Many people– and not just Americans– are concerned that what human society considered “progress” is currently methodically challenged by conservative populist movements. This is not just a shock, but a phenomenon that “progressives” fear sets back what took generations, or even centuries, to establish. How to account for this in a way that can be codified and measured?
I wonder if there is a different measure that should be applied — one that is related to something like “behavior given what we know.” Perhaps that’s impossible to define, given inability to agree on facts, but there is a difference between — just to use one example — being elected U.S. president at a time in which slavery was legal and (probably) most white people were openly racist and being elected after a black man just served two terms.
This notion could be extrapolated from in other areas — display of unforgivable relative ignorance, or regression from established knowledge and fact.
My kids’ math classes were much more difficult than mine were. My kids grew up in a society that, thank God, for the most part does care whether someone’s girlfriend or boyfriend is a different race. To my kids, LGBT rights are assumed and not hindered or begrudged. My kids know more about nutrition, the environment, and many other relevant subjects than I did at their age. These are things we call “progress.”
We need an anti-progress index — a measure of something like “desire to make next generation more ignorant than me.”