Revisionism, Reactionism and the ACP Part V

Part V

Let us seek to understand each other. In the next few parts, let’s define exactly what much of our political, economic and sociological terminology means, at least within the contexts that we’ll use them. I promised to explain what was going on when the leadership or public figures from the ACP use what could be considered MAGA coded language. This will provide much context because much of the consternation comes from progressive Liberals mistaking Communists for progressive Liberals. Their ideals are a propaganda package deal. They’ll say, “Only our language is correct. All Other is aberration.” In truth, Communists can be progressive or conservative, the idea that they are exclusive against each other unsoundly conflates social policy and economic policy where such a link does not exist in the Liberal economy.

It is not only possible, but in fact nearly total in the modern day for conservatives to be liberal. Believe it or not, even most progressives are liberal. That’s because the economic style in use today, capitalism, represented an opening up, a liberalization of the previous feudal economy. The system where status was tied to your Lord and (secondarily) to a trade was stabbed to bleeding when the French communards established the commune in Paris. It gave up the ghost and totally became Liberal to all when the failing empires divided the rest of the world among themselves following the Great War.

Meet the Liberals (It’s a Room Full of Mirrors)

On top of this new system the natural contradictions between progress and conservation rose in entirely predictable ways. Some come to believe that the economy ‘works best’ when the state enacts policies that protect the populace. Establishing robust social safety nets to allow for social integration and migration. In times of economic crisis, these people believe that the government should guide monetary policy to push it into a different, non-crisis state.

These people are the social incrementalists that Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr bemoaned in his meme-status famous, “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” They remain among us in fact, much of online “leftist” discourse revolves around this reality. Revolution is scary and makes people mad. Bumping things forward, inch by inch will see steady gains over time that will lead us into a brighter future. A beautiful dream that relies on the enemies of progressivism to allow such a window to move continually… leftward; but we’ve discussed the Overton Window in Part 3 so we know that discourse will only really slide in a single direction, it will rarely jump. Envisioning the Window as a point on a spectrum line, we understand that it must stop entirely in order to begin moving in the other direction. Progressives, failing to solve the paradox of tolerance (from back in Part 3 as well, it was a busy section), will attempt to appease the enemies of this path by offering compromise to them. It only leads to the victory of conservatism, which is uninterested in compromise, unless it is to them. “‘Meet me halfway,’ says the unreasonable man. You take a step forward, he takes two steps back. ‘Meet me halfway, says the unreasonable man.’”

A recipe for malformed policy and performative agitation for sure. If the other side is competent though, there is nothing to worry about right? Subscribe right now and we’ll answer that hilariously misguided question next time!