The rot in academia, especially at so-called elite universities, is a growing cancer in the US. A generation of radical professors are indoctrinating the next generation, which seems to be even more extreme and malevolent. The progressive movement, as the modern incarnation of Leninist and Maoist Marxism, is inherently illiberal.
Nothing this stupid can survive. Progs are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. The suicide of the West is a thing. Progressivism has nothing to offer the world. It’s based on a series of big lies. It has caused a lot of damage. Beyond that the Progressives are the unwitting handmaidens of hardcore Communists and totalitarians. It’s a movement for utopian morons and malcontents.
Progressives never wanted a perfect society, they want a more equal society. Progressives have worked towards a goal of no poverty knowing that it may never happen but what’s important is lifting up out of poverty as many people as possible.
This essay is highly biased and conveniently glosses over important context like the statues removed in the United States were erected in the 1920s and 1930s to honor men who were traitors to their country and lost a war they fought in order to keep slaves.
There are also quite a few accusations thrown out with absolutely nothing to back them up.
While I agree with many points made in this piece, I think the points about antisemitism in what is really the regressive left, not progressive, could have been made without the baseless accusations.
I would love to see a current poll that tells us the percentage of Democrats that would consider themselves Progressive. I wouldn't use the term progressive. I would list all the triggers and I would ask in the poll, which of these you support. The list would include but not limited to ....... DEI, Wokeism, Gender Identity and Gender Expression, Bigger Government providing more services, Anti-Capitalism etc. My guess is that the poll would show that Progressivism is not just a minor movement within the Dem Party but is very much a major player in the Dem party.
You have produced a very interesting piece here Ben. I expect to re-read and digest its contents at greater length, believing it will prove fruitful in clarifying aspects of the puzzle picture many of us are laboring to more fully comprehend.
For now, however, I would like to comment on the following observation you made:
Present-day progressivism “…adopts the admonition of the Gospel of Matthew that “the last shall be first, and the first last.”
The ideological tenants of Communism have a mysterious, profound attraction on many intelligent people. Why might that be?
You have incorporated a quote of Yeshua (Jesus) from the Brit Hadasha, made in reference to the yet future Kingdom of G-d. In doing so, I believe you are ‘right over the target’ in respect to answering that question. In the simplest terms, the answer is that Communist philosophy is the root of Political Progressivism, and it is, essentially, ‘the Gospel of the Kingdom of G-d’ - without Yeshua.
As such, the basic tenants strike a ‘spiritual chord’ within the hearts and minds of men and women; a chord that resonates in tune with an innate conceptual, if warped/distorted sense of right and wrong, fairness, justice, and yearning for a better world.
I don’t want to belabor the points here, but hope that anyone interested in exploring or challenging my point consider it a mark made on a purported treasure map, with the label, ‘Dig Here’ affixed. Amongst other things, the position is very ably articulated in the ‘Foreword In the Form of a Letter to My Children’ from the book, ‘Witness’, written by Oswald Chambers in the early 1950’s. What follows below are two small excerpts from it. The first describes what Chambers believes to be ‘the revolutionary heart of Communism’:
“…a simple statement of Karl Marx, further simplified for handy use: “Philosophers have explained the world; it is necessary to change the world.””
The second, sheds light on the power behind this philosophy:
“It is not new. It is, in fact, man’s second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Ye shall be as gods.” It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man’s relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God. It is the vision of man’s mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world. It is the vision of man’s liberated mind, by the sole force of its rational intelligence, redirecting man’s destiny and reorganizing man’s life and the world. It is the vision of man, once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in His image, but because man’s mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals.”
— Witness (Cold War Classics) by Whittaker Chambers
One may laugh, mock, reject, or ignore this, but it was the power of the true Gospel that transformed Chambers and his wife from ardent, dedicated Communist activists, into productive, law-abiding citizens - and gave them the courage to publicly denounce the evil doctrines they had once so assiduously labored to promote, at great human cost to themselves. (It has similarly transformed countless reprobates, and rebels against G-d, including me, across millennia.)
Anyone wishing to peruse the history further might be tempted to deduce that the subsequent costs were all borne in vain, considering the present reality. Such a view would be understandable, but grossly mistaken. The simple reason for that is made clear through the revelations of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, as found in the Tanakh, and further unveiled in the Brit Hadasha.
In closing, thank you again for your work, and thanks to Joshua for hosting and sharing it. May Adonai bless you both, and bring forth fruit that lasts from your labors.
