Shortly after the election, I wrote an article trying to help Vox contributor and left-wing influencer Aaron Rupar understand how, despite overwhelming support from Hollywood and the entertainment industry, progressives have become so "uncool" in the eyes of the culture:
[Leftists] have become the new moralists, dictating what people can say, what they can think, and legislating it whenever they attain power… You can call Donald Trump a lot of things, but a moral scold is not one of them. And that is ultimately why cool people may come to Democrat rallies to watch free Lizzo or Beyoncé concerts, but then vote Republican when they pull the curtain at the ballot box.
I'm not saying Rupar read my article. And I'm not saying that if he did, he would be inclined to agree with me.
But at the end of last week, the liberal journalist tried to broach the subject with the likeminded legion that follows his posts, suggesting that progressives have overplayed their hand pushing radical gender ideology and transgender mutilation of children:
Obviously, a rational person understands that there was nothing "transphobic" about ads that accurately stated Kamala Harris's position on endangering women in public spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms, and dressing rooms. There's nothing "transphobic" about maintaining the same scientific recognition of two distinct sexes that everyone believed for centuries, until about ten minutes ago.
But Rupar is gonna Rupar.
If you can get beyond the ideological buffoonery, you can see a sliver of pragmatic rationality in the man's post. The Left's radicalism is costing them at the ballot box. Therefore, the logical move would be to tame their expectations and tamper their demands, unless they are content losing elections and consequently losing ground in their culture war. Not to give the normally histrionic Rupar too much credit here, but his underlying point is bordering on common sense.
The responses he received for it were nothing short of unhinged hatred and seething rage, demonstrating precisely what I argued in my original column -- that the modern Left has become the movement of hysterical moralism.
Rupar tried desperately to plug the holes in his sinking credibility canoe, and save face among the incensed throngs of keyboard warriors.
It was a valiant effort, but Rupar continued getting hammered for "wimping out," "abandoning trans people," and for being a "Nazi" sympathizing "genocidal dip****."
The humiliating (but obligatory) prostrating apology was imminent:
I know it's a bed that he made for himself, and I know that I shouldn't feel bad for Rupar, but I actually do.
Yes, I know that he's fostered this deranged behavior, that he's profited from it, that he has willfully played the part of Dr. Frankenstein, creating a monster he can no longer control and that has now turned to destroy him.
But to be forced to live in the graying twilight of rationality, knowing that your days of being able to speak plain truths or provide simple analysis of obvious reality have sunk below the dark horizon of impossibility - that is not a pleasant place for anyone to be.
It's why people like Rupar, and those who are attacking him, simply must be rescued from themselves.
So, point and laugh if you must. But finding a way to pull people away from the religious zealotry that defines radical gender ideology (and its offshoot transgender madness) is an act of mercy that, for the sake of our civilization, is a far better approach.
