Legalists like certainty. Everything seems locked down tight. Everything is black and white.

Until it isn't.

Because legalism tends to elevate minutia to the level of supreme importance it is often a matter of time that thinking people figure out that minutia is minutia. And that leads to the question of whether or not the other once sacred things are actually important?

This is what makes legalism an easy onramp to progressivism.

On the surface you might think the two were a million miles apart but in my experience legalism often leads to progressivism because of the way things are set up in legalism and how quickly things begin to unravel with little distinction between the important and the trivial because that is how legalism set things up in the first place.

I am no longer surprised when my former legalist friends toss the whole project. It makes sense they would do that. Legalism is progressivism's best friend because legalism is a strong catalyst for progressive thinking.