I agree almost 100% with your essay, and have been writing about this in The Lamppost for some time. With the comments I disagree almost 100%. It is unfortunate that people take progressive self-criticism as an opportunity to air antipathies to Islam and liberalism in general.
Just two small points. One, the racism of Hitler and the early 20th c. eugenicists was based on false biological theories; the contemporary racial ideology to which you refer is based on the idea that race is socially constructed. Two, you did not distinguish very carefully between the removal of monuments to Confederate leaders and other overt racists and people you say were "not racist at all" like Teddy Roosevelt. (You should look into that - he did later on accept racist theories that were similar to those the Nazis would use, and included deprecation of Jews.) I am very happy to see the demise of monuments to people whose sole importance was the defense if slavery.
RE: … it was the sacred Masonic Temple’s God who ecumenically made America the Great Judeo-Xian Whore of Babylon, not Trump and his seductive spiritual mentor Paula White.”
Marcel, how about stop your running away from answering this question: Does Messiah's commandment in Revelation 18:4 condone the democratic membership of Israeli-American Zionism within the Marxist UN Beast's abominable Socialistic Security System? Why are you blocking me from posting this question on your blog, that is being posed by Messiah's Holy Spirit??
You can jump up and down all you want, calling your critics every name you want, you will never remove the disgrace of Israel's culpability. Shame on you and shame on Israel. I vote for politicians that will call both Palestine and Israel to account.
You can jump up and down all you want, calling your critics every name you want, you will never remove the disgrace of Israel's culpability. Shame on you and shame on Israel. I vote for politicians that will call both Palestine and Israel to account.
The agenda of the whacked pro(re)gressives is clear: eliminate opponents' free speech, corrupt elections to maintain power, and indoctrinate children.
There should be no doubt that the Leftist Democratic Party is fully radical, completely all in on looney-tunes ideology. And there should be no doubt about what they intend to do if they obtain full power. This is a completely totalitarian and anti-democracy party. There are no moderates or even traditional liberals in this party. Every single elected representative of this party in Congress votes for their extremist policies. And because their policies are completely divorced from reality and delusional, they cannot allow any dissent or real analysis of those policies and their actual impact on people’s lives. And these nuts don’t actually care about the mass of Americans; they only care about wealthy elitists like themselves and retaining power. They see the masses as a group to be brainwashed, deceived, and overtly taxed… just look at the bloated National Debt which is never addressed.
Because of the combination of their delusional, jihadist mindset, their disdain for the average American and their inability to tolerate dissent; the whackos intend to pursue an agenda that will eliminate free speech — anything said or written that is not fully supportive of the lunatic agenda will be called hate speech or misinformation and will be banned.
Think this is far-fetched? I encourage you to look at what has already happened in Ireland, Scotland, the UK, Australia and other places where these same radical Leftist have taken power. Tim Walz already tried to pass a law like this in Minnesota and other Leftist Democrats have made no secret of their determination to suppress dissent.
They will further attempt to undermine democracy by instituting complete freedom to engage in voter fraud–by Leftist Democrats.
Illegal aliens will be allowed to vote, whether that is legal or not.
All manner of ballot harvesting, indeed ballot preparation for made-up voters, will be permitted, if not encouraged.
Vote in multiple states if possible, anything that consolidates power forever for the ideological nutjobs.
The agenda couldn’t be clearer: allow all manner of cheating to obtain and stay in power and suppress opponents’ speech, even the right to be on the ballot–whatever it takes to make sure there is no effective opposition.
And the final prong, which has been underway for decades, is the corruption of every American institution coupled with pervasive indoctrination, starting at the earliest possible age.
sKools (™️), universities, the medical profession, the legal profession, journalism, the media, the courts and so on all must be completely controlled by whackos and spread the radical faith.
This is absolutely no different from the approach of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, the Koreans, the Iranians, and other Muslim states and every other dictatorial regime — indoctrinate the children from birth.
Those that think this is an exaggeration, are at best indulging in wishful thinking and not paying attention to what has been occurring in this country for the last 50-years. You only have to read the writings and listen to the speeches of these extreme ideologues. And if you further don’t understand that Russia, China, Iran and other enemies are funding and encouraging this result, you are delusional. The country, as a result, is being ruined economically and socially. It may be too late already, but four more years of Leftist Democrat rule will literally leave us in a place from which we cannot recover.
The woke left is inherently anti Semitic
That must be a sweet delusion to help you sleep at night.
The rot in academia, especially at so-called elite universities, is a growing cancer in the US. A generation of radical professors are indoctrinating the next generation, which seems to be even more extreme and malevolent. The progressive movement, as the modern incarnation of Leninist and Maoist Marxism, is inherently illiberal.
