How the gender debate shaped the new face of moralism

Disruptions of feminist meetings by trans rights activists have become commonplace in recent years. Tactics include pressuring venues, blocking entrances, occupying meeting rooms, and heckling speakers. We have quickly become accustomed to this behaviour and even indulgent of its logic, not least the attempt to analogise attacks on lawful, peaceful assembly to earlier no-platforming strategies against fascists and others committed to destroying democracy.

This error has been normalised thanks to changes in so-called progressive political culture, which is not yet mainstream but enjoys institutional dominance. Specifically, progressivism has given up on tolerance, once the battle cry of liberals but now regarded as naive, outmoded in our age of hate, and even a tool of oppression itself. The world is divided into victims and haters and you must choose a side.