Progressive Fragility: How an Intolerant Left Censors Opposition

Having a conversation with a Leftist usually has three parts:

• One person states their beliefs

• Another person states their beliefs

• Then if the beliefs are compatible things go well, if not the Left-leaning individual will remove themselves from the other person’s life or ‘block’ the other person if it’s a virtual space.

Progressive Fragility is on full display when those holding Left-leaning values opt to shut themselves off from different viewpoints in echo chambers of their own making. This trend makes progressives dumber since they are rarely exposed to strong formulations of arguments outside their current belief structures and results in an increasingly on edge society where everyone is walking on eggshells to accommodate the fragility of the progressive wing.

Elon Musk shared the above visual as representative of his political journey and many can relate. Even if one wants to dispute the accuracy of the visual itself, there’s little room for doubt the Left, especially its progressive wing has grown increasingly intolerant of different viewpoints. We can reference the below graph to verify the accuracy of Musk’s graphic:

The above graph from The Economist indicates the median Democrat has shifted further left on issues than the median Republican has shifted right on issues; this data was sourced by findings from the Pew Research Center. That explains one part of the graphic Musk shared: the Left shifting further left to the point the entire spectrum moves so the one-time moderate is now considered Right-wing. The next part of the graphic is the ostracism from the Left-winger.

The above graphic showcases how Republicans are more willing to maintain friendships regardless of political differences compared to Democrats. This reflects the secondary claim that the Left has grown intolerant of belief structures that diverge from their own and why the Left is often mocked as promoting every type of diversity except diversity of thought. Leaked clips of Twitter employees confirm intolerance from the Left results in increased censorship of Right viewpoints on the site which Tim Pool paraphrased as: “Because conservatives tolerate leftist speech and leftist won't tolerate the right, Twitter opts to censor the right as balance.”

The above chart shows how severe the Left-leaning bias is in big tech companies like Twitter. Even if Twitter opted to treat the gripes of the Left wanting more censorship and the Right desiring less censorship as equal complaints that would be an example of a false equivalence:

“False equivalence is a logical fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between two subjects based on flawed or false reasoning.” - Wikipedia

Since pro-censorship and anti-censorship are not equally viable positions. Even if it's a slight edge, Twitter opting to favor the pro-censorship side will result in slow steady removal of Right-leaning content on the site until there are only Left-leaning viewpoints available. This does not do the Left any favors. Iron sharpens iron and when Twitter promotes censorship it directly contributes to the intellectual degradation of the Left.

A 2020 article from the Cato Institute reported: “62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share” which further indicates a disturbing trend in American discourse where only progressives are comfortable openly expressing themselves in public. Progressives don’t want friends with different views, progressives censor opposing views, and progressives despise diversity of thought. Iron sharpens iron and sunlight is the best disinfectant. Having tough conversations will make us stronger. Letting bad ideas see the light will let better ideas take them on directly and win. The time has come to realize the culture of discourse accommodating Progressive Fragility is one Americans should reject in favor of a society that champions free speech values in our culture.