She explains that when someone is defending traditionalism and a norm that used to be dominant, they often wind up being forced to get bogged down in disavowing every other trend or belief that was prevalent in the society where the tradition they're defending was practiced. This is a disadvantage of being in the position of advocating something that used to take place in a past society that actually existed and can be examined for its ugly aspects as well as the arguably better ones. Whereas...

if you're a progressive, you can say, "I can see this vision, you know, in the future, like we'll have this amazing society where everything's great." And the fact this has never happened and is never likely to happen means that you're never in the position of having to defend anything unfortunate. You never have to talk about trade-offs. I think that, like, acknowledging the existence of trade-offs is a fundamentally conservative trait.

“Gadflies“

The essay hits the nail on the head concerning what I consider an excellent example of what I was talking about in my two Wordpress posts on gadlies (in which I depict gadflies as bearers of possibly inconvenient speculations on difficult situations which we are all too inclined to ignore).  In fact, I had this example somewhere in my mind when I was writing both posts.

Sometimes a particular cultural environment learns to embrace certain kinds of gadflies once it has become well-armed with repellent against other opposing ones.  In this case, we have groups of people who are inclined to be hostile to other groups.  The speculation “maybe this group has a legitimate fear of the other and has the right to act on it” will always be present in such a situation, but then there is always the counter-speculation “maybe this fear is in fact invalid, and then it’s important to consider the harm done by acting on it”.  It seems that in our current society, the latter speculation is discouraged from even entering our conscious deliberations.  Of course, those in opposition to said fear-induced hostility will inevitably try to go the “your fear is invalid” route however indirectly, but outside of spaces composed of like-minded folk, the repellent against that “gadfly speculation” is so strong that we are conditioned to pattern-match their rhetoric to “asshole!”.  This is also an example which illustrates the relationship I clumsily tried to argue in my first linked post between “gadfly-repellent” and Scott Alexander’s conception of superweapons.

(By the way, another instance of the “never suggest someone’s fear is invalid” norm is the way police officers seem to defend their aggressive policies in a lot of the ugly incidents of brutality that we’ve seen lately.  It seems that for the police, there has generally been a norm of “But we felt legitimately unsafe!” generally being a valid defense.)

 ❝    somebody  called  for  a  washed-up  old  cop?    ❞

it's your life, do what you want to . those words hit her like a tonne of bricks . gloved hands toy with the hem of her skirt, wide gaze dropping for a moment . ' i want - ' she pauses, composing herself . cate's gaze rises &. meets the other woman's .

' i want to do the right thing . '

her words are shaky, attempting to hold conviction they're both aware she doesn't have . she's fucking - terrified, really . alejandra hates that word , right down to the very core . supes don't get terrified , humans do . alejandra does , and weathervane does not .

❛ and just because you're trying to convince me doesn't mean it will work , either . ❜ but it already is, isn't it ? just a bit . the promise of a life a w a y , a life where she does not have to be weathervane . a life away from the carnage and the blood , where she won't have to walk through bodies . cradle their heads in her lap so the last face they see isn't one that hates them . it's been like clockwork. the days following what happened , ( damage control , press tours, more damage control ) . it's easy to be a media pawn when you didn't know what was happening before it got too late . ale thinks elle is the only person she could talk to f r e e l y at this point .

she snaps out of the brief reverie , eyes squeezing shut for a moment . small hand shoots to her opposite wrist, s n a p s the rubber band there once , twice , three times . a deep breath . she starts to pace the hardwood floor of their ( it belongs to @gadflies , really , but - well , ale says she sleeps here every night so she should be on the lease ) apartment . little sparks shoot between her fingers and she feels h o t .

Extremists: Gadflies of American Society (Jules Archer History for Young Readers)

Extremists: Gadflies of American Society (Jules Archer History for Young Readers)

SKY PONY

“Extremism tends to flourish in times of crisis,” writes Jules Archer. It comes in all shapes and sizes and attaches itself to various causes. You can find extremism at the beginning with the founding fathers, extremists in the eyes of the British government and you can most definitely find it today. Jules…