I think the concept of an Overton window doesn't work well with our modern politics. The window hasn't really slid left so much as split in half and slid both left and right.
The far right now says and does things that would have been completely out of the Overton window three decades ago, as does the far left in the other extreme. It's like there are two Overton windows depending on which wing you associate with, which is why increasingly people find that they can't engage with those on the other side at all—they're operating with different windows of acceptable expression.
The far right now says and does things that would have been completely out of the Overton window three decades ago
This just seems like projection by the left who don't want to admit that they're the only extremists doing insane things in America. The left will make an extremist claim - "men can be women" - and then when the other side says "no", they'll claim that the right is being extremist for opposing their own extremist claim.
Funny you mention that. There are now "affinity groups" and "POC spaces" and so forth whose entire conceit is to create separate but equal spaces away from white people. Separate student lounges, clubs, meetings, discussions, graduation "celebrations" that totally aren't illegal ceremonies, and so forth.
What the segregationists lost, the left has convinced people is for their own benefit. Soon enough, we'll have POC-only schools and drinking fountains and sections on the bus and pretend these are the most progressive of ideas.
Wait until you learn about Meetup.com. Or the importance of carefully policed gender-segregated bathrooms!
> graduation "celebrations" that totally aren't illegal ceremonies,
OK captain of the party police.
WTF is an "illegal ceremony"? Sounds antireligious.
> Soon enough, we'll have POC-only schools
They're called HBCUs. Lots like Howard, Tuskegee, Morehouse are like 150 years old, so if you're anxiously awaiting the arrival of POC-only schools so that you can make your own entry into the oppression olympics, you don't have to -- the scary future you're imagining arrived before your grandparents were born! It's a wonder any of us who weren't privileged enough to attend scrabbled our way through this oppressive society created by the out-of-control left of the 19th century, but here we are, a credit to our race.
> POC-only drinking fountains and sections on the bus
If the day were to come when a policy of creating POC-separate public services like drinking fountains and buses, which principles would you appeal to when organizing opposition to that?
> WTF is an "illegal ceremony"? Sounds antireligious
Segregating students by race is a violation of federal anti-discrimination laws. Some schools continue to push the boundaries of what does and does not constitute a violation of this.
HBCUs are not race segregated schools; people of any color are lawfully allowed to apply and attend. Hence the "historically" in the name- they were once, by policy, exclusively for black students, but now it is not so.
Even today, illegal scholarships, internships and networking opportunities continue to be created and challenged in court as various universities attempt to balance growing diversity without affirmative action. I don't actually foresee us getting to the point of lawfully segregated schools (or drinking fountains) but variations on those old policies do keep making comebacks.
> And I have no idea where people who are saying NPR has made some kind of hard partisan shift are coming from.
right wing extremist groups and leaders like Chris Rufo