Contemporary “progressives” are very often infatuated with symbolic gestures as it relates to matters of personal identity: race, gender, sexual orientation and numerous other increasingly inscrutable demographic categories. For instance, expressing one’s “pronouns” is frequently a socially mandated rite of passage for entry into respectable “movement” circles. (Although to his credit, one of the few triumphs of the Sanders campaign was that he successfully fended off demands to clarify his pronouns, unlike several other candidates who made a great show of doing so, such as fellow “progressive” Elizabeth Warren. It always seemed rather doubtful that anyone was confused about whether Bernie Sanders identifies as a male.)