To characterize this as "the regressive left" is really dead-on. My view is that this is inevitable in a culture where no real progress is made on big problems—

To characterize this as "the regressive left" is really dead-on. My view is that this is inevitable in a culture where no real progress is made on big problems—attention naturally turns to ever-smaller slights, and those begin to carry the weight of the big, unsolved problems. The next step is nihilism and reactionary tendencies. I wouldn't be surprised if the counterparts of today's "regressive left" in 20 years are brown-shirt fascists. As Eric Hoffer has said, these kind of people don't hold real convictions beyond an unquenchable lust for redemption for what they perceive as the injustice of the empty, ruined landscape of themselves.