Polarization against conspiracy theories froze progressives into defending the status quo

Evidence

Stuck in the binary of lock down versus open up, we failed to consider so many options during the first years that we lived with the virus, and there were so many debates we didn’t have. Faced with the torrent of lies coming from the conspiratorial right, many liberals and progressives opted to simply defend status quo measures, despite the fact that we could, and should, have demanded far more. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 392

Categorization

• XREF: This is the chapter’s core causal mechanism — reactive polarization leads progressives to defend whatever the right attacks, abandoning radical reimagination — connecting to Klein’s general diagonalism and mirror-world thesis. — connects to: Wartime fear converted progressive Americanizers into defenders of the economic status quo. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1501