Harry Cheadle at Persuasion:
It’s not easy to say why exactly progressivism became so wrapped up in personal consumer choices—it’s a hard turn away from traditional leftist thought, which largely focuses on transforming systems on a broad level. The simplest explanation is that it’s a consequence of political gerrymandering. Progressives who live in blue cities in blue states have little ability to influence our polarized national politics, since all of the viable candidates in those places are progressive Democrats. Thanks to a gridlocked political system and a divided country, actual large-scale change seems borderline impossible. So maybe it’s no wonder so many frustrated progressives have turned to small-scale, personal change, spurred on by a social media environment where negativity and extremism spreads like wildfire, and where there’s a tendency to tell people that everything they do, no matter what it is, is wrong.
If you buy organic foods because you’ve been told that that’s better for the planet, you’ll find plenty of sources that tell you this is not good enough. If you buy carbon offsets to lessen your emissions impact, you’ll quickly be informed this is a scam. A few years ago, there was a push among some on the left to explain why philanthropy was bad, actually. Progressive thought can be so focused on what we are doing “wrong”—personally and collectively—that it lends itself to a kind of nihilism.
More here.
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