Anti liberal Left discussed

Brendan O'Neill, playing up to his annoying role of blowhard contrarian with political and philosophical views seemingly picked up at random, wrote on Spiked earlier this week that he couldn't understand how gay marriage became such an orthodoxy so quickly (fair enough, I've said the same myself), but then settles on the reason being:

...the weakness of modern society’s attachment to traditional institutions and long-term commitment, and to the ability of small elites in our post-political age to shape the public agenda in a scarily thoroughgoing fashion.

Again, no problem with the first line up to "institutions", but as for "long term commitment", well the "conservative" argument for gay marriage is that it may enhance commitment amongst same sex couples.  (Not that I am convinced that is a realistic assumption.)  But O'Neill then goes on to concentrate on the scary "small elites".  He ends with this:

For the transformation of gay marriage from just an idea to a juggernaut in the blink of an eye actually has little to do with the expansion of tolerance, but rather speaks to the very opposite phenomenon: the emergence of new forms of intolerance that demand nothing less than moral obedience and mandatory celebration from everyone - or else.

I don't see how the position he ends up at is really much different from the right wing view he earlier derides:

As for the anti side’s claim that a sharp-elbowed gay lobby is demolishing marriage as we knew it, and probably laughing as they go - that veers towards conspiracy-theory territory, echoing the old right’s nonsense about Western culture being under threat from pinkos ‘marching through the institutions’.

So, I think his column is a bit of a dog's breakfast, and his complaint about "new forms of intolerance" does little to explain how the younger generation has swung so strongly in favour of gay marriage.

A much better take on some of the nutty Left's intolerant aggro is to be found at The Nation, in a column about the stupid anti-Colbert campaign. 

It's incredible that some on the Left have apparently lost the ability to recognise satire aimed at the Right.

And I have to agree that campaigns against people who have supported the no gay marriage political cause are too precious, intolerant and annoying.

So, yes, it has to be admitted, there is some resurgence in Left wing anti-Liberalism.   I still don't think s.18C needs amendment at this time, though!

UPDATE:   Slate runs a column in which it is argued that all CEO's who don't support gay marriage deserve to go, because they are anti rights:

Opposing gay marriage in America today is not akin to opposing tax hikes or even the war in Afghanistan. It’s more akin to opposing interracial marriage: It bespeaks a conviction that some people do not deserve the same basic rights as others. An organization like Mozilla might tolerate that in an underling, and it might even tolerate it in a CTO. But in a CEO—the ultimate decision-maker and public face of an organization—it sends an awful message. That’s doubly so for an organization devoted to openness and freedom on the Web—not to mention one with numerous gay employees.

I hope this gets some push back in comments!

But regardless of this, which you might say supports O'Neill's complaint, I still do not think that such campaigns have been behind the rapid acceptance of gay marriage by the younger generation.  Indeed, it's not behind things like the quite rapid growth in Catholic acceptance of gay relationships, and now marriage.