Not "E Pluribus Unum" or even "Black Lives Matter" — these little phrases explain a lot that's going on.  They are guiding lights of the Progressive movement.

• We define everything

A colossal blunder that costs American lives and credibility is a "success," a desertion of materiel and citizens is "mission accomplished"...

Ignoring the natural immunity of COVID survivors in further mandates is "following the science."  In fact, we define science: no longer a fact-based inductive pursuit of the truth wherever it leads, science is now a dog wagged by the tail of policy.  Changes in research funding are as much to blame as epistemological confusion; everybody, even guys in white coats, appears to have his price.  Science is biochemistry and genetics and anatomy, but all of these things are to be disregarded if a man thinks he is a woman.  We will make the difficult calls about what pronouns you may use.  You're welcome.

Oh, and by the way — we will define who "we" is.  And it's not you.

• Just say whatever

Immigration at the southern border is exploding because, as Biden says, he's "a decent man ... a nice guy."   Jen Psaki says it's "unfair and absurd" for companies to transfer to consumers the costs of higher taxes. 

Facebook tells its Oversight Board that its XCheck system of "content moderation" is snaring only "a small number" of accounts, whereas the Wall Street Journal reports that the number approaches 6 million.

Most likely we will hear next that all the U.S. tanks, guns, and drones that want to leave Afghanistan will be retrieved. 

• Ends justify means

We should have been more wary of a president (Obama) who would write this cynical sketch of America's leaders:  "[B]ecause the 'rules' [note the chilling quotation marks]  of the Constitution were contingent on time and place and the ambitions of the men who drafted them, our interpretation of the rules will necessarily reflect the same contingency, the same raw competition, the same imperatives — cloaked in high-minded phrasing — of those factions that ultimately prevail" (The Audacity of Hope, 2006, p. 91).  This cynicism runs so deep now that the Democrats ran a presidential candidate they knew couldn't campaign and would be a marionette if elected.  Now the cynicism extends to importing voters over the southern border since the left knows it can't persuade Americans to support its policies on a level playing field.

"Every dead Republican is a step toward progress," says a Reddit voice, with echoes from a Democrat member of Congress.  Because desperate times (like the unprecedented peace and prosperity of 2017 through 2019?) call for desperate measures.

Now the argument that ends justify means has scholarly cachet — that is, if you're not conservative.

• Reciprocity is over

So over.  We are seeing what a society is like when it discards the Golden Rule.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot can get her hair styled during a shutdown of salons because "I'm a person who, I take my personal hygiene very seriously.  As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut," she added.  "I'm not able to do that myself," but you are supposed to stay home and cut your own hair since you don't take your personal hygiene seriously. 

Former president Obama can entertain unmasked hordes of "sophisticated" people, but you can't visit your dying relative in the hospital.  Canadians can't cross the northern border (closed, sorry), but hundreds of thousands can shuffle through the southern border with a 20% rate of illness with nary a raised eyebrow from the CDC.  No masks necessary.

• Life is cheap

Don't get us started on abortion. 

Thirteen soldiers returning in caskets from Afghanistan prompt only repeated glances at his watch for Joe Biden. 

Record thousands of Americans died of opioid poisoning last year and are succumbing to tainted prescription drugs this year, but Biden just opens the border to more fentanyl.

Suicide by teens is dramatically increasing, clearly correlated with social media use, but the tech elites just conceal it and move on.

Three-word mantras can work wonders.  These ones are propelling us into a ditch.

Image via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.