Public space and neutrality
One thing those rainbow crosswalks are about
A comment Auron Macintyre made a while back that has stuck with me is that the Right understands the political as the chance the restore neutrality. The Left more correctly understands that the political is the chance to define neutrality.
Whether they do it consciously or not, this is also why folks on the Left will rarely claim to have an ideology they are trying to implement (a claim that would immediately put their beliefs on a level parallel to your beliefs, a competition between equals they do not desire). No, they just care about the neutral principles of inclusion and love and tolerance. Are you against inclusion and love and tolerance?
This is one way to claim your beliefs as the neutral turf:
If my symbols are everywhere, that communicates to everyone (80+% of whom are thinking less seriously about politics and culture than you are, remember) that my position is the default one, my position is the neutral one, these are the beliefs all normal people will hold. Everyone who thinks differently is somehow abnormal, and who wants to be abnormal? (Uncoincidentally, they are tearing down old symbols of America and religion at the same time.)
My other immediate concern with the above is… this is from West Virginia? The Current Thingism mindset, which is an inherent part of progressivism, ensures that this stuff spreads like wildfire through progressive city councils. Conservatives, by their very nature, make changes slowly. Progressives hear that some other city did this cool thing and immediately want to implement the same cool thing themselves. They will build ten more rainbow crosswalks in the time you read this post. I think our city already has a couple such crosswalks. Very likely we get some more, now. Full inclusion will only be achieved when all crosswalks are rainbow.
I have sometimes listened to the podcast of Roman Catholic Taylor Marshall. A comment he has made repeatedly is that “Catholics need to take up public space” (a little bit easier for them since they have a history of Eucharistic processions and the like). He gets it. There is power in that.
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