WE'LL MISS BOURGEOIS NORMS EVENTUALLY.

Bulwark contributor Christian Schneider notes what they're supposed to do.

Society has its unwritten rules, too, of course—mores, etiquette, manners, taboos, and other conventions. They are the cartilage between the bones of law and government that allow us to function freely without our every daily interaction becoming fodder for lawyers and lawmakers. And like baseball’s unwritten rules, they have their critics—commentators who consider them relics of the past, where obstinate (white) men handed down guidelines for everyone else to follow. Sticking with the unwritten rules today, the critics often suggest, slows social progress.

But consider the disastrous effects when citizens grow hostile to society’s unwritten rules. Comedians are attacked onstage for telling jokes. Supreme Court decisions are leaked in an apparent effort to pressure justices to either change their vote or hold firm on their position. Regular citizens are mocked and pilloried for their decision to continue to wear masks after the COVID-19 threat has largely subsided.

The sports references are to some recent manifestations of toxic gym culture in baseball.  "It's the absence of bourgeois norms, including the shunning of loud and obnoxious people, that enables the status displays that draw the tag of 'toxic.'"  Well, "toxic" might not be the right word.  I like nyekulturny as a characterization of bunting in a non-sacrifice situation, or stealing a base, late in the game with a big lead.

The column, though, is not a lament about the Baseball Traditions We've Lost.

Many of our other cultural battles of the moment also involve the breakdown in unwritten rules.

In the past, for instance, there was a reticence by America’s educators to inject classroom instruction with their own political ideology or cultural preferences. But a new brand of teacher seems to believe the minds of the children in their care belong to them—not the parents who pay their salaries and suspect their children are more suited to a future career in biochemical engineering than they are teaching gender studies at Williams College.

Seeing this breakdown of norms, legislatures such as the one in Florida are responding with a breakdown of norms of their own, injecting itself into classroom instruction and teacher-student interactions in a way it never has before. Florida isn’t alone; across America, bill drafters are up late crafting new laws to micromanage political topics in classrooms, from discussion of gender fluidity to lessons about systemic racism.

That's what you get when you commit the category error of treating human constructions as malleable.  "I defend the evolutionary advantage of bourgeois norms so frequently a reader might think I get paid by the mention. (I don't. Listen up anyway.)"

If you thought bourgeois conventions were oppressive, enjoy life under the new dispensation.

Such are the new rules in the war of everyone versus everyone. No longer is grace an option. Accepting apologies is a sign of weakness. Offering a mea culpa yourself only opens you up to further attacks.

This is where the idea that we should kick people when they’re down—let’s call it the “Wilbon thesis”—falls apart. It goes without saying that the Padres were trying very hard not to be down by nine runs, but then they found themselves in such a hopeless situation. The only issue at that point is how the opponent reacts to being so far ahead. Will they show sportsmanship and win graciously? Or will they keep trying to pour it on and humiliate their opponent?

If you are a combatant in today’s culture, the answer is clear. No mercy, no apologies. No decency.

It's all in the name of equity, isn't it? People who say the wrong thing do not deserve a platform.  Never mind that the determination of right or wrong is, under the new dispensation, also culturally contingent, socially constructed, and subject to change without notice.