Nothing this stupid can survive. Progs are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. The suicide of the West is a thing. Progressivism has nothing to offer the world. It’s based on a series of big lies. It has caused a lot of damage. Beyond that the Progressives are the unwitting handmaidens of hardcore Communists and totalitarians. It’s a movement for utopian morons and malcontents.
Progressives never wanted a perfect society, they want a more equal society. Progressives have worked towards a goal of no poverty knowing that it may never happen but what’s important is lifting up out of poverty as many people as possible.
This essay is highly biased and conveniently glosses over important context like the statues removed in the United States were erected in the 1920s and 1930s to honor men who were traitors to their country and lost a war they fought in order to keep slaves.
There are also quite a few accusations thrown out with absolutely nothing to back them up.
While I agree with many points made in this piece, I think the points about antisemitism in what is really the regressive left, not progressive, could have been made without the baseless accusations.
(Credit to my daughter for this one:) Is it accurate to call these throwback Marxists progressive? Sure, in the same sense cancer progresses.
I would love to see a current poll that tells us the percentage of Democrats that would consider themselves Progressive. I wouldn't use the term progressive. I would list all the triggers and I would ask in the poll, which of these you support. The list would include but not limited to ....... DEI, Wokeism, Gender Identity and Gender Expression, Bigger Government providing more services, Anti-Capitalism etc. My guess is that the poll would show that Progressivism is not just a minor movement within the Dem Party but is very much a major player in the Dem party.
papa j
Excellent article. Lots to think about and to absorb. Thank you for putting it into clear and thoughtful words. Much needed these days!
You have produced a very interesting piece here Ben. I expect to re-read and digest its contents at greater length, believing it will prove fruitful in clarifying aspects of the puzzle picture many of us are laboring to more fully comprehend.
For now, however, I would like to comment on the following observation you made:
Present-day progressivism “…adopts the admonition of the Gospel of Matthew that “the last shall be first, and the first last.”
The ideological tenants of Communism have a mysterious, profound attraction on many intelligent people. Why might that be?
You have incorporated a quote of Yeshua (Jesus) from the Brit Hadasha, made in reference to the yet future Kingdom of G-d. In doing so, I believe you are ‘right over the target’ in respect to answering that question. In the simplest terms, the answer is that Communist philosophy is the root of Political Progressivism, and it is, essentially, ‘the Gospel of the Kingdom of G-d’ - without Yeshua.
As such, the basic tenants strike a ‘spiritual chord’ within the hearts and minds of men and women; a chord that resonates in tune with an innate conceptual, if warped/distorted sense of right and wrong, fairness, justice, and yearning for a better world.
I don’t want to belabor the points here, but hope that anyone interested in exploring or challenging my point consider it a mark made on a purported treasure map, with the label, ‘Dig Here’ affixed. Amongst other things, the position is very ably articulated in the ‘Foreword In the Form of a Letter to My Children’ from the book, ‘Witness’, written by Oswald Chambers in the early 1950’s. What follows below are two small excerpts from it. The first describes what Chambers believes to be ‘the revolutionary heart of Communism’:
“…a simple statement of Karl Marx, further simplified for handy use: “Philosophers have explained the world; it is necessary to change the world.””
The second, sheds light on the power behind this philosophy:
“It is not new. It is, in fact, man’s second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Ye shall be as gods.” It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man’s relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God. It is the vision of man’s mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world. It is the vision of man’s liberated mind, by the sole force of its rational intelligence, redirecting man’s destiny and reorganizing man’s life and the world. It is the vision of man, once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in His image, but because man’s mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals.”
— Witness (Cold War Classics) by Whittaker Chambers
https://a.co/8OvfMnj
BUT (Behold the Underlying Truth), G-d…
One may laugh, mock, reject, or ignore this, but it was the power of the true Gospel that transformed Chambers and his wife from ardent, dedicated Communist activists, into productive, law-abiding citizens - and gave them the courage to publicly denounce the evil doctrines they had once so assiduously labored to promote, at great human cost to themselves. (It has similarly transformed countless reprobates, and rebels against G-d, including me, across millennia.)
Anyone wishing to peruse the history further might be tempted to deduce that the subsequent costs were all borne in vain, considering the present reality. Such a view would be understandable, but grossly mistaken. The simple reason for that is made clear through the revelations of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, as found in the Tanakh, and further unveiled in the Brit Hadasha.
