The Magical Thinking of Progressivism
Put them under pressure and they sputter like a three-cylinder Farmall Cub
There is a great similarity between the Underpants Gnome Theory of Business and quite a few of the more logic challenged memes and narratives of our time, thereby making it possible to explain the entire universe with one theory – the Unified Underpants Gnome Theory of Life.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Underpants Gnomes Theory of Business, it is a feature of a South Park episode and goes something like this:
Phase 1: Collect underpants.
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Profit!
I say this because I'm not seeing any of the proponents of "democratic socialism", CRT or pretty anything on the left, running to the head of the class to show how any of this will make life truly better for anyone - they just assume it will.
Not just no, but Hell NO!
Take CRT for example:
Phase 1: Teach whites they are racists.
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Equity!
Most of what passes for "scholarship" these days is nothing more than magical thinking, the idea that you can influence the outcome of specific events by doing something that has no bearing at all on the circumstances.
Most superstitions are examples of magical thinking - not stepping on a crack to avoid breaking your mother's back, knocking on wood to ward off bad things happening, thinking your pre-sports ritual or wearing the same socks to watch every game (or the "rally cap") has anything to do with your or your team's performance - that sort of thing. If you think about the progressive agenda, it seems clear there is a large amount of magical thinking going on.
"Ending fossil fuel production has no cost to society and nothing bad will happen" is a popular one right now.
"Higher taxes and more government spending leads to a growing economy" is another.
"We are a rich country, we can afford to spend trillions in borrowed money because we can just print more - Modern Monetary Theory - is another example.
"We can discriminate against white people who never have been racists and they won't say anything" is another.
I've used the term "mythology" to describe upon what progressives base their weird form of logic, and superstition is a big part of the myths - and when superstition is present, magical thinking is always present.
And when you pin down a progressive (William F. Buckley was a master at it, Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson are good contemporaries), you find most of what the progs believe is based on nothing more than them wearing the same pair of socks to every debate. When you back them into a corner and force them to define what they believe and how it works (my favorite is to ask them why they believe that while an individual is incapable of managing his own life and knowing what is best, a government made up of individuals do know and can plan), the sputter like an old three-cylinder Farmall Cub tractor.
This leads to another rule of mine to add to the first two I have written about. The first two are:
Always ask "Who benefits?"
Always look for the contradictions.
And now for #3:
Always look for examples of magical thinking.
We can break these people. All it takes is logic, confidence and persistence.