I was a liberal at 20 and I’m a liberal now, at 47. I have the same ideological trappings as I always have done. I’m laissez-faire socially and fiscally conservative. I’m happy with gay marriage and equality and would like to see drugs legalised, but I also want markets that are broadly free, tax rates that encourage business and so on.
The reason for for this is that ideology has become unbundled. Back in the '70s, if you were really pro-equality, you had little choice but to align yourself with the economic left. Now you can choose your views from a kind of buffet – and it’s perfectly normal to like free trade alongside a load of stuff that would once have belonged on a hippyish fringe.
So why am I bringing all this up? Because the last few years have seen the dawn of a new kind of political correctness which I think of as “PC 2.0”. This is the movement that seeks to de-platform Germaine Greer and wants every trace of Cecil Rhodes removed from Oxford. It’s the kind of thinking that has made gender so confusing that I don’t even know what the right view is any more, although I’m pretty sure that my view will be the wrong one, whatever it is.
Suddenly, those of us who had never worried about being seen as politically unsound are being cast as ageing, right-wing bigots. It’s weird finding yourself on the “reactionary” side of the argument with one of the world’s most famous feminists.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Chickens Coming Home To Roost
Now it's lefties who are fearing the very monster they created. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people:
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2 comments:
Based on his self description, this guy is no modern liberal. He's a little "l" libertarian, or maybe a classical liberal, especially if he's willing to let those who make poor choices live with the consequences of them. Somehow, he's just been deluded (or deluded himself) that the modern progressive liberal party is the one for him.
Too many millennials tend to vote based on crowd sourcing. They vote how their friends vote and they don't really care about the issues. It's like people who all decide to go to ComicCon based on it being viewed as a popular social activity over really liking and indulging in the magic of graphic novels. The crowd is seldom correct in their assessment of anything because the crowd always takes the least controversial way out of a problem. Liberals over 40 belong to an era that lived in a time where the Clintons were the first politicians they knew by name. They vote out of nostalgia, but when they peel back the skin of campaigns and candidates, they are alarmed at what they have supported. I believe that's called "growing up."
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