Wow. You make a lot of rules to be a progressive.

@dan325 I said "people who like to define themselves as progressive", as distinguished from socialists; e.g. among their leaders certain newbie Democrats who do favour certain terrorists (Hamas, Hezbollah...) over Israeli ones and have very little time for the stereotype of old white men (possibly excepting the ever-indulgent Bernie, who seems to bend over backwards for them). The characteristics cited were intended as guideline tendencies, the possession of which would get you into the progressives club no questions asked.

@dan325 You seriously haven't been paying attention if you don't know the stereotype -- treated as a blood-oath truism in Progressive circles -- about "old white men ruling the world", or that the Palestinian politicians are "the good ones" even though they use their people as human shields. Ask any journalist who's been there. I'm absolutely certain there are many men (and women) on this site who have been loaded up with guilt for things they've never done, and call themselves progressive out of a sense of atonement when they should have stayed socialists or social democrats. You hang out around self-proclaimed "progressives" as long as I have -- or have you ever? -- you'll find out there's an entire package of beliefs expected of you so you're on the "right side". Why do you think the word they choose is "progressive" rather than, say, socialist or social democrat -- because maybe they think there is just one straight and narrow path to an inevitable, narrowly defined end point they call progress? Me, I prefer to think for myself issue by issue.

Like most things in life, I can only make general statements on how to approach things. Cooperation is a life choice and preferred option. It is not an ideology that must be followed regardless of the consequences.

@Krish55 Totally disagree. Red of tooth and claw applies to all life including ours. It's easy to deny this when things are fairly easy and comfortable but look around in the world and see what is actually happening. In parts of the world children are being enlisted in military and often have to kill their parents, siblings or friends. There have been many times in history when things were so bad that parents ate their own children. During the hunting/gathering stage of humans people understood the need to keep the population stable as the resource base could only support only so many. Infanticide was a common occurrence. We humans are not some special, blessed species who control nature and are the center of the world. That idea should have gone out when we realized there is no god.