Progressive Politics

The big difference here is that the average liberal american thinks they're on the side of the poor, they believe themselves to be good people who want to see good outcomes, but will be the first people to show up at their town hall to protest the new low-income housing or rehab center.

The large swath of America's white middle class, which are mainly liberals definitionally, will scowl and feel awful about ICE deporting hard-working migrants on television, but then clutch their purses to their chests and hit their power-locks when they see someone with dark skin walking down their side of the sidewalk.

But our challenge, if we're politically motivated to make change and create better outcomes, is to have the social acumen to know that if you point out this hypocrisy and inconsistency, you will actually push them further right. Our Overton Window is in a weird place right now, it's not just all the way right, it's broken into pieces. We have to understand that labels mean things to most people, and most people don't understand that they aren't being progressive because they have good intentions. And people generally put a lot more stock in their intentions than their actions.

This is the paradox and frustration about wanting a better world and better outcomes, which is the harder you try to correct behavior and habits, the more you're seen as a bad guy trying to control others. But also, if you don't and just let people be what they want, the right will also suck them further right.

Which is why real progressive activism requires a kind of parental strategy where what you know and what you tell people are different in tone and direction. You make people feel a certain way because you want them to do come to the right conclusion themselves, otherwise they will resist change.