BY SAM WHITE

The more you listen to modern liberal progressives, the more you can feel like you’re losing your mind. Let yourself get sucked into their barmy universe and the only way to survive is by letting go of reason and logic. So, it’s worth asking if progressivism nowadays is a form of mental disorder, and if, perhaps, we should give consideration to having the whole lot of them sectioned.

For Liberal progressivism involves believing in all manner of directly contradictory things at the same time:

1. Islam is a religion of peace, but we mustn’t do anything that might provoke Islamists into killing us. According to the left, anything other than the blind acceptance of any and all Islamic practices is likely to cause mass radicalisation and some amount of carnage. But, simultaneously, there is no reason to fear Islam, and the slightest criticism of its doctrines means you’re a horrible racist. This amounts to a weird proposition. Say the wrong thing and you might provoke violence, but complain about the threat of violence and you’re a bigot (who’s provoking violence). In other words, if you want to discuss Islam in less than glowing terms, keep your opinions to yourself.

2. On a related note, while progressives are deeply concerned about the rights of women and LGBT people, they’re not that bothered about the rights of women and LGBT people under Islam. Put it down to cultural relativism: anything non-leftists in the West do is inherently oppressive, imperialistic, and mean. But if anything bad happens in the name of Islam, then we mustn’t judge others by our own Western imperialistic standards. Because that would make us, as usual, villainous bigots. So, for example, we mustn’t concern ourselves too much with gays being executed under Sharia law, but questioning the wisdom of gender neutral bathrooms is a crime against humanity.

3. Racism, sexism and homophobia are bad. Nothing to argue with there. But at the same time, if someone you disagree with is white, male and straight, you may use those characteristics to invalidate anything and everything he says. Simply spluttering the words “straight, white man” can clinch any argument, on the grounds that the leftist’s interlocutor is inherently and utterly wrong about literally everything. In fact, he’s worse than wrong, the very fact that he’s voicing a dissenting opinion is, in the terminology of the left, problematic.

4. Mass immigration should be accompanied by no expectation of integration. So throw open the borders and let everyone in, but insist that to advocate integration is somehow intolerant. Any notion that shared values are a good thing for everyone, both those coming in and those already here, should be dismissed as nationalistic and narrow minded. Ghettoization and a fragmented, tetchy society? Yeah, why not! Diversity is our strength, and it’s not like it matters if the country loses all sense of cohesion and disintegrates into conflicting group interests.

5. There are an infinite number of genders, and you can choose a different one every day if you like. While we used to have the word ‘sex’, of which there were two, we’ve now added ‘gender’, of which there are as many as you can imagine. You can invent a new one if you like. And they are all real, distinct, and carry an inherent threat: that if you look confused and suggest that this all sounds made up and unscientific, then you’re probably guilty of a hate crime. HSBC just introduced ten new gender neutral titlesfor customers to choose from (including the useful Pr for ‘person’ and Mre for—seriously—’mystery’), but this is woefully inadequate and only serves to prove the bank’s tone deaf ignorance. After all, if you compare with the law in New York City, then HSBC is 21 genders short, and that’s extremely transphobic.

6. The working classes are all uninformed, racist scumbags who never actually know what they’re voting for. Oh, but the progressive left is on their side, and hopes to get their votes.

This is a big problem for the left right now. Progressives are incapable of masking their visceral contempt for ordinary workers, anyone who didn’t go to university, and people who don’t live in London. Metropolitan liberals seem astonished that they should have to share a country with low-life Brexit backers, and like nothing more than to sneer and cackle among themselves about how stupid and unsophisticated the proles are.

But with Islington Europhiles and Oxbridge philosophers making up a regrettably small percentage of the electorate, the Labour Party is going nowhere without the support of a few actual labourers. Who’ve been thrown under the bus and laughed at. Oh dear.

So, as the progressive left lurches further away from tangible political power, its madness intensifies. They double down and lash out. They stamp their feet and rail against the media, against free speech, and even against democracy itself, never pausing to recognise the flaws in their own broken ideology.

And with every furious temper tantrum and frazzled denial of reality, they appear a little worthier of an entry in the DSM.

Image Courtesy: Banksy