> But, in 2020 you cannot question or be skeptical of the "progressive" agenda. Merely hinting that you are not fully bought in will get you labeled as a racist, or even worse these days, a "Conservative".
Is it really the case? Or is it a perception you have? I've become less and less liberal the past three months, for multiple reasons, and at least in my liberal bubble, i did not face any backlash.
I guard my opinions very carefully, to the point one would be hard pressed to identify what political ideology I identify with (largely because I don't identify with any of them).
The other day on Twitter when the couple pointing guns at the protesters in Kentucky issue was trending, someone posited "I wonder what happens to people who don't have guns". So I posted a video of a couple who were dragged out of their shop and beaten, on video, and their shop destroyed.
I posted no words, no commentary, simply linked the video that is a real example of the answer to that question - and got called a racist in response.
People are actively seeking reasons to hate, these days, and for someone like me for whom the entire exercise seems silly, all I can do is sit back and stop participating.
Pretty hard to answer that question in HN with anything other than another anecdote, but I would personally answer that question with "yes". I have seen this behavior on several online forums I am in (including HN) as well as in real-world settings.
The well-documented incidents with "non-left" speakers on college campuses is another data point. Take a look at the insanity that happened at Evergreen College, for example.
This sort of behavior is easily observed, from my point of view, in real-life and online.
Evergreen seems to be an extreme occurrence, ain't it ? College campuses are also a small, very small part of USA ; though quite influential. But if college campuses were a correct representation of the people, most current world leaders would not be in charge xD
Certainly extreme in magnitude but I don't think anomalous in nature. There is considerable evidence that the non-STEM departments in US higher education are intellectually leftist monocultures.
What does becoming less liberal mean? I mean it seems a lot of people are becoming more radical. And the US version of "liberal" was always more of a catch-phrase than any coherent ideology.
Could you explain what becoming less liberal means for those who have no firm grasp on the US liberal label?
As to who gets labeled what for which action is a big mess, but the direction seems to be that people are very quick to call everyone else bad if they are not as far-whatever as they are. (Anyone trying to gather and assess data about anything like "race", police brutality, homicides, guns, socioeconomic status is instantly suspect. But also it's very clear that a lot of people just post incoherent unfounded stuff on twitter which happens to have citations and graphs and even some structure resembling a paper -- and of course discussing it on twitter is neigh impossible, but almost always an exercise in mental self-harm.)
Sadly the real internet hate machine is not 4chan's /b/, but serious platform like facebook and twitter, where real people grind their ideas on each other until they just become sharp sticks and slurs to poke others with.
It's more of a social media thing. If you're the type to make posts on Twitter, FB, IG, or whatever, saying something "wrong" could earn you some backlash.
However, in day to day life, there's a good chance no one will care about your political leanings, unless you live in Portland or something.
Is it really the case? Or is it a perception you have? I've become less and less liberal the past three months, for multiple reasons, and at least in my liberal bubble, i did not face any backlash.