On John Locke... and drag queens

A too-convenient punching bag

Locke is a convenient target for many post liberals looking for a founding demon to explain today’s misfortunes, such as drag queen story hour. But that demonization often requires removing him from his actual historical context, alongside Shaftesbury and the struggle against royalist autocracy in the late 1600s. Do Locke’s critics wish his ideas had been defeated, with royalism both civil and ecclesiastical prevailing, amid rights and liberties smothered by an all-powerful crown? If so, they should say so. Sometimes Pharaoh’s Egypt, however cruel, seems safer than any promised land.

— Mark Tooley, “John Locke, Shaftesbury & Drag Queens,” Providence, July 23, 2023