The myth of ‘progressive’ thinking

One of the guiding instincts on the political left is that society should be ‘progressive’. Social attitudes, politics and the economy should all advance together, making society fairer and more equal in the process. In this view, a tax can be progressive if it targets the income of the wealthy, just as a law is considered progressive if it protects the rights of a minority. This progressive worldview permeates almost all thinking on the modern left.

And yet the contemporary idea of the progressive society has undergone a logical collapse. It has been driven that way by activists, some of whom represent groups with valid causes, but whose messages have been concentrated and distorted out of all proportion by the lens of social media.

Perhaps the most glaring example of this can be seen in the argument over trans-gender rights, which has erupted between feminists and trans activists. The contention that ‘trans women are women’ has caused huge controversy among feminists who reject the idea that someone who is biologically male can ever become a woman in the full sense.