The moral arguments millennials employ in defense of possibly the signature millennial pet cause— gay marriage—are focused not on tolerance, but on acceptance. That means almost no one argues that, even if gay marriage was a sin, it should still be tolerated. Rather, the overwhelming argument is that it isn’t a sin, never has been, and that those who say it is have too many skeletons in their closet to talk. As for things that a large section of millennials do think are sins, such as racism, sexism, or triggering speech? Well, ask Christina Hoff Sommers or Laura Kipnis how they handle those.

Indeed, speaking of triggering speech, even the millennial phenomenon that has most in common with early Christian morality—social-justice activism, with its “the underprivileged shall inherit the earth” ethos—has a very interesting name: social justice, i.e. the opposite of mercy. If you doubt that, look at how social-justice activism behaves in practice. “The opposite of mercy” is quite apt.

Put this together, and you have a picture of a generation that looks less like morally naive optimists and more like Shylock with an iPhone. In a way, it makes perfect sense that the two worldviews that have gained the most among millennials are libertarianism and hardline progressivism; the former because it combines ruthlessness in applying capitalist standards of success with insouciance in the face of private morality, and the latter because it promises to put everyone who fails to join the revolution up against the wall.