One thing that frustrates me about the age we live in is the dogged insistence on the supremacy of personal taste. It is an argument for stagnation and/or decline. I get that previous generations tried to pigeon-hole everyone based on the circumstances of their birth, or superficial characteristics into overly rigid social roles and absolutely agree that the freedom to self-determination and freedom from abuse or oppression is very important for everyone, but I'm not entirely sure we needed to run away from conflict entirely.
"Let people enjoy things" is the spirit of the age, but it also leads directly into anti-vax lunacy or delusional beliefs in deep state conspiracies if we're not careful. And looking around at the state of things, I'm not sure we can say we've been careful, exactly. You can see it in the way people can't have their entertainment choices questioned, or their personal beliefs stemming from infotainment telling them horse paste is a better medical therapy choice than a vaccine.
The good and righteous rebellion against biology or the circumstances of one's birth as destiny has been smoothly and utterly co-opted by consumerism, to our collective detriment. We came out of the closet and into the streets and right into Walmart. It is no longer a matter of reason and evidence, experience and study, it is simply a matter of marketing demographics and the products tailored to meet their needs, sold with flattery that matches their biases and confirms their prior beliefs. Every product is good, it's just that some are not for you. If you are a purveyor of fine products this is surely a golden age, but for the rest of us the results seem, ah, mixed.
In order for this to work, it must be true that it is simply too hard to determine matters of fact or craft. Everyone has a right to their opinion, so who is to say whose is ever correct? We are! We have the tools to establish standards, collect evidence, establish chains of evidence, admit error, and correct course as necessary. The fact that these processes have been historically abused by sexists and egotists and all kinds of other ists does not mean they are also not some of the most powerful tools we've ever developed to shape our societies, ourselves, and our future.
We can critique and reason well, with empathy and a priority on human dignity, even if that means disagreeing with someone's taste, or choices, or realizing we were embarrassingly wrong, or any other number of frankly uncomfortable situations. And while I wouldn't say all discomfort leads to growth, I would say you rarely grow without discomfort. With that in mind, a society dedicated to eliminating discomfort in the name of maximizing sales and personal freedom should have alarm klaxons blaring in our collecting consciousness.
I'm not proposing a regression to mean-spirited rationalizations for how things have to be out of some misguided nostalgia for past glories that never were, but I AM suggesting we are capable of distinguishing being mean for the sake of being mean, and pointed, well-reasoned critiques that hurt our feelings, or even well-reasoned critiques from an irritating source. Our parents and grandparents were frequently jerks that fetishized dealing out and surviving discomfort to the point of actual trauma, but the right kind of discomfort leads to stronger ideas, stronger minds, and stronger bodies and therefore we should be wary of arguments that emphasize comfort over growth just as much as we should be wary of arguments that glorify misery in the name of growth.
