One of the easiest ways to tell that one side is losing a debate — whether it’s about politics or anything else that’s grounded in the real world — is when they stop talking about specifics, and start talking about fantasy. Once you have to start relying on pure fiction to make your point, it’s usually a pretty good indicator that you don’t have much of a point to begin with. When feminists began citing “The Handmaid’s Tale” as a warning of what Donald Trump’s administration would look like, serious people understood that it wasn’t a clever analogy or a useful metaphor. It was desperation. It was a bit like citing “Shrek” as proof that we need to open the borders to creepy-looking outsiders. No one who’s attained even a basic level of maturity and competence would fall for this kind of thing.
Unfortunately, as we’ve all known for a while now, basic levels…
