In response to Andrew Cadman: Corbyn may be a joke. But the Left can console itself with its triumph over social conservatives, Kevin T wrote:
There’s the economic left and then there’s progressives. It took me a long time to separate them but they are separate things. There are many left wing progressives but you don’t have to be one to be the other. Cameron is a progressive and so is much of the parliamentary Tory party, all of the Lib Dems and all of Labour. The only major party not currently controlled by the progressives is Ukip.
Progressives are obsessed with identity politics and victimhood, think mass immigration, multiculturalism and diversity are good things, support the EU and moving towards global government and believe in man-made climate change. They are almost always from well off backgrounds.
In my opinion it’s basically a secular cult that has filled the gap for the middle classes where Christianity used to be. Many of the well off feel a desperate need to believe they’re virtuous and therefore deserve their privilege (or that privilege is down to race / gender / sexuality and so on rather than the obvious fact that it comes from having money). In Victorian times, the well-to-do would be (or act) conspicuously more piously Christian than the gin-swilling rabble. Today they are more progressive.
It would be a harmless psychological curiosity except that much of what they believe is stupid and wrong and, seeing as they have the power to put policies into effect, having damaging effects on the rest of society. For example, their support for mass immigration and green politics.
For an example of progressivism taken to extremes, look at the horrifying state of Sweden.
