The acceleration of the distortion of words and meanings is probably due to the expanding ranks of the educated, who are exposed to a near lethal dose of the prestige philosophy of academia called postmodernism. Among other its other premises, postmodernism staunchly denies objectivity and truth, which opens the door to a whole host of ancillary social ills. "Fat is beautiful" is a quick example of one of postmodernism's delusional, inbred offspring. Agreeing that humans with male genitalia are woman if they declare that they are female is another example. Explicit postmodernists are, interestingly, rarer in academia than you might think, and practically nonexistent in the wild. This is probably at least partially due to the Millennial tendency to eschew permanent labels. It's probably mostly caused by the Millennial tendency to never actually read academic literature. Repeating stuff over and over again is easier (and just as profitable).
Nevertheless, despite the paucity of actual postmodernists, the philosophy itself is surprisingly widespread. Here, an epidemiologist would use the term "virulence". Whether or not a young scholar explicitly subscribes to postmodernism, he likely believes, or at least repeats until he convinces himself that he does believe, in the main tenants of postmodernism, which was transmitted to him by an adjunct professor who did very little reading himself, who was taught by a professor who, however disinterested he may have been in anything other than tenure, nonetheless assigned literature written by an ancient ideologue. The core of the philosophy and the prestige associated with it are what gets passed down, even if the original nuance was lost. Hence the tendency of academics to butcher words and phrases in favor of whatever is currently fashionable among the mob.
Which brings me back to cognitive dissonance.
People point to young earth creationists, for example, and laugh about how they must be afflicted with a bad case of cognitive dissonance whenever they look at dinosaur bones. I haven't bumped into a young earth creationist in a very long time, so I am skeptical of the threat that they supposedly pose for our new society, but we'll play along for the time being. Young earth creationists, unfortunately, do not suffer from the effects of cognitive dissonance when they see a fossil, or geological stratification, or radiometric dating techniques. This is because the young earth creationist does not hold two contradictory views with regards to the existence of dinosaurs and other extinct megafauna. However erroneous, the young earth creationist satisfactorily explains all evidence with some elaboration on 'because the Bible tells me so', and because the young earth creationist believes that the Bible does, indeed, tell him so, it is so. And God saw that it was good, etc. Stupid, perhaps, and it would not be unfair to say that this branch of low-church Protestantism has done far more to damage the Body of Christ than, say, the Crusades, but cognitive dissonance it is not.
Where might we find a fresh example of cognitive dissonance, then?
I recently read that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was retiring. In my post-workday lethargy, I happened across a number of salt-mining threads on the ol' Cambodian basket weaving forum. For those of you who do not know, salt-mining here means reveling in Progressive butthurt. I will probably giggle myself to sleep tonight. Maybe not as enthusiastically as the night of the election, but I will sleep soundly.
Progressives have many interesting and thoughtful ways of transmitting ideas and feelings to one another and the public, most of which revolve around the Harry Potter franchise, but because our interest here is to examine cognitive dissonance rather than chuckle at millennial-twitter asspain, suffice it to say that their exasperation at Trump's second Supreme Court nomination can be summarized thusly:
It wasn't supposed to happen this way; we were on the right side of history.
"The right side of history" is a nebulous term, at best, but in reality is a rhetorical trick based in the same sort of thinking of that one kid when you were young enough to play superheroes at the playground who decided that his superpower was to have all the superpowers.
Substantively, there isn't a whole lot behind the words of the phrase. Conservatives, being a near perfect foil for a reactionary like yours truly, ask their political opponents how you can logically conclude that you are on the correct side of history, when history has yet to happen? This, in typical conservative fashion, is nonsense. Thanks conservatives!
The right side of history doesn't mean anything, because people who declare they are on the right side of history are just repeating stuff. The more I have interacted with run-of-the-mill millennial progressives, the less sure I am that the person opposite me is actually thinking about anything. If philosophical zombies exist, this is the closest I've gotten to proving it. The best I've been able to tease out of these people when they use that phrase is basically the future is going to be better because there will be more stuff that I like. And you like said stuff because? Hold it right there, if you start telling me about how said stuff is moral, I'll call bull fucking shit right now. You're the most narcissistic, self-important people ever in every category, period, but I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief for this one category. Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense.
It seems to me that the impetus for the liberal overreaction to Trump has less to do with anything Trump does, but rather because he is. Progressives must constantly contend with two contradictory statements: They are on the right side of history, while at the same time Trump is Hitler and he's going to send progressives to death camps. Oh, if only. It was never supposed to be this way, though. As people on our side of the fence like to gleefully repeat, they actually thought she was going to win. When we say that, of course, its always in reference to the elites and their behavior. The would-be elites, however, thought the same thing, but for different reasons. Imagine, if you will, being ripped to shreds by your political opponents for having repeatedly said something as stupid as "Nuh uh, I'm on the right side of history", only to be proven wrong by a boisterous, strawberry blonde comb-over with an orange glow - who by the way is busy stacking the courts with your political opponents while you reeee. Imagine how embarrassing it must be to be as stupid as Marie Harf, once your cover is blown and the whole world is laughing at your shocking ignorance masquerading as beneficent nuance. Imagine blindly following the advice of people who told you that it's in your best interests, even empowering, to spend your most fertile and attractive years as a desk jockey, only to shock yourself awake when you finally hit the wall you thought you critically analyzed out of existence, but now you're old, wrinkly, fat, an alcoholic, and alone. Imagine watching everything you hoped would give you power over your fellow man only because you craved the power and not because you deserved it come crashing to the ground, leaving you with nothing but the inescapable realization that you are incompetent, stupid, and worthless.
Now imagine that boot on their faces, forever.
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