Why are progressive movements so elitist?

Published October 2, 2023 5:53pm ET



The New York Times recently ran an article titled “The Failure of Progressive Movements,” which tried to identify why recent fads such as Occupy Wall Street, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter failed to enact meaningful change. One explanation offered is that, as commentator Fredrik DeBoer puts it, “today, left-activist spaces are dominated by the college-educated, many of whom grew up in affluence and have never worked a day at a physically or emotionally demanding job.” As such, these movements prioritize “the immaterial and symbolic” over “the material and the concrete.”

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