Dear Friends,
It seems to me… intolerance is very progressive. Intolerance has been a theme that has ran through all of progressive thought, in fact, intolerance has under girded all of progressive philosophy since it’s inception. The target of progressive intolerance has changed over the years but that current of intolerance has and continues to be the primary motivating factor of progressives. To a progressive, the use of the government’s monopoly on violence to damage the interests of those progressives cannot tolerate, is also a primary attribute of progressivism and progressives. Simply put, progressivism is the philosophy of intolerance masquerading as tolerance.
Intolerance has always been progressive. The first progressives were intolerant of Blacks, Indians, Jews and Chinese. Progressives chastised immigrants and founded the Klu Klux Clan, (KKK), to give their intolerance legs. The first true progressive President, Teddy Roosevelt, loathed the American Indians. Woodrow Wilson brought progressive intolerance to a new level, he openly avowed blacks inferior to Whites, created the KKK, had the opening of the racist movie, The Birth of a Nation, in the White house, he exploited the government’s monopoly on violence to forcibly sterilize anyone he felt unfit to have children, which included at the time, Americans of French Canadian descent, anyone deemed an imbecile and those others that progressives considered unfit to procreate.
The use of government violence is not restricted to Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt was all too happy to visit violence and oppression on those he didn’t like. Following in Wilson’s footsteps, in jailing Americans of German descent during the first world war, FDR jailed Americans of Japanese descent. FDR reveled in the killing of the Second World War, even laughing when Stalin told FDR that he wanted to exterminate the German population, a statement that upon hearing, Winston Churchill stood up in a huff and stomped out of the room in disgust. It is indeed true that intolerance, and the use of government power to enforce intolerance, is a progressive trait from the beginning of progressivism.
Many people today believe that it was Marcuse’s book, Repressive Tolerance that created progressive intolerance, but what it really did was re aim the intolerance that was always there, to another party. Rather than hating people because of their skin color, religion or heritage, progressives changed to hating people because of their ideas. Instead of hating people because of who they are, progressives now hate people, for what they think. Moreover, progressives are all too happy to abuse power to harm those people it is progressive to hate, white Christians, Jews and conservatives no matter their race for example. Obama abused the power of the Presidency, as all progressives before him did, to attack those he could not tolerate. Using the IRS to target conservative groups, Fast and Furious scandal to target constitutionalists and the intelligence gathering power to spy on his political enemies.
The more progressives talk the more you can hear the hatred in their voices. The riots at the election of Trump was another manifestation of progressive intolerance. Recently at Berkeley College, melees have been breaking out, where progressives attack conservatives with clubs and their fists, for having the audacity to speak their minds. Listen to the legacy media, dominated by progressives and listen to the open hatred in their voices as they talk about anyone not progressive. Any progressive will be happy to regale you with all the people he or she hates. There is an endless list of grievances progressives have against those they are intolerant of… today. Tomorrow, if it suits their political needs, they will change the target of their intolerance, but that intolerance cannot be set aside, it defines progressives and progressivism.
Intolerance is truly progressive. It has been the overriding theme of progressivism from the beginning to today. Point this out to a progressive however, and even if they admit the open hatred of early progressives, they will tell you they have updated their intolerance to fit in the modern era, they are intolerant of the right people today. That is why a progressive sees no difficulty whatsoever with forcing Christians to pay for “art” that denigrates Christianity and is profoundly offensive, yet those same progressives fly off the handle when Islam is offended in the tiniest way, even calling for religious laws to protect Muslims from being offended. Today, it has become progressive again to call for the genocide of Jews, in all but name. Progressives hate, it is in their blood, it always has been and always will be. Hate is the primary motivating factor of progressives. To be intolerant and hate filled is as progressive as it gets.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
