The me-first progressives, however, think in terms of their ever-expanding rights. They are fundamentally ungrateful, even enraged, with the way things are. By definition, a progressive always thinks we haven’t progressed far enough, and therefore is always unhappy with the state of things. The youngest progs, having been trained on campus to communicate this way, can scarcely make it through a meeting without raising their hands and announcing, “As a [fill in blank], I feel. . . ” as though their feelings are the most critical issue facing the group, rather than a matter for them to discuss with their loved ones and shrinks.

Conservatives are not only far more likely to do happiness-generating things, like marry and have children, but our happiness also is not dependent on whether someone is starving somewhere or whether anyone is being victimized by injustice. Editorial meetings at National Review are not whine-fests. Nobody ever complains of being triggered. To be a conservative is to acknowledge that the world is an imperfect place, and that understanding is key to being a grownup.

Progressives remain stuck in the angry-young-man stage indefinitely. The most eye-opening example of what Grim discusses on the left is at the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion group that barely acknowledged the Dobbs draft decision leak that would overturn Roe v. Wade and instead concentrated on its internal squabbling about whether to form a union. Like every other lefty-activist group Grim reports on, its escutcheon might as well be changed to “Entitled, Narcissistic Brats.” Maybe Latin would make it sound a little better.