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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 17, 2024

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Well, I disagree with some of your specific examples. I don't think that Boomers, alienated men, or nerds were ever the "darlings" of the progressive movement like you say. Call them "young people," "lone heroes," and "dorks with bad social skills," and maybe they were promoted somewhat, but nothing like the way the movement supports other favored groups.

More broadly, I do agree with you, but I don't think it's an arbitrary change. It's all a part of "the revolution," going back to marxist rhetoric. You break down society into two classes, one the oppressor and one the oppressed. For Marx it was the capitalists oppressing the workers, and you can see the logic there- capitalists are rich but few, workers are poor but many, so they just need to organize, rise up, and seize the capital for themselves.

For women it's a little more complicated, since they don't have the numbers advantage and "abolish men," but it's still largely the same rhetoric. Organize, rise up, demand more stuff for your group and less for the others. It's justice! And then once that basic play was established, it was easy to start using it on every single other niche group with a chip on its shoulder, which you can somehow identify as oppressed and convince them to organize and vote/fight together. This is explicitly part of third-wave feminism, which is roughly "feminism, but not for women, it's for all the other oppressed groups." Cynically it's so you can be the organizer speaking on their behalf, or you can be less cynical and say it's just nice to fight for justice. It doesn't really matter, the result is the same either way.