Currents

It may not have felt like it at the time, but the “racial reckoning” of 2020, and all of the tumult it entailed, was the crest of a wave that was destined to recede. As noted by Pew Research, “Support for the Black Lives Matter movement has dropped considerably [16 points] since its peak in 2020.” While this may seem isolated to racial politics in general, or the BLM movement in particular, or even the organization of the same name whose corruption has already become old news — the backlash it has inspired empowers actual racists. And it is part of a much larger pattern, a growing backlash against Critical Social Justice (CSJ) as a whole, which is also hurting LGBT issues and fueling a backlash against sexual freedom. We have seen old lies given new life in “groomer” discourse, a vocal pushback against all things Pride, state-level challenges to same-sex marriage, and a rise in the “tradcon” (or “traditionalist conservative”) aesthetic and lifestyle. Until now, this trend may have seemed little more than a “vibe shift” and series of anecdotes, but now it’s showing up in data.

A recent poll from Gallup shows fewer Americans believe same-sex relationships are morally acceptable compared to one year ago — 64% down from 71%, with an even steeper drop among self-identified Republicans from 56% to 41%. A separate report from Gallup found that the number of Americans who describe themselves as conservative on social issues is surging and is now at the highest level it’s been in over a decade. As we will see, this is part of the larger illiberal, zero-sum turn that has infected our politics, where the hatred of a particular idea, stance, or type of person results in the rejection of anything that seems to be related.

As to why, specifically, the disapproval of same-sex relationships is on the rise after years of steady progress, there seem to be two prevailing theories. The first chalks it up to being a “mask off” moment for the social conservatives who have always been anti-LGBT but had grown quieter in recent years after losing the war of ideas. Sensing a new opening created by the cultural backlash to left-wing social justice politics, this thinking goes, these social conservatives have returned to saying the quiet part out loud.

Another theory is that this drop in support for same-sex relationships is simply a byproduct of trans activist overreach, arguing that people who were not homophobic or anti-LGBT have essentially been shunted in that direction by various elements of radical trans politics they strongly object to. Both theories have nuggets of truth, but they don’t tell the whole story. There are certain people, such as Matt Walsh and his ilk, who have always been bigots that can’t stand sexual freedom. In the current political climate, they absolutely feel more empowered to speak up. At the same time, there are also far-left gender activists who do the LGBT community no favors when they say, however jokingly, that “We’re coming for your children.” Perhaps the shift in acceptance after the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized same-sex marriage nationally, was motivated by fear of ostracization — and perhaps gender activists have given one too many females the JK Rowling treatment for daring to cross them. Both reinforce one another and tie into a broader troubling pattern.

Actual bigots can and do capitalize on this growing backlash, which in this case has only been strengthened by the viral spread of the tradcon aesthetic on platforms like TikTok, where influencers glamorize life as young, 1950s-style housewives. It’s not just the kids, either. Radical feminist Louise Perry’s much-discussed 2022 book lambasting the Sexual Revolution has given voice to the attitudes of a growing number of people.

These attitudes are manifesting in what cultural commentator Katherine Dee has termed the “coming wave of sex negativity” and what political scientist Wilfred Reilly dubbed a “full-on youth-led rebellion against the idea of healthy sex itself.” This goes deeper than critiques of hookup culture or the decline of family life: it’s a rejection of individual liberty and personal freedom — key liberal values. That is the real reason why, in 2023, 36% of Americans question the morality of same-sex relationships.

To be clear, the support for LGBT relationships in America is still quite high, especially compared to less liberal cultures. Still, a seven-point drop in the span of a single year — and 15 points among Republicans — is eye-opening. More troubling still is that the acceptance of other forms of sexual freedom, such as birth control, divorce, and sex between unmarried people, have all also declined from last year by four, three, and four points respectively. We don’t have enough data yet to definitively know whether this is the beginning of a steady trend or a momentary hiccup, but the perceptible shift in attitudes preceding these numbers certainly hasn’t shown signs of abating any time soon. If we continue in this direction, decades of sociocultural progress might be wiped out in a matter of years. It’s not time to panic just yet, but it is time to nip this backslide in the bud.

