Any Christian old enough to have debated social issues with Leftists in the 90s and early aughts probably needs an abacus to count how often he heard a basic college Lefty say, “That’s just your opinion, man!”
That old moral relativist chestnut shared the 90s Left’s affections with such vapid rhetoric as, “Don’t try to impose your beliefs on others!” and, “Stop judging!”
Whether the topic was abortion, sodomy, removing the Ten Commandments from statehouse grounds, etc., your neighborhood tackle-faced, dreadlocked Lefty could be counted on to argue from relativistic libertinism. Who were you to denounce others’ preferences?
Anyone who hasn’t been living on Mars is aware of the Left’s diametric rhetorical shift, which began around the start of this decade. Chameleon-like sophistry is one of the libs’ defining behaviors, so abandoning relativism for authoritarianism isn’t really unusual on their part.
What is strange is how few normal people seem to have noticed the shift. Your PolySci major cousin went from scolding you for being closed-minded to voicing his full-throated support for New Zealand’s chief censor as he bans Jordan Peterson books.
The one constant: You’re still the fascist.
Why did the Left’s abrupt heel turn from social libertarianism to moral totalitarianism largely go overlooked?
The simplest answer is that the Left controls the public Narrative. They’ve set the Overton Window for decades, and Conservatives trip over themselves to stay within it. The side that frames the debate holds the moral high ground by default. They don’t have to justify it.
What, then, was the reason for Lefty’s rush to embrace authoritarianism?
Fox News commentators will tell you that the Left thought they’d achieved final victory during the Obama years. They were always petty tyrants at heart. Their messiah’s election convinced them it was safe to take off the mask.
There’s some truth to that theory, but it’s really another answer to “when” instead of “why”.
The truth is that Liberalism–the line some draw between “Classical” and contemporary liberalism is arbitrary–has totalitarianism baked in.
An ideology that deifies freedom as an absolute by definition cannot tolerate any external limitation on personal license. But because the starting premise is at odds with reality, the quest to safeguard each individual’s pursuit of his personal preferences must result in tyranny.
Once again, a set of propositions that normal people see as contradictory is totally consistent in the view of the Left.
Don’t want a woman to commit infanticide? You’re restricting her personal choice.
Don’t want to photograph the profaning of a sacrament? You’re a homophobe.
Don’t want unassimilable invaders who submit to an incompatible ethos flooding the West? You’re a bigot.
You may have noticed that, contra the Left’s former claims of moral relativism, they only ever advocate for certain kinds of freedoms. Or rather, they only ever intervene against one side.
Remember our friends in the New Zealand government, who are led by a self-identified secular agnostic? They just removed Jesus’ name from their parliamentary prayer.
Those 90s appeals to relativism were just a ploy–a rue de guerre meant to distract from the Left’s true motives and true nature.
Liberalism is a secular death cult striving against Christianity for the soul of the West. It always has been.
Leftists appealed to plurality and denied objective morality while their heretical religion was still at a disadvantage against the Church.
Now we in the West find ourselves in a position we haven’t seen since the reign of Julian the Apostate.
Pagans–OK, half-assed sub-pagans–have enough social capital to confidently challenge Christianity in the open. And let’s entertain no illusions. The enemy feels emboldened because Western Christianity is in decline.
With the diminishment of the institution that invented universities, you get book banning.
Rolling back the culture that birthed Crusaders and chivalry gets you policewomen in head scarves confiscating your kids’ scissors.
Loss of Christian confidence creates a vacuum filled by the Muslim call to prayer.
In America, Christians spent the last of our cultural clout protesting heavy metal records and D&D. It was poor target selection, but that’s beside the point. The Lefty media met Christian political action with relentless mockery that convinced a whole generation that Christians were uptight squares.
Nowadays, Muslims could protest daffodils, and the same shills who mocked Christians over backwards messages in Ozzy records would rush to uproot their gardens.
The Leftist death cult used ridicule and appeals to moral relativism to disarm Christians when we were strong.
They’ll increasingly turn to censorship and secular blasphemy laws as we grow weaker.
God is undefeated. We have His promise that the Church will endure to write her enemies’ epitaph. Western civilization has no such guarantee.
As always, there is one remedy on the table.
Repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.