I just noticed that I use the word "regressive" in this essay as the opposite of "progressive." Standard thesaurus fare, completely safe, no one could mark me wrong for that answer.

But in the very next sentence I use the word "aggressive" -- aha! Could it be from a different pov, one closer to my own perspective, that "aggressive" is the opposite of "progressive" and so when we get aggressive about the "progressive" agenda, we're contradicting our own efforts, perhaps even winding up regressive?

The neocon agenda obviously is the opposite of progressive, but it hadn't occurred to me before now that aggression in pursuit of it, might be part of what defines it as such?