The backlash to Critical Social Justice and its ideological capture of institutions such as academia, journalism, nonprofits, etc., continues manifesting not only with the meteoric rise of reactionary influencers and writers but increasing resistance from within the left. Figures as far-left as The Young Turks have even started to push back against the typical progressive narratives of the early 2020s. When you’ve lost The Young Turks — when The Young Turks seem moderate by comparison — you've done gone too far left.

Even if many people don’t understand the nuances of the ideology, it is only natural that we’re now seeing a reaction against the undemocratic push for critical race theory, critical queer theory, youth gender medicine, attacks on free expression, and the imposition of esoteric academic jargon and far-left norms on mainstream society. Natural, however, does not always mean good. It’s clear that the worldview emerging from this reactionary backlash is one that does not merely resist CSJ but also devalues sexual freedom, LGBT rights, and women’s rights. We need better than one sick, illiberal cult mentality supplanting another.

In troubled times, wisdom sometimes comes from the unlikeliest of places. Near the end of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), in what now feels like a bizarrely prescient exchange between the titular hero and his nemesis Dr. Evil on the topic of sexual liberation, the villain proclaims, “Face it! Freedom failed.” In response, Powers, with his snaggle-toothed idiot grin, drops a fundamental truism: “No man, freedom didn’t fail. Right now we’ve got freedom and responsibility. It's a very groovy time.” In penning this dialogue, Mike Myers was more right than he probably knew. He not only got to the core of what makes a liberal society tick, but he also nailed the kind of empty, personal attacks illiberal figures resort to in order to distract from the real issues. “There’s nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster”, as Dr. Evil spat at Powers, might be subjectively true, but it’s not an argument.

Flimsy grumblings about the “social fabric” and “family values” paper over the undeniable fact that the most sexually free countries are all the most prosperous countries, and vice versa. The kind of repressive paternalism that seeks to protect people from their own life choices invariably leads to dark places, as we see with Uganda’s recent brutal anti-LGBT law that would punish same-sex behavior with death.

This is why the answer becomes self-evident: we need a rejection of both CSJ and its regressive backlash, and a robust, unapologetic defense of the liberal attitudes and developments that allowed for sexual freedom — and broader freedoms in general — in the first place. When we look back through the past half century or so, we see a clear pattern. From the introduction of the birth control pill, which gave women new levels of sexual agency, to the Sexual Revolution, to the ruling in Lawrence v. Texas that deemed “sodomy laws” unconstitutional, to Obergefell v. Hodges, we see a common thread. These scientific, social, and legal breakthroughs were a culmination of the fundamentally liberal attitude of “live and let live”, where consenting adults are free to live their own lives as they see fit.

We have our work cut out for us. Unlike pregnancy, there’s no pill to prevent Puritanism. There’s no law that can change hearts and minds. It falls to good, old-fashioned persuasion. There are two cases we must make. First, actions have consequences, and the abusive lengths Critical Social Justice extremists have gone to in trying to push their ideology on everyone else is immensely unpopular and will continue to backfire spectacularly. It is just as important to stress that we cannot fight the sexist, bigoted, prudishness of CSJ with their tradcon mirror image. Going from the quiet acceptance and tolerance of strangers’ personal lives to thinking that there’s something morally broken about them isn’t a reasonable reaction to CSJ overreach. Despite the moment they appear to be having, the tradcon vision of the world remains a minority view, as the Gallup data shows. Shocking as it sounds, Americans like freedom. And sexual freedom, the ability to decide how to enjoy your own body, is freedom.

It’s no secret that Americans are experiencing serious political burnout. This speaks to a yearning for a less intrusive and all-consuming form of politics. The good news is that there is a low-key type of politics that champions individual freedom, civil liberties, and human rights. And, by no coincidence at all, it’s what got us the gains we are now worried about losing. Liberal principles won the day before, and they can win them again. But we, the moderate majority, cannot drown out the extremists unless we speak up.

Published Jul 21, 2023