That's an astute question. No, I don't think progressive morality and politics are entirely wrongheaded or futile. But I think progressives should look for another metanarrative to justify and to moderate their endeavours. In my writings I try to provide that alternative metanarrative by turning to existentialism, cosmicism, and pantheism.
Foucault gives us only a nihilistic reading of Nietzsche, which is the opposite of what's needed for progressive projects, since Nietzsche's will to power narrative lends itself to social Darwinism, which is the essence of conservatism (the opposite of progressivism).
I wouldn't say the current, politically-correct kind of American progressivism is a matter of tactics either. I think it arises from a kneejerk hyperfeminine reaction to the hypermasculinity (sociopathy) of the authoritarian, Trumpian Republican side. These are the yin and yang of the culture war. There's no conscious selection of tactics, or if there is, those choices rationalize the expressions of the different sorts of characters that arise in such a neoliberal, infantilizing setting.
