Progressive Ideology and Cultural Narcissism Drive the Rise of Adult-Child Estrangement from Parents
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "The No-Contact Epidemic Sweeping America | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." October 16, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that more and more adult children are cutting off their parents because of cultural trends: progressive ideas that downplay family duty, a habit of cutting off people with different politics, a stretched-out idea of trauma, online influencers who always side with the child, and a broader culture of self-focus. She thinks parents share some blame, but that most of it falls on young people who put their own feelings first.
Conclusion
The rising epidemic of family estrangement, especially adult children cutting off their parents, is mainly the product of a set of cultural and ideological trends (chiefly progressive ideas and cultural narcissism), with most of the blame resting on adult children, though parents are not entirely blameless.
Premises
- A Cornell study found that 27 percent of Americans are estranged from a close relative, and adult children cutting off parents is increasingly common.
- Progressive ideology 'demythologizes' the family by treating special obligations to family as a cover for oppression and toxicity, which encourages people to put themselves first and discard obligations to parents.
- Identity politics promotes 'social hygiene': judging people's character by political tribe and having low tolerance for differing convictions leads young progressives to cut off conservative parents.
- The definition of trauma has been broadened so that ordinary parental failings are reinterpreted, by therapists and social media, as childhood harm that justifies estrangement.
- Social media influencers promote an 'infallibility narrative' in which adult children who cut off parents are always affirmed and parental pushback is treated as proof of toxicity.
- Cultural narcissism, evidenced by rising narcissistic and neurotic traits since 1979 and by normalized divorce, has made people of all ages more self-focused, but young people's tendency to prioritize their own feelings above everyone else is the most pressing problem.
Assumptions
- Mering's diagnostic framework correctly identifies the causes of estrangement, and these five conditions explain most cases rather than a minority.
- Correlation between rising narcissistic traits or progressive ideas and rising estrangement reflects causation.
- In most estrangements, parents' failings are ordinary and not serious enough to justify cutting off contact.
- Estrangement is generally harmful and a sign of cultural pathology rather than a justified response in many cases.
- Social media and therapy culture's messaging actually influences individuals' decisions to estrange.
- Anecdotal impressions (the brunch, the grandmother's tone) are reasonably representative of broader trends.