The Temperance Movement Reborn
17th January 2020
The American left has long regarded itself as the antidote to the prudish puritanism displayed by the moralistic right. But as “liberalism” gave way to “progressivism,” this conceit has fallen away. As economic populism becomes fused with and is often superseded by the demands of identity politics, technocratic social engineering has once again become an urgent part of the progressive project. That urgency is accompanied by a sense of moral rectitude and historical inevitability. The result is a form of progressivism that looks a lot like the progressivism of the early 20th century.
This fits with the common perception that the current proglodyte Left are a bunch of Puritans on the hunt for Heretics and Sinners to ‘cancel’.