Why I Left the Left and the Right #4: How To Move Forward | TaraElla Report Reset

Welcome to a new season of the TaraElla Report, which I will call TaraElla Report Reset. Today, I want to talk about what this season will be focused on, and why I'm calling it a reset. In today's episode, I will be going back through the history of this show, what I actually wanted out of it in the first place, what I learned in my journey so far, and what I want to do going forward.

Let's start by looking back. When I first started this project, this show, several years ago, what I wanted to do was to talk about ideas from different people and different factions of society. I wanted to be part of the ongoing cultural and political conversation in the Western world, which was at one of its most heated points in recent history. I was increasingly frustrated about the state of the conversation, with its polarization, division, but also conformity within echo chambers, acceptance of faulty reasoning on both sides, rise of what I consider extreme ideologies, and so on. I wanted to bring a better approach to the table.

Looking back, I was deeply frustrated with the changing dynamics of what could be broadly described as 'the left side of the spectrum', which I sort of thought I belonged to ever since my college days. Back when I was in first year of college, the Iraq War happened, and I didn't really like the politics of the pro-war neoconservatives, who were dominant in America and several other Western countries. I decided that, by comparison, 'the left', which was more war-skeptical overall, and which was not as opposed to things like gay marriage, was for me. So that remained my political identity for some time. We have to remember that, back then, many people weren't as clear about dividing it into the center-left, far-left, old-left, new-left etc. While there is an argument to be made about avoiding labels, in this case, these divisions are actually real and important, in the context of this story. The other things was, libertarians were also part of the anti-war coalition, and they were gravitating away from the Bush Republican Right because of that. They were also upset at the whole religious right thing, especially with Bush making gay marriage a big issue around 2004. Libertarians were increasingly raising the fact that they would have been on the left in the original French revolution sense. Some of them even voted for Kerry in 2004. So in my mind, libertarians were sort of left too. I know this might not make sense for many people today, but back then, it was how I saw it. So when I say I was 'in the left', what I probably meant was that I was effectively center-left plus libertarian fusion, which was probably quite common for young people back then.

Around 4 or 5 years ago, I became increasingly frustrated at how 'the left' was changing. There was a rapid increase in identity politics and a pro-conflict, us-vs-them orientation, and there was a rapid drop in respect for liberal norms like free speech, freedom of conscience and so on. There was also increasing hostility between those who considered themselves 'left', and those who considered themselves 'libertarian'. These things meant that, overall, the Left now felt like a collectivist, group over individual, zero-sum political faction, that was also driven by theoretical concerns rather than practical needs. You know that famous Dave Rubin video 'Why I Left the Left', it might be cliche and unfair in places, but I was increasingly feeling like the Left was like that, and it definitely wasn't what I signed up for back in college. Knowing a bit of political history, it felt like time had gone into reverse, and we were back in the nightmare of the late 1960s and 70s. I thought society had grown up and moved beyond that unproductive era, but no, we were back there again.

Anyway, some people were also voicing the discomfort I had, with the changes I was seeing. These included both people I consider moderately liberal like Amy Chua and Jonathan Haidt, as well as moderate conservatives like Jordan Peterson and several of the new crop of political YouTubers. I was probably closer to the liberal camp rather than the conservative camp, but what I saw was that, if we could work together, we would be able to effectively push back and restore the sanity. So I decided to see if I could bring the ideas and arguments from the two sides together, to try and find some common ground. This is why, early on, this show was called Daily Centrist. I was trying to act as the 'centrist', to bring the ideas and frustrations of the two sides together, to find common ground on which we could move forward.

By around 2019, however, the political landscape had further fractured, and now I could see that there were at least six or seven big factions along the political spectrum, or rather, the political map, because it clearly had more than one dimension. I stopped calling myself a 'centrist' because that term became less meaningful with this new development. Instead of just looking to find common ground among two factions, I expanded to try and find common ground between multiple factions, which both overlapped and conflicted depending on the issue we were talking about. Old school 'two big coalitions' politics was breaking down almost completely, and as a Moral Libertarian who believes in independent thinking, I loved it. I became particularly interested in the people who tried to bridge the newly formed factions, like I was doing. I was convinced that this was the politics of the future. Decentralized, spontaneous, flexible in its alliances, and so on.

And then, 2020 came. The end of the Democratic primaries meant that American politics settled firmly back into two big camps, and much of the rest of the Western world followed suit. Biden's history of bipartisanship initially gave me hope that he would evolve into one of those people who wanted to bridge the divides, but so far, I've not seen any indication that he wants to move that way. Maybe, with the base he now has, he couldn't do it even if he wanted to. Meanwhile, a new wave of social movements served to further the popularization of things like cancel culture. Even a letter supporting free speech, signed by prominent left-wing intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, got attacked by the new wave of cultural warriors. On the other side, the Trump campaign also happily encouraged polarization over these events, for its own political purposes. Of course, the culture wars also mean that nothing is being done about the important issues, like the dwindling prospects for young people, the rise of automation, the health of families and the social fabric, housing affordability, and so on. Let's face it: 2020 was a big disappointment, a major setback for people with priorities like myself.

So, where do we go next? I have spent much of 2021 so far quite directionless, not knowing what exactly to do, to be honest. The cultural and political landscape looks pretty much like a war torn wasteland these days, to be honest. But what I have learned is that, there is hope in ideas, and there is hope in conversations. This is why, going forward, I will be exploring interesting ideas across the political spectrum once again. Through ideas and conversations, we can once again get inspired, find common ground, and find the will to work together on practical issues again. In particular, through exploring diverse ideas, I hope to help build a new politics that is progressive, in the sense of forward looking, but also not tied to the dogma of the so-called theories coming from the Left or the Right. I will talk about that more next time.

