We have entered an era of almost limitless tolerance for former taboos, yet extreme intolerance for traditional norms. And the concept of “norms” itself.

Every aspect of what is mainstream and what is fringe is being inverted, flipped, reversed. Christianity is becoming a fringe belief, mocked by elites and shunned by youth. Many progressives view its adherents as backward folk, hicks who “cling to their guns and their Bibles” while worshipping a “guy in the sky.” The LGBTQIA+ community is now mainstream. Drag queens are reading to grade-school age kids all across the ever fruitier plain. “Queer” has become a term of endearment, one used so frequently it is anything but odd or unusual. The “work ethic” is now a fringe concept seen as a tool of white supremacy, while an entitlement mentality is mainstream, ubiquitous. “Faith, family and freedom” has morphed into “State, village and socialism.” The ethos of “pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps” has been supplanted by “what’s in it for me?”

The Marlboro Man has been replaced by the Metrosexual. The bigger tragedy is we think that’s a good thing. Cigarette smoking is now essentially regarded as a crime. As is being a traditional male. The “strong and silent type” was once considered the model. Now it’s more often considered “toxic masculinity.” Smoking pot, however, is seen as cool, possibly even healthy. Which is why it’s being legalized in state after state. Pass the Doritos.

The First Amendment has been forced to yield to tiny “free speech zones” on college campuses. Nearly as many Millennials believe in banning “hate speech,” meaning speech with which they disagree, as believe in freedom of speech. The Second Amendment, guaranteeing the right to protect oneself and one’s family, is under fire as we speak and will -- at some point -- almost certainly be stripped, gutted and possibly even repealed.

In America, we used to talk about how lucky we are and count our blessings. Everyone was born with equal rights, granted by the Creator, to pursue life, liberty and happiness. That mindset, which had been mainstream for two centuries, is now a fringe notion. The idea that American society is unfair, racist, bigoted, misogynistic and xenophobic is now mainstream. It pollutes and infects virtually all of academia, Hollywood, the entertainment industry, Big Tech companies, the Democratic Party, and the mainstream media. This is as ironic as it is wrong. The wealthier we have become, the more tolerant and open, the more those in these positions of influence berate America. Today, as I write this, we have the lowest unemployment rate in history for African-Americans, Hispanics and women. An African-American has been president. A woman will likely be president soon. There are multiple Muslims in Congress. Gays and lesbians, too. Yet the “progressive” elites, in Chicken Little-like fashion, louder and louder yell: “The Sky is Falling.” 

The mainstream belief used to be that the Earth’s climate has changed dramatically over time of its own volition. Or God’s. This is now an antiquated view. It has been replaced by the absolute certainty that every drought/flood/tornado/hurricane/fire/cold spell/hot spell/ gust of wind/dew drop/beached whale is caused by greenhouse gases man has carelessly sent into the atmosphere. This is mated with the concurrent assumption that President Trump is bent on giddily if fiendishly speeding up the process of global warming so that, by the turn of the century, the planet will be a smoldering orb unable to sustain life of any kind.

The formerly universal concept of “the truth” has been cast aside in favor of the idea of “your truth,” as if truth were no more than an object that could be picked up in a store.

As someone -- perhaps Selwyn Duke, familiar to American Thinker readers -- once astutely observed, “the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”  This hostility leads them to brand the truth as “hate speech.” Sadly, that’s precisely what’s happening. Here and now.

And that is the truth.

Graphic credit: Needpix