In closing, thank you again for your work, and thanks to Joshua for hosting and sharing it. May Adonai bless you both, and bring forth fruit that lasts from your labors.
I agree almost 100% with your essay, and have been writing about this in The Lamppost for some time. With the comments I disagree almost 100%. It is unfortunate that people take progressive self-criticism as an opportunity to air antipathies to Islam and liberalism in general.
Just two small points. One, the racism of Hitler and the early 20th c. eugenicists was based on false biological theories; the contemporary racial ideology to which you refer is based on the idea that race is socially constructed. Two, you did not distinguish very carefully between the removal of monuments to Confederate leaders and other overt racists and people you say were "not racist at all" like Teddy Roosevelt. (You should look into that - he did later on accept racist theories that were similar to those the Nazis would use, and included deprecation of Jews.) I am very happy to see the demise of monuments to people whose sole importance was the defense if slavery.
RE: … it was the sacred Masonic Temple’s God who ecumenically made America the Great Judeo-Xian Whore of Babylon, not Trump and his seductive spiritual mentor Paula White.”
Marcel, how about stop your running away from answering this question: Does Messiah's commandment in Revelation 18:4 condone the democratic membership of Israeli-American Zionism within the Marxist UN Beast's abominable Socialistic Security System? Why are you blocking me from posting this question on your blog, that is being posed by Messiah's Holy Spirit??
You can jump up and down all you want, calling your critics every name you want, you will never remove the disgrace of Israel's culpability. Shame on you and shame on Israel. I vote for politicians that will call both Palestine and Israel to account.
You can jump up and down all you want, calling your critics every name you want, you will never remove the disgrace of Israel's culpability. Shame on you and shame on Israel. I vote for politicians that will call both Palestine and Israel to account.
Signs that the difficult resistance is underway? Oh, really? Where?
Mene mene tekel uparshin
The agenda of the whacked pro(re)gressives is clear: eliminate opponents' free speech, corrupt elections to maintain power, and indoctrinate children.
There should be no doubt that the Leftist Democratic Party is fully radical, completely all in on looney-tunes ideology. And there should be no doubt about what they intend to do if they obtain full power. This is a completely totalitarian and anti-democracy party. There are no moderates or even traditional liberals in this party. Every single elected representative of this party in Congress votes for their extremist policies. And because their policies are completely divorced from reality and delusional, they cannot allow any dissent or real analysis of those policies and their actual impact on people’s lives. And these nuts don’t actually care about the mass of Americans; they only care about wealthy elitists like themselves and retaining power. They see the masses as a group to be brainwashed, deceived, and overtly taxed… just look at the bloated National Debt which is never addressed.
Because of the combination of their delusional, jihadist mindset, their disdain for the average American and their inability to tolerate dissent; the whackos intend to pursue an agenda that will eliminate free speech — anything said or written that is not fully supportive of the lunatic agenda will be called hate speech or misinformation and will be banned.
Think this is far-fetched? I encourage you to look at what has already happened in Ireland, Scotland, the UK, Australia and other places where these same radical Leftist have taken power. Tim Walz already tried to pass a law like this in Minnesota and other Leftist Democrats have made no secret of their determination to suppress dissent.
They will further attempt to undermine democracy by instituting complete freedom to engage in voter fraud–by Leftist Democrats.
Illegal aliens will be allowed to vote, whether that is legal or not.
All manner of ballot harvesting, indeed ballot preparation for made-up voters, will be permitted, if not encouraged.
Vote in multiple states if possible, anything that consolidates power forever for the ideological nutjobs.
The agenda couldn’t be clearer: allow all manner of cheating to obtain and stay in power and suppress opponents’ speech, even the right to be on the ballot–whatever it takes to make sure there is no effective opposition.
And the final prong, which has been underway for decades, is the corruption of every American institution coupled with pervasive indoctrination, starting at the earliest possible age.
sKools (™️), universities, the medical profession, the legal profession, journalism, the media, the courts and so on all must be completely controlled by whackos and spread the radical faith.
This is absolutely no different from the approach of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, the Koreans, the Iranians, and other Muslim states and every other dictatorial regime — indoctrinate the children from birth.
Those that think this is an exaggeration, are at best indulging in wishful thinking and not paying attention to what has been occurring in this country for the last 50-years. You only have to read the writings and listen to the speeches of these extreme ideologues. And if you further don’t understand that Russia, China, Iran and other enemies are funding and encouraging this result, you are delusional. The country, as a result, is being ruined economically and socially. It may be too late already, but four more years of Leftist Democrat rule will literally leave us in a place from which we cannot recover.