Doing sociology and philosophy in real time by looking at developments in contemporary Western politics and culture, from a Moral Libertarian perspective. My mission is to stop the authoritarian 'populist' right and the cultural-systemist left from destroying the West.
You know, I have long considered myself a moderate who shares plenty of concerns from both the left and the right. However, after listening to 'The Leftist Checklist' by conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, I have learned that I apparently don't share anything with anyone left of center nowadays. I never knew that my political beliefs were that much in clear opposition to everyone on the left. I never knew I was so staunchly right wing, even though I am a fan of Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard. I don't know how that could be possible, but thanks Allie, for teaching me something new.
Sarcasm aside, I think this latest so-called checklist from Stuckey is symptomatic of something I have come to be concerned about: that some conservative commentators are more interested in associating the most extreme and problematic ideas from the left with their political rivals, than actually creating a meaningful conversation to restore classical liberal values. According to the checklist, which Stuckey says is now taking over anyone left of center, everyone on the left these days believe in the following: 1) the oppression olympics based on some vaguely defined intersectional theory; 2) oppressed minorities should be entited to special treatment; 3) gender is a social construct; 4) we should decry toxic masculinity all the time; 5) a biological male can be a biological female; 6) legally forcing others to celebrate LGBT; 7) perpetuating white guilt; 8) America is inherently racist; 9) the wealthy should be hated because they stepped on others to get their money; 10) open borders; and finally, America should become communist. Needless to say, I scored 0/11, so according to Stuckey, I have nothing whatsoever in common with anyone left of center. But then, I guess people like Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Biden, and even Bernie Sanders would be right-wing too under Stuckey's rules, because they certainly wouldn't score full marks for that list! I mean, remember how much Bernie hates open borders, for example? In fact, college campuses are probably the only place where you'd find anyone who scored full marks for that list.
While Stuckey's list contained quite a few important problems, along with a few strawmen of course, I got the feeling that she was more interested in painting an unflattering picture of her political opponents, rather than examining why we have these problems in the first place. I mean, the oppression olympics, unfair treatment based on identity, social constructionism, conflict theory inspired feminism, an negatively biased view of American and Western history, and so on are all incompatible with the classical liberal values the modern West was founded upon. I believe we need to be able to use our rational reasoning, and our understanding of the various critical theories, conflict theories and postmodern theories that have led to those problematic views, to bring the cultural consensus away from those ideas and back to the classical liberal values of individual liberty, colorblindness, equality before the law and so on. But I didn't see any of that happening in Stuckey's video. Instead, from what I can see, she is essentially enjoying the problem, because it gives her ammunition to paint Democrats as crazy, which would serve both to unite her right-leaning audience and to attack their common enemies. And this certainly isn't the first time I have been concerned about this behavior from some commentators on the right. Instead of drawing attention to these problems and inviting a broad-based response, these commentators seem to want to turn these problems into a meme that they can unite their own tribe behind, or else a stick they can beat the other tribe with.
The erosion of certain classical liberal values in the West is a real problem, and one that can only be resolved with broad-based discussion and understanding. Turning it into yet another tribal game is not only wrong, it serves to delay important and long overdue cross-party discussions that are required to solve the problem at hand. The classical liberal heritage of the West is way too important to be used as a political football.
