Finding common ground in passion for justice, while rejecting critical anarchism
The past decade has been a truly insane time in Western politics. The culture wars have heated up like never before, and divisive and toxic ideas have been introduced into the mainstream from both sides. Those of us who continue to believe in classical liberal values like free speech and individual freedom have had to defend these values in an extraordinarily bold way, given that they were (and still are) under extraordinary threat. However, what I don't want to be lost in all this are other priorities in the big picture, such as the need to make society better and more just for disadvantaged minorities.
Let me say this first of all: I actually appreciate the passion those on the left have for improving society, and especially for making it more just for disadvantaged and historically oppressed minorities. Like many of you, I'm strongly passionate about what's right and wrong, and what's fair and just. For the record, I was an ardent opponent of the Iraq War and supporter of gay marriage since 2003, well before either stance was popular to take. I have long had concerns about the racism I see in some parts of society, as well as its denial by some people. I want to see society do better, and the people living in it happier.
The main issue I have with 'the left' these days, broadly speaking, is the pervasive influence of postmodern critical theory. While there are indeed some on the left who continue to resist this ideology, including most prominently those old school class-first leftists, it remains the case that this ideology is almost everywhere on the activist left (as opposed to e.g. the establishment Democratic Party, which is still quite traditional overall). And it's not just my view: over the past few years, I have seen at least a handful of articles admitting that free speech is not a very popular position to take in the activist left nowadays, all written by committed leftists. Perhaps it's due to the fact that those who disagree haven't pushed back enough. If this is the case, then I think they should bravely speak up.
If reasonable progressives who still believe in old-school reformism want to put forward proposals for reforms, in the liberal tradition that gave us things like universal suffrage and marriage equality, then I really want to hear about it. I am still eagerly interested in society making progress for justice and inclusion, in the old-school liberal way. I just don't believe in a language-obsessed and deconstructionist culture war politics rooted in the ideas of thinkers like Foucault and Marcuse, or an anarchist-adjacent politics supporting things like defund the police.
As I have often said, postmodern critical theory is not the key to social justice. Indeed, I believe that it is the enemy of true justice (and freedom). It is rooted not in the desire for justice, or the desire to make things better for oppressed minorities, but the desire for a social revolution (with or without political revolution) that would fundamentally dismantle the values of the Enlightenment. Taken to its logical conclusion, I would call it 'critical anarchism', because it is effectively a process of challenging and replacing liberal values with ultra-anarchist values. Therefore, I believe that postmodern activists are effectively using embattled minorities as a battering ram to bring down society as we know it, in an attempt to usher in their ultra-anarchist utopia. Not only do most minorities don't want anarchism at all, history tells us such an unnecessary revolution would not bring good results. The upheaval and backlash alone would be very harmful to already embattled minorities. I think every would-be postmodern revolutionary needs to consider the harm they are potentially (directly or indirectly) inflicting on such minorities, and if a would-be revolutionary actually did so, they might just pull back from their revolutionary position. History has also taught us that life for minorities can be improved through a process of gradual reformism instead, and there is no reason to believe that this tradition can't continue going forward.
For example, the gay marriage equality movement was able to achieve a lot in a relatively short amount of time, and continues to be a good template for other rights movements going forward. The appeal to liberty, equality before the law and family values has led to not only the legalization of gay marriage in almost every Western country within less than two decades, it also led to greatly increased acceptance of same-sex relationships. This should be a textbook example of how good activism is done. The fact that some LGBT activists have abandoned this model in favor of queer theory-inspired madness still baffles me. The only explanation I can find is intoxication by philosophical theories posing as reality. Therefore, I believe that what we need to do is to put an end to this kind of brainwashing, by fundamentally challenging these unsound theories at their very root.
It is for this reason that I have strongly opposed critical race theory (CRT) in the past few years. The fact that some right-wing culture warriors have also made it a political football is not something I can control, and I never had any intention of echoing what they say. I have also spoken multiple times about their dishonest and authoritarian intentions in playing this political football. The way I see it is that many on the right, from Donald Trump to Ron DeSantis to Christopher Rufo, simply have a muddied understanding of what CRT is, but they don't even care. All they want to do is to use it as a political football. It's similar to how DeSantis likes to use the word 'woke' in a deliberately vague way all the time. As someone who wants to have a philosophical discussion, I am actually very angry about this development. However, I can't just not speak up about CRT and let people in the center and the left think that it is a good thing. It's not. It's not a good thing just because the bad guys hate it. This is a logical fallacy we must not fall for. CRT is a bad thing because it is ultimately a form of postmodern critical theory, and it is being used to advance critical anarchism into the mainstream. It needs to be resisted for this reason. I am not aiding the right-wing culture warriors just for saying this truth, and I really don't appreciate some on the left who accuse me of doing this. Especially when I have been taking a strong stance against right-wing culture warriorism all the time too.
To be honest, I am indeed very sick and tired of some on the left who keep accusing me of being on the same team as right-wing culture warriors like Trump, DeSantis and Rufo just because I oppose postmodern critical theory, including critical race theory and queer theory. I am fundamentally opposed to culture warriorism no matter if it is from the left or the right. I see right-wing culture warriors attempting to recruit those in my position to their team all the time, and I have resisted joining them for many years now. But I would indeed advise well-meaning progressives to drop the postmodernism, because it is how the reactionary right is picking up support at the moment.
If we could get behind a liberal reformist agenda again, I think we could make social justice not divisive again. This means we could achieve a better, broader consensus for much needed reforms. I truly hope we can embark on the long road of reformism again, and just forget that the past ten years of madness even happened at all.
