Notes on Progressive Reaction
By: Sleep Escape Artist
Tags: Fragment, United States, Progressive, Protest, Politics

Protests: A Banishment Ritual

“Human Rights aren’t political” pleads an Instagram info-graphic, at first appearing to be displaying a kind of hopeless disgust at the lack of bipartisanship on the issue, but ultimately betraying the screen holding up a fundamental illusion of American liberalism.

The liberal distinguishes between “political issues” and “nonpolitical issues” based on conflict, not content. While it should be noted that the author does not believe the word “political” is genuinely meaningful, it is well worth understanding the role that the word plays within these discussions. “We can disagree over politics and still be friends”, is often how the info-graphics go, “but some things are beyond debate”. By establishing what is and what is not political, the liberal creates an exit ramp, moving things either beyond critique (“the apolitical”) or moving them within the zone of friendly disagreement (“the political”). Neither lends itself to a critical or rigorous analysis, which doesn’t seem to bother the liberal who swims in circles, maintaining an intellectual stagnation simply out of comfort and familiarity.

How does the liberal, then respond to being pulled into uncharted waters? Only with the upmost hostility and rage, first at their initial rhetorical target (the conservative government), but this can only hold for so long. After all, the liberal’s issue with police violence, for example, is not its existence. As far as they are concerned, these things could have never existed until their invasion of everyday life (something held beyond their conception of the political dichotomy). This is the truth of liberal activism, and explains the wider performances as well. Rather than take risks to confront those responsible for these atrocities, the liberal opts for co-option and activism. If one is unable to silence the voices ringing out from the street and the cries for humanity, one minds as well convert it into an electoralist rally for their favorite team. When their righteous fury inevitably turns out to be futile in banishment or total co-option (as there will always be resistance to the #Resisters), they experience “activism burnout” at an almost instantaneous rate in comparison with those who have been fighting their entire lives for causes much more respectable than a quiet Sunday afternoon.

A protest, a sign selfie for social media, and a clear conscience. Such is the prescription of liberal activism. If banishment of conflict from everyday life is futile, it is easily forgotten about once guilt is banished from the heart, and the cause banished from their mind along with it.

The liberal is offended by the shattering of their dichotomy of political and apolitical. To realize the meaningless reality of both these words would be to suggest that they must defend their lack of initiative on drone striking children (whose continued denial lead them to idolize Obama), economic policy (the calculated starvation of dehumanized groups), and worst of all, to morally examine themselves (as the moralistic framework of liberalism could never even glance at the level of human suffering the maintenance of such an ideology is dependent on).

Although the example illustrated here is in protests, these tendencies hold just the same within even the most casual “political conversation” between friends. The brutal truth of the matter is that far less people actually care about the issues you may be so passionate about than would let on. This layer of faux-resistance must be cut through and criticized at every possible moment, as it endangers every radical movement, and every radical moment to pitch support on unstable ground and to expect backup from mercenaries of conscience.

This (incredibly brief) exploration into the grimmer motives of liberal activism does not claim to be the final word on this matter, but at the very least tries to once again serve as a reminder to the true nature of the prevailing progressive ideology, which cannot survive contact with the atrocities it presupposes.