There remains a slice of the liberal populace that simply cannot accept the idea that any given human relationship might be healthy, mutually beneficial, and consensual among all parties…. And the question is… why? For whose benefit? Why does this 21st-century progressive impulse to seek out victims where none can be found persist?
I don’t pay for deBoer’s Substack, can’t read the rest of the post, and won’t buy his book: there are so many books I’d like to read, and this will never make the cut. I already know the answer: it’s because they have adopted unconsciously the philosophy of capitalism, which is that to be of value a thing must be of use. Hence what used to be called a “relationship” between two people is comprehensible only as a two-way use case in which justice demands that inputs and outputs be made to balance. When the Bible says that love of money is the root of all evil, that is what it means.
If that’s what deBoer means to go on to say, good for him, but the bigger question is, what are you going to do about it? Because this is not a disease that will be cured by attacking the symptoms.