re: #57 Irenicum

We do have to address the reality that WWI progressives are very different from today’s progressives. Many, if not most of them, were quite racist and were strongly in favor of eugenics in openly racist ways. That’s not to say that the other side is somehow pristine. Racism at that time was a commonplace reality that very few rejected. Beck, though, loves using this as a hammer to slam anything that questions his bizarre little world of libertarian conspiracism. It’s a familiar trope that is effective among those who don’t know the whole history

It’s partial history—giving the impression that ‘progressives’ of the past were drooling racists, and ‘conservatives’ of the past were upstanding, wholesome types who never did anything naughty.

Also, even in the context of the day, some of these folks lie through their teeth. The crap they have put out about Margaret Sanger is surreal—and she’s a pretty flawed, although important, figure to begin with.