The left’s abandonment of freedom caused its political decline.

Evidence

Above all, they asked about freedom, which several of them considered the topic underlying all others, and which they interpreted both personally and politically. In the years following existentialism’s decline, this topic went out of focus in parts of the world, perhaps because the great liberation movements of the 1950s and 1960s achieved so much in civil rights, decolonisation, women’s equality and gay rights. It seemed as though these campaigns had got what they wanted, and that no point remained in talking about liberation politics. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 96 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Freedom of thought, speech, and conscience were—just as free enterprise, which they served to promote and protect—essentially critical ideas, designed to replace an obsolescent material and intellectual culture by a more productive and rational one. Once institutionalized, these rights and liberties shared the fate of the society of which they had become an integral part. The achievement cancels the premises. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 106 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Freedom lost its philosophical urgency once the 1960s liberation movements won. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 96; The Right’s rise depends structurally on the Left’s failure in power.; The Right gains ground partly because of what the Left does within limits. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1130 (+3 more)

Related

• Freedom lost its philosophical urgency once the 1960s liberation movements won. (similarity 0.89)

Broader Connections

• Freedom lost its philosophical urgency once the 1960s liberation movements won. #corroborates (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 96
• Liberties lose their critical force once institutionalized #corroborates (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 106
• The Right’s rise depends structurally on the Left’s failure in power. #corroborates (0.78)
• The Right gains ground partly because of what the Left does within limits. #qualifies (0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1130