point to being a progressive is to fucking progress.
I dont know what fuss the Atlantic, Slate, NR, or "old white liberal men" are kicking up, and in the long run I dont think it matters much, because history moves on despite their griping. I am white, male, leftist (with an anarchic streak), and old enough to have lived through the Civil Rights Movement, The Feminist movement, the Student Movement, and a whole lot of other movements. I learned two things: collective organizing and resistance can change things for the better, so I refuse to despair or resign myself to things as they are; but rigid thinking of any type is anathema, and the Left can be just as guilty of that as the Right. We did it back in the 60s and 70s, and we are doing it again. Nowadays we call it (inaccurately) Political Correctness; in the 30s they called it Right Thinking. In the 60s and 70s we talked about raising consciousness, which sounds nice enough, but it sometimes functioned as a euphemism for some very unenlightened thinking. Personally I dont give a shit for any kind of thinking that cannot acknowledge the slipperiness of meaning and the paradoxical nature of human truths.
The media is full of strident, intolerant, hyperbolic and rigid argumentation, and it gets us nowhere. That is not progressive; it is regressive. We definitely need passionate debate, but I would like to see a little more of what Ortega y Gasset called "vital reason" -- reason with a heart -- and a bit less self righteous certainty. We are so caught up in labels and abstractions that we fail to see the complicated realities they mask. That is what I am tired of -- the paucity of the thinking, not the subjects. I think it's great to question our pronouns, parse videos, recognize the complexities of color, race, class, identity, etc. This is exciting stuff. But let's bring imagination and humanity to the discussion. Can we infuse our social media with the same energy, thoughtfulness,


