Quite some time ago I was a member of an organization that had difficulty attracting and retaining members. At that time the struggle over sexual orientation was coming to a peak, and the members of this organization convened to discuss if they would permit openly LGBT members. At that meeting I said something that I quite regret: “We are having troubles keeping this organization alive, so why even have this discussion?”
The reaction someone should have said was, “Our declining fortunes notwithstanding, granting the LGBT crowd full membership is the right thing to do.”
Instead, the reaction I got from one of the progressive participants was, “You are a homophobe!”
I presume many of our readers have suffered the same insults. The bloggers at Clean Slate MoCo have been castigated by Laura “Transphobe” Stewart for the mere offense of disagreeing with her. Jews, Moslems, and whites have been insulted by Kristin Mink. The progressives slammed Board of Education candidate Brenda Diaz with labels too shameful to repeat here.
This is the problem: there is a solid generation of MoCo progressives whose reaction to anything they disagree with is slathering on the labels racist, sexist, homophobe, and transphobe. For at least 20 years they have habitually dismissed anyone different from them to the point that they can no longer engage in a meaningful discussion. That reflexive reaction served them well for a while, but the election on November 5 showed just how far they have alienated most of the population. Even the demographics they purport to represent, Blacks and Latinos, don’t want to have anything to do with them.
Some of our council members have fallen into the trap of cognitive dissonance: we are right, so everyone must be wrong. Escaping to the Bluesky platform will not resolve this problem, it will only prolong the symptoms. In fact, we could argue that further compartmentalization into a homogeneous echo chamber will only further isolate the failed progressives.
But there is hope. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a proven technique for escaping irrational or self-destructive behavior. Acknowledging the problem and diligently working with a therapist, progressives can quite rapidly shed the habit of accusing everyone of being a racist and learn to participate in a diverse society.
