Would this have been so horrible?

[Hortensis]

111. No. There's no reason someone can't develop a

"philosophy" and name it progressivism, but the name's already in widespread use, so obviously there will be confusion.

At its core, progressives believe in taking action to improve and advance the human condition. This can be done by virtually any size group. A church that teaches homeless people how to handle a job interview and gives them clothes to wear is progressive in its actions, even if it's a conservative religion.

Many others churches believe that is very wrong. They instead give sermons on how people who are poor and hungry are reaping the results of their own unworthiness and how feeding them only hurts them and their children in the end because it encourages unworthy behaviors. This is anti-progressive.

To put it mildly, and there are lots of them out there doing just this. Because THIS is a huge difference between liberal and conservative thought and methods in action. This and issues of equality are behind 90% of all our political battles. Social scientists say conservatives tend to have a "belief in a just world," whether secular or religious, and that progressive interference with the natural order only ends up causing problems.

So much for that.

Btw, the thought that global warming could make billions of people more conservative, and the ramifications of that, is something that has kept me up at night. This in view of the growth of hard-core right-wing movements in many nations and what's happening in ours.

Now I read a piece by a political scientist who's been analyzing changes in liberal democracies around the planet and think they may have entered an era of decline starting about 2005--as support for authoritarian fascistic governments grows. He doesn't think his analysis is definitive but definitely worrying.

A whole series of record-breaking years for heat, and an incredibly sordid and immoral authoritarian who hangs with far-right extremists is elected president. Coincidence or an incredibly huge factor beyond hopes of arresting?