Dreher’s Law of Merited Impossibility is, “It will never happen, and when it does, you bigots will deserve it.”

The idea is that when the progressives propose some social reform, traditionalists will infer their own future persecution at the hands of the progressives as the clear and obvious logical implication of the new moral and legal principles that would be established, and then use the example of that undesirable consequence as an argument against implementing the reform.

Instead of assuaging such concerns by credibly committing to forswear such possibilities – for example, by explicitly prohibiting them in the law, or perhaps by some creative maneuver like placing huge public bets against the prospect – progressives instead prefer to deploy an alternative strategy by saying that traditionalists are either lying to cover up their bigotry and/or being literally crazy, hysterical, and paranoid about what ‘everybody knows’ will never come to pass.

And then, when all that was predicted in fact comes to pass, and usually in just the blink of an eye, the progressives not only refuse to admit they were deceitful or even just innocently wrong, but say that of course it should be this way, because it’s a clear and obvious logical implication of a (now sacred and established) moral principle!

Since this keeps happening the same way, over and over again, in practical terms, Dreher’s Law translates as, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, or a thousand times in a row, shame on me. So don’t trust ’em. They’ll ask for an inch, but when you give it to them, they’ll take a mile, call it just, and still ask for more and more again. Insist on rock solid assurances, or fight them to the end.”

We can observe this pattern in a more general way, without the persecution, but with unintended social consequences. When traditionalists and social conservatives predict a parade of social horribles and cultural undermining or moral collapse as a result of new policies, subsidies, and norms, the progressives will insist that’s exaggerated crazy talk that will never happen, and then when it does, say it’s a good thing, after all.

[from friend of the JG Handle]

When all the predicted bad stuff happens, they will also call you a bigot for pointing out the bad stuff that happened. And simultaneously claim that it would be even worse if it weren’t for their policy. “Imagine how bad the flooding would be if we hadn’t blown up the dam!”