This is exactly right. I had hoped that the increasing cultural emphasis on mental health would make people less likely to fall into this toxic worldview. But I keep seeing it more and more. https://t.co/ePb6opfS9e

— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) August 26, 2021

I’ve written before about how prudes are absolutely obsessed with sex, so this makes perfect sense in that context. You simply cannot be a prude and not be sex-obsessed.

That said, a major contributing factor is that the liberal left’s examination of how social relations work bears very little correspondence to reality because the libs are compelled by and fascinated with “protection from harm.” Unfortunately, they define harm as “anything mildly uncomfortable and/or difficult.” Most of them see conflict as abuse and are very, very concerned with enforcing what they see as proper assortative mating and mandating neoliberal prerogatives and priorities as “morality.” Protection from harm is just a cloak over all that.