We're Not The Ones Who've Moved
How Leftists use the Overton Window to sow confusion on extremism
“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
“I think at a time when the middle class is shrinking, the last thing we need is to bring, over a period of years, millions of people into this country who are prepared to lower wages for American workers.”
“We have predators on our streets … They are beyond the pale many of those people, beyond the pale, and it’s a sad commentary on society. We have no choice but to take them out of society.”
“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”
“The American negro is nothing but a political football and the white liberals control this ball. Through tricks, tokenism, and false promises of integration and civil rights.”
What sort of extreme-right-wing ideologue said the above quotes?
Well… that would be Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and, just to show that this is not a recent phenomenon, radical left-wing revolutionary Malcolm X, way back in the 1960s.
Today, all of the ideas expressed above are considered beyond the pale by Leftists, they’re “out of bounds,” located outside of the “box” of ideas that it’s acceptable to even try to discuss in decent society, solely the territory of “extremists.” But every one of them was, within living memory, regarded as a basic, normal idea that Left and Right could agree upon.
What changed?
The Overton Window
The idea that there’s a box of ideas that it’s acceptable to discuss is known as the Overton Window theory, developed by a guy named Joseph Overton. He pointed out that societal attitudes can shift over time, and that by drawing enough attention to disfavored positions, the “window” of what’s considered appropriate can be deliberately moved around.
Overton’s theory certainly tracks well with the last few decades of American political experience! Look at how many of the concepts that today’s Leftist-smothered culture demands everybody swear fealty to on pain of ridicule, job termination, or legal persecution were considered extreme-left “lunatic fringe” ideas that no sane person would ever take seriously, as recently as the 2000s.
But ever since the turn of the millennium, left-wing extremists have been dragging the Overton Window kicking and screaming to the left, endlessly further and further leftwards, using compliant mainstream media to push their ideas on the public, presenting them first as debatable, then as acceptable, and then before long as mandatory, claiming that there is no room for debate on their ideas. (But there was sure plenty of room for debate when they were making the arguments in favor of them not long ago!)
How to counter gaslighting
Of course, the Leftists say we’re the ones who are becoming “extreme,” that they’re the ones in touch with mainstream culture. This is known as gaslighting: distorting reality to try to convince people that they did not see, hear, or otherwise experience that which they actually did experience. They tell us that they’re responding to mainstream culture and reflecting America’s preferences when they’re actually dragging American preferences behind them and publicly making prominent examples out of any dissenters.
But it’s important to remember that gaslighting, like many other dirty tricks, only works when the victim is unaware of them. We all know that memory is fallible, so if someone says the truth does not match what we think we remember, how do we know if we’re misremembering, or being deceived?
The best technique I’ve managed to come up with — and it works surprisingly well! — is this: when you don’t know what to believe about a controversial idea, look at what people were saying before it became controversial. Look at historical records and documents, from when people had no incentives to lie or distort an idea, and you’re far more likely to see them being honest.
And as the quotes at the top of this article show, when we look back at what people on the left were saying not that long ago on the subject of issues that have since become controversial, they were saying all the same things conservatives say today. And so were the conservatives. We’re not the ones who have moved into extreme territory; we’re still right here where we’ve always been.
Be no more children
In Ephesians chapter 11, Paul speaks of the organization of the Church and the benefits it brought, ending with this fascinating phrase:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive
Similar imagery is used in James chapter 1, where he exhorts the faithful to seek wisdom from God:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
In Hebrews chapter 6, Paul touches on the same nautical theme again to give a solution, calling the hope provided by the Gospel “an anchor of the soul.”
The whole point of an anchor is to make your ship stop moving, to hold it steady even when chaotic conditions around you try to drive it about in dangerous, unpredictable ways. In the passage above, Paul calls those with no anchor, who do get driven about chaotically by every new whim of the capricious world around them, “children.” And this makes sense; we’ve all seen just how easy it is to trick kids into believing whatever outlandish thing just by telling them it’s true or using some bit of silly reasoning to make it sound plausible. (This is a theme you’ll see over and over again when you look at how the Left works: blurring the line between children and adults, particularly with an eye towards preventing people from maturing mentally and emotionally.)
The way to not be stuck forever as credulous children, then, is to anchor yourself to things that are already known to be true. Look to the past, and look to the facts, rather than to rapidly-changing opinions. It’s especially important to be skeptical of any purported “new discoveries” in the fields of human behavior and the so-called social sciences. These touch on basic human nature, and if they say things that don’t comport with thousands of years of our species’ observation and experience, what’s more likely? That human nature has actually changed somehow, or that the new “discovery” is incorrect, either mistakenly or maliciously?
The only correct answer to charges of conservative “extremism” is to point out that we’re just saying the same things they were saying not that long ago. We haven’t moved; they have. If the distance between us is extreme now, and we’re still in the same normal, sane position as always… it leads to a specific, inescapable conclusion.
Democrat Rule #1 in action!