Any person who is acquainted with and heavily opposes the current totalitarian authoritarian far-leftist "social justice" ideology and movement probably gets a sense of instinctive disgust when they hear the word "progress" being used in this context.
The term, short for "social progress", however, isn't bad per se. The problem is that like so many other terms, it has been hijacked and distorted by the far-leftist ideology.
Originally social progress was an inherently good thing. For example, slavery, the notion of human beings being owned by other human beings as property, is almost universally considered abhorrent. We, as a society, have socially evolved to recognize and understand how horrendous of a thing slavery is, and categorically rejected it outright. This is genuinely social progress.
During the last centuries humanity has come up with higher ideals of what fundamental human rights are, and that every person should have these rights, and nobody should be considered to have more or less rights than others. These ideals are enshrined in important documents such as the various Constitutions of different countries, and for example the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is genuinely social progress.
Genuine social progress is what has allowed us, as a species, to move away from discriminating against groups of people, and started to consider every person as an individual with the same rights and responsibilities as everybody else, every single person starting from a level playfield and given the same rights and opportunities, rather than being condemned to being socially discriminated against eg. based on social status, wealth, race or sex. Social progress has moved us, as a society, to a better judiciary system where people are judged for their crimes individually regardless of who they are or what their social status or physical characteristics are.
The concepts of universal and equal inalienable freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of movement and congregation, for everybody, are relatively recent concepts and ideas (compared to the entire history of humanity), and are genuine social progress.
But, like with so many things, the far left ideology has taken and appropriated this concept of "progress", and distorted it for their own goals, just to gain power in society.
For example, to them "progress" is when people get assaulted for engaging in speech that they disapprove of. It's "progress" when people are intimidated into silence via threats of "consequences", such as ostracization, discrimination, harassment, destruction of means of living, destruction of property, and physical assault. It's "progress" when people are compelled to use certain words, and stopped from using other words, or face the "consequences".
To them, it's "progress" when facilities, such as university dorms, are segregated by race. To them it's "progress" when events are segregated by race, and people are stopped from attending and discriminated against based on their race. To them it's "progress" when children are being drugged with substances that they don't need, and mutilated and castrated for life. And, of course, it's "progress" when children are being brainwashed by the far-leftist ideology, and stopped from ever hearing criticism of it, or even having the knowledge that such criticism exists, by self-appointed gatekeepers of information. It's "progress" when schoolchildren are taught to hate each other and feel inferior and guilty because of their race (something they had absolutely no choice about).
What was once a great and virtuous concept has been completely distorted and bastardized by a totalitarian ideology that has hijacked the concept for their own goals, to gain power.
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