Long ago, in 1984, in a letter to Christina Hoff Summers, I pointed out that the left is no longer Marxist, but Nietzschean. Radical feminism, multiculturalism (back then anti-racism hadn’t yet been called that—and I really want to know whether adopting the Canadian neologism first happened in the U.S. at around that time, beginning at the University of Pennsylvania, because if it did, I was the critic who force them to change names, but I digress) and the lot all operate by a transvaluation of values: women are more intuitive and less rational, but that good, black folk really do have rhythm, but that makes them better than white folk, and so forth.
The completion of that trend is nihilism, since one can’t really transvalue the values of traditional morality. Calling evil “good” ends with valuing the nothingness, the privation of good that evil really is. It is either the abyss, or the pursuit of power for no purpose other than the pursuit of power.
Absolutely.
Power for its own sake will end in the abyss. Once there, they will fight each other. The -isms proliferate endlessly. Nothing is ever enough. Once one particular meme (”Women are intuitive and that is good”) is prevalent, the bar is re-set (”Men need to regain their feminine qualities”.) As you imply, once a critic calls them on some article of faith, they will change the label.
There is no arguing with this crowd. You need to stand your ground, resist, utilize passive aggression and drive them into a self-destructive frothing rage, preferably in front of witnesses, from which it is difficult to recover.
Of course, you run the risk of being hurt, physically, economically, professionally and socially, but I have yet to find a nihilist who can be persuaded by logic and reason or with a better nature to which you can appeal.
My personal experience with the political left was 15-20 years (different venues) earlier than yours. By the mid-eighties, they became the media and academic establishment. They had re-entered society for the Long March Through The Institutions. They were wealthy. In my time, they really were radicals. They really aren’t about any goal, just the constant process that leads to ever-increasing control. They are addicted to the process and, as they have succeeded, they have become dependent upon garnering more and more control.
This cannot end well.