THREAD
HOW WE GOT HERE: PART III—A DIVERGING SOCIETY
This thread contains excerpts from Part III of “How We Got Here.” This part addresses the cultural rift that has divided America and the progressive movement’s role in exacerbating this rift.
1/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“As cultural change unfolds at breakneck speed in urban areas, the divergence between urban and rural culture in our country only grows wider.”
2/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“Because cities hold the source of power, much of rural white America is left feeling that its culture and status have been progressively eroded. This perception, combined with economic decline, feeds a bleak worldview.”
3/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“I recount the feelings of rural white America not because I believe they necessarily accord with beliefs that are objectively correct, but because they represent real human experience—that is, experience that cannot be delegitimized or dismissed.”
4/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“While progressives tend to express incomprehensibility toward the appeal of Trump to his supporters, it is no wonder why his lip service to the ‘forgotten men and women of America’ resonates so deeply with rural white Americans.”
5/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“On the other side of many cultural transformations in our country, the progressive movement has moved to immediately impose newfound moral values on the entire population and has taken to denouncing anyone who is not in conformity with the change.”
6/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“This pattern of behavior exhibits three problematic ironies, which only serve to widen our country's cultural divide.”
7/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“The first irony is that many progressive citizens themselves, just a short time before each transformation, held conflicting moral beliefs—but then instantly became zealots for spreading the new values.”
8/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“The second irony of the dynamic of cultural change is that the very educational attainment that has helped to enlighten many progressive citizens with the moral truth has been inaccessible for many rural Americans.”
9/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“The third irony of the process of cultural change is the dehumanizing way in which progressive citizens have sought to apply their newfound moral views on the rest of the country.”
10/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“All the while, many of these cultural dramas have felt increasingly irrelevant to rural households as they have instead struggled with matters like education, healthcare, economic collapse, and the opioid epidemic.”
11/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“With a seeming intolerance for disagreement, the progressive movement has attempted to establish a moral purity that has been off-putting to many. This moral purity prioritizes conformity, making progressives into an almost exclusive group.”
12/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“To be clear, nothing that I am arguing suggests that we should slow the pace of progress. Nor am I suggesting that we should not call out injustice wherever it exists.”
13/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“My critique is not of the moral values we pursue. It is of the strategies we employ to pursue them. These strategies suffer from multiple deficiencies that threaten not only the success of social justice causes but also the unity of our society.”
14/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
“The overarching task is to pursue social justice in a fashion that is and that feels inclusive for all groups in society—so that we do not achieve justice while simultaneously creating a disunity that threatens our very existence.”
15/16
medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…
16/16
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