The real problem with capital-P progress arguments is that they’re less a matter of serious philosophy and more of over-indulgence in a trumped up, empirically suspect notion of winning that most of the time is non-falsifiable, due to ad hoc conditions postulated. That’s a little complicated. What I mean is that they’ll first stipulate that Progress has won completely and totally, and then for every counterexample brought to bear in response, they’ll find some cockeyed way to sweep it under the table. “We’re just not advanced enough, yet,” “They just haven’t been educated enough, yet,” “They’re defective,” “They’re mentally ill,” […]

When you get down to it, the opportunistic “we” that I’ve been describing for the past couple weeks here isn’t the end-all-be-all of progressive discourse. Hope I haven’t implied such a claim. It’s really just one particular manifestation. Just one of the many strange varieties of doublespeak and mendacity that thrive in the bizarre, sprawling ecosystem of leftist rhetoric. But it is a typical example, a representative one in many senses. It’s been noted on this very site, as well as elsewhere in conservative circles, that progressives have consistently won the battles of the culture war on the power of […]

The Dark Enlightenment has trading cards, but so do progressives. Progressive Trading Cards have been in development for much longer—true to the progressivist spirit, the cards represent not individual heroes, but groups of afflicted minorities. The powers the cards have are more advanced: descriptive, yet with actual quantities assigned for calculation purposes. After all, we need to know who beats whom, why and when. But it’s not a regular trading card game. You’ll note that I’ve left out a few groups: whites, males, straights, Christians, and crimethinkers. When all the cards are dealt, one person in particular has one card: […]

“The Morning is a Promise” The morning is a promise of difficulties Old age is mostly this knowledge What they call ‘a real man’s college’ A school not known for its ease But what rage is there left to spend There is always another failure to mend Work on then, Sisyphus! This pleased The court, that man be thus condemned Not to drift away without a body to dwell Say with me, it is sooth, it is meet, it is well But to face fear, to face hell or be contemned Intemperate, coward, fool, unjust — of these Pushing on […]