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Comment by rurp | Hacker News Reader

I used to feel that way up until about a year ago. At worst I would roll my eyes at the silliness and then move on, because this stuff rarely matters much one way or another.

But then the 2024 elections happened, along with a bunch of exit polls, voter interviews, and other data showing that a surprising (to me anyway) number of people hate this kind of virtue signalling to the point that it can sway their vote. It's very possible those swung votes have ushered in a host of harmful changes that I think do matter a great deal. So now I'm sick of this stuff, it's not only a waste of time it's actively harmful.

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Sorry it was exit polls that convinced you not to care about other people so much?

Don’t fool yourself kiddo, you were always an asshole, you were just waiting for the right excuse, just like the rest of us.

The deal with progressive ideology is that it progresses. Fixing inequality, prejudice, and injustice are a lifelong project, because as fast as you address issues, bigots will create new things to be bullies about. You don’t get to just get off at some point and be like “oh okay things seem good enough now.”

Progressive ideology tends to treat moral progress as inevitable, while pursuing social transformation in ways that can undermine the very institutions and norms that make progress possible.

I don’t think it’s true that the culture war issues themselves were the cause of those swayed votes so much as there’s a propaganda machine running 24/7 stoking those resentments and using such cultural critique as fodder.

This works really well to whip people into an othering frenzy to distract them from voting for their own economic interests.

I’d like to see a study showing 1) people aware of this issue and 2) for whom it swung their vote to the right. That’d have to be, what, 10 complete idiots? “Well, I was going to vote for A, but some of B’s supporters asked if I would please be considerate, and that’s a bridge too far.”

Oh, sure, it was people asking for branch renaming.

It wasn't the multiple dedicated Neo-Nazi propaganda networks that call all minorities and immigrants and political opponents enemies of the state.

It wasn't the election of politicians that are actual, convicted rapists and felons who distract by pointing to those who can't fight back.

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