You're also what I will call a naive optimist. You are easily sold a dream of a better tomorrow and you want to believe it. That would be all fine and good if the hope is rooted in actual, realizable potential. However, there are some really, really bad ideas that have overtaken liberalism, and far too many liberals are being sucked into a destructive way of thinking... one that needs to be almost intolerantly disregarded. And that's not to say that being a dreamer is inherently a bad thing. We need dreamers. We just need those dreams to look more like goals, and those goals need to be lifting up the people around us. Unfortunately, so many progressive goals are destructive, not productive. They tell you that in order to be productive, you must be destructive. That's critical theory in a nutshell, and it's dangerous.

I am actually very liberal... far more than most people on this board. Hell, I am probably more progressive than most people on this board. There are many things in this country that could change for the better. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to realize that change so long as we are chasing dreams that are rooted in the belief that human beings are and should be perfect, and that the entirety of humanity and history should be dealt with critically, so any imperfection should be criticized, then destroyed... of course, that's only ideas that have not originated from progressive ideology. Those ideas should not be challenged or examined. The entire point of critical theory and all of its offshoots is to tear down the status quo. It's a completely unrealistic standard that NOBODY can live up to. Not any individual. Not any group. Not any species. This world was and is brutal. We need to operate within the existing paradigm and champion personal growth, not demagoguery.

The scope with which you define "traditional values" is disingenuous, and I don't believe you mean it to be. I just think you hear something and adopt it because you think that makes you a better person. Imo, it makes you incomplete, which is why you are so easily deceived. People... narcissists... sociopaths... they will exploit these ticks in honest people to achieve power, and that's all I see these days.

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