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The United States Supreme Court Building at 1 First Street Northeast in Washington, D.C.
Many people may use the words liberal and progressive interchangeably, but we should be abundantly clear that they are not the same thing. The difference now matters more than it ever has.
The Supreme Court recently ruled eight to one that counseling conversations are protected speech and that states cannot ban viewpoints in the counseling room. Justices Kagan and Sotomayor — liberal appointees — concurred, noting that Colorado’s conversion therapy ban was not viewpoint-neutral, and that a neutral law would raise a different question. They disagreed with the outcome but respected the legal boundary. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the lone dissenter, has said publicly that she sees her seat on the Court as an opportunity to tell people in her opinions how she feels about the issues.
That distinction captures the division perfectly. Liberalism, historically called for tolerance — the idea that competing viewpoints should be allowed to exist. Progressivism calls for compliance to its own vision. It does not argue for it – it enforces it.
Earlier this year in Finland, a lawmaker was convicted of inciting hatred for calling homosexuality a disorder in a statement she made over twenty years ago. No hatred was actually incited in all that time, but she was guilty of holding the wrong belief. In Great Britain, street preachers re informed by police that sharing the Gospel in ways that might cause offense or dissuade someone from seeking an abortion is not permitted, and even a wrong-think social media post can send you to jail. In the NBA, Chicago Bulls player Jaden Ivey (a Christian) was waived from the team for posting a video critiquing Pride Month promotion.
Progressives who fled Twitter when Elon Musk purchased it have discovered the hard way that their new safe-space platform, Bluesky, has quickly devolved into isolated groups and ideological bubbles between which any friction results in mass blocking. All of these examples are not bugs of progressivism, they’re the main feature.
Liberalism preaches that everyone has their own truth. Progressivism tells us that your truth must become everyone else’s, and silence in the face of it is not enough. Both active dissent, and silent refusal must be punished.
When persuasion is replaced by coercion, we’re no longer in the realm of liberal politics. We are squarely in the realm of forced progressive group think… or else. Don’t conflate the two!
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