That's all for today. I'll be back next time to discuss another big idea. Remember, on this show, the personalities don't matter, it's the ideas that matter. Interest in an individual's ideas does not mean support for all their other ideas. Until next time, remember to resist conformity and stay positive. Our future depends on it.

Liberals, Conservatives, Socialists, Whatever, We Need To Work Together | TPWR by TaraElla S9

Today, I want to talk about how we can co-operate to achieve good outcomes, by overcoming the divisions caused by labels and echo chambers. Let's start here. I have often said that my work is a classical liberal project. How does this label define me, how does it limit me? Does this mean I should only cooperate with people who identify as classical liberals? Of course not. Back in 2019, for example, I provided a positive overview of some of Bernie's stances, and I said those were good ideas, despite not being a Leftist myself. On the other hand, I have often disagreed with other people who identify as 'classical liberals', on numerous things. As you can see, labels don't mean everything, and we shouldn't be constrained by preconceptions of labels.

One thing to understand is that, labels are only useful as far as they describe a worldview, values or something similarly concrete. Otherwise it becomes just another form of identity politics. For me, classical liberalism is about sticking to the spirit of liberalism, as it was originally conceived. I believe that liberalism is ultimately rooted in two things that came out of the Enlightenment: freedom of religion, and a commitment to objective scientific truth as demonstrated by empirical evidence. For the purpose of the 21st century, a time where many people are not religious, I believe that freedom of religion needs to be expanded into a more general freedom of moral belief and commitment, which I have formulated as the Moral Libertarian principle of Equal Moral Agency for all individuals. On the other hand, the commitment to scientific truth and empirical evidence has served us well for several centuries, and there is no reason to abandon or change it at all. The reason I call my liberalism 'classical liberalism' is because, in contemporary Western politics, 'liberal' often means something else, i.e. the political coalition of the mainstream Left, which unfortunately includes elements of postmodernism and critical theory, worldviews that are fundamentally opposed to the twin values of moral freedom and objective truth. My use of 'classical liberalism' is therefore necessary to denote my commitment to liberalism as it originally meant, and my opposition to postmodernized so-called liberalism.

As you can see, my identity as a 'classical liberal' is clearly tied to two overriding values, and it means something concrete. It is not an identity for identity's sake. Rather, it is a shorthand for something meaningful. Logically, this would mean that I should be able to find common ground with people who are doing things in line with these two ideals, no matter what label they go by. And over the years, I have been able to find common ground with plenty of such people across the political spectrum.

Right now, there are indeed many things that need attention in Western societies, and we can only resolve them if we try to find common ground with other people, to formulate a consensus approach. Economic changes are leaving many people behind, and I fear the erosion of equal opportunity would have adverse effects on moral freedom for individuals. As corporations gain immense power, they become more and more able to restrict the moral freedom of individuals. Meanwhile, automation threatens to eliminate many existing jobs over the coming years, making the problem much worse. I believe the reason why there still aren't good solutions to these problems, is because too many people across the political spectrum are still holding tight to economic and political theories developed in the 19th century. We don't live in an industrial economy anymore, and 19th century dogma isn't going to save the 21st century West. Instead, we need to come together, and come up with something new.

Another big problem is, even as the War in Afghanistan has just ended, the elites are still trying to drag us into cycles of endless wars and international conflict. They can't seem to get rid of the pro-war mentality they got addicted to during the Cold War, which actually ended 30 years ago! Wars always mean massive losses in human lives, and it is a moral imperative for many of us to put an end to the forever wars. When we say we want to see world peace in our lifetime, we mean it, and we will do anything necessary to achieve it. I believe we need to come together, regardless of our otherwise philosophical differences, to stare down the elites who want to create global conflict over and over again. Enough is enough. We can never let the elites get away with forgetting the tragic disasters that were the Vietnam war, the Iraq war and now the Afghanistan war. And the only way we can do that is to find common ground, and stand together against the pro-war elites.

A Social Justice Critique of Postmodernism, from a Psychological Perspective | TPWR by TaraElla S9

Today, I want to talk about how postmodern critical theory weighs people, especially members of marginalized minorities, down, and makes us less successful in life.

Let's start here. Back in the 1950s, the psychologist Julian B. Rotter developed the idea that people could be placed on a spectrum of having an internal locus of control on one end, vs an external locus of control on the other end. People with an internal locus of control believed that they were in control of, and responsible for, the successes or failures in their lives, and Rotter observed that they had high achievement motivation. This, of course, is an essential ingredient for success in life, as well as a key factor in psychological health. This is why, if we want to be successful, we should aim to orientate ourselves to have an internal locus of control.

However, postmodern critical theories teach women and various minorities, including ethnic minorities and LGBT people alike, that their fate is being determined by an oppressive system that won't let them succeed. Therefore, postmodern criticalism is effectively encouraging them to develop an external locus of control, which is both bad for their mental health and also makes them less likely to be successful in life. I therefore sometimes argue that these theories are actually more effective at oppressing minorities, than anything else out there.

Similarly, another 20th century psychologist Abraham Maslow, most famous for his 'Maslow's hierarchy of needs', observed that self-actualizing individuals, people who were able to reach the highest level on his pyramid model of development, shared several important characteristics. Among them was being grounded in reality and being committed to the truth, things that are actively discouraged by postmodernism. Self-actualizing people were also spontaneous, creative, and not rigidly bound by social conventions, the opposite of what postmodern criticalism would impose on us in the form of making everything problematic, telling us to 'check our privilege' all the time, and forcing a whole new and unnatural way of speaking and relating onto all of us because they believe that language shapes reality. In other words, postmodern criticalism actively prevents us from reaching our full development according to the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which means that it is literally regressive!