Truly Special Snowflakes
2nd September 2021
Severian is delightfully dyspeptic today.
One of my usual terms for the Left is “the herd of independent minds.” Just as the Left have convinced themselves that “diversity” means “everyone has different skin tones and sexual fetishes, but is otherwise exactly the same,” so Leftists — the most rigidly conformist people on the planet — are deeply invested in the idea that they are freethinking rebels. Even though they and everyone they know agree 100% on everything, it is central to their identity that they are unique. (Hence all the tattoos and face piercings — sure, to the outside observer, it’s all the same, but look, my ironic hipster tattoo is a slice of pizza, while that Basic Bitch Becky’s is merely a dolphin).
One is tempted to merely write this off as another uninteresting manifestation of the Opposite Rule of Liberalism, and be done with it. If they say they want to “challenge convention,” of course what they really want is “total, lockstep conformity.” But it’s actually a useful chink in their armor.