Justice and liberty aren't mutually exclusive. Indeed, free speech is required to lead us to the truth, where justice can be found.
Welcome to the first ever episode of TaraElla In-Depth. In this series, I want to do something a bit different. I want to talk about the really controversial stuff that comes with being a liberal these days, that deserves in-depth exploration.
I'm going to be blunt about why we need to do this. Firstly, many of the social justice causes that were long associated with liberalism have now been hijacked by criticalists, you know, the people practicing critical theory and postmodernism. They are largely responsible for the current cancel culture epidemic. Secondly, many commentators from the hardline part of the conservative side of the political spectrum have now taken up supporting free speech and opposing cancel culture, and in some cases, even exposing critical theory and postmodernism for the illogical and harmful things they are. However, they too often tie this with an inherently anti-social justice attitude, like they don't care enough about actual racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, or even worse, in some cases, actively perpetuate these attitudes. They are, at the same time, the loudest voices on opposing what I most fear right now, but they are also the people with the kind of politics I have opposed ever since my college days.
Let's start with this today. When I Say I'm A Feminist & Anti-Racist, I'm Serious. There's now this perception that, people who really care about free speech and really seriously oppose cancel culture, like myself, are somehow less serious about social justice. Well, not me, and I sometimes feel like I have to make this clear again and again. Indeed, it is because I care about social justice that I came to oppose criticalism in all its forms. I had decided that opposing criticalism should be a major priority, because criticalism is already causing harmful effects. It is causing LGBT acceptance to lose steam, LGBT rights to be potentially rolled back, and racial resentment to be mainstreamed. It's a shame that the cultural propaganda from criticalist activists have prevented many liberals from seeing the very real damage criticalism is doing to our causes, but because I see it very well, I can't pretend to not see it. Ultimately, I just can't not do everything I can about what I see as the forces most damaging to the causes I care about.
You know what? I'm against racism, sexism, homophobia, and any other form of discrimination. That's exactly why I can't support radical critical theory!
But with the Hardline Right also opposing criticalism at the same time, and them shouting much more loudly than us because they have more people and more money, opposing criticalism came to be confused with being hardline right-wing or at least sympathetic to them in recent years. As a result, it became harder and harder to be taken seriously as someone who was pro social justice and anti-criticalism. To be fair, the Right are doing the bulk of raising awareness about the harms of critical theory and postmodernism. I mean, there is currently a great podcast series on [how the Western criticalism we have now has been influenced by the thinking of] Gramsci, Marcuse, Crenshaw and more that is absolutely educational, that liberals would do well to listen to, as long as you ignore the parts that I would classify as Republican talking points (including, but not limited to, comments on various social justice movements, and foreign policy comments). Despite our political differences, I am a regular listener. The problem is that, not many of my fellow liberals are doing similar work, from a liberal perspective. I suspect it's because they were too invested with opposing Donald Trump in the past few years. I strongly dislike Trump too, but critical theory is clearly a bigger threat in the long run, because I think Trumpism is likely to die out in the not too distant future. Anyway, the problem with the Hardline Right being the dominant voice in anti-criticalism is that, some people reflexively associate any anti-criticalist person with Trump supporters, for example.
[update: I now think the aforementioned podcast is not so great after all, but the point remains].
Forget about choosing the Left or the Right. Both sides are really echo chambers with questionable morals. We should all be independent thinkers.
So I started opposing criticalism because it was harming social justice, and I hated to see that happen, but then, because I oppose criticalism and the Right is also doing it, some people began to see me as not serious about social justice. It's especially bad because there are plenty of people out there who would only pay lip service to being against racism for the sake of 'plausible deniability'. So what can I do now?
I will describe my journey through this dilemma, in which I swung from one side to another and possibly back to the middle. Or maybe I should say my style or aesthetic swung from one side to another, because my actual views did not change during this period. My initial reaction to being potentially lumped in with the Hard Right was to push back as much as possible. Back in 2016 and 2017, I would often say how much I hated Trump, and almost deliberately use lots of progressive-coded vocabulary in my work, so that I could tell the world I disagreed with the Hardline Right. But then, all that only made my work less accessible, and more confusing. I mean, if my goal is to oppose criticalism, then I probably shouldn't be using words and phrases made by criticalists, just to make myself sound more 'progressive'. Besides, I was becoming concerned that all the anti-Trump attitude was creating an us-vs-them dynamic, which was just going to encourage more criticalism. And then, I was sure there were quite a few liberals who had moved to the Trumpist Right, because of their frustration with the criticalist left. I came to believe we needed to win them back. So around 2018, my style swung hard to the other side, I tried to be extra inclusive of Trump supporters, to the point that I deliberately muted some of my criticism of Trump, which I do regret. I regret not speaking out more about Trump's deportations and family separations, for example. I believe those were really grave sins against humanity. This new prioritization alienated me from some progressives, and I strongly felt that my opinions on social justice issues were now being taken less seriously by other people who cared about this stuff. So we really had come full circle.
I think the whole of the Western world, and all of the politically minded people in it, have gone through a roller coaster ride in the past several years, and we are still making sense of it all. And I'm certainly still making sense of some parts of my recent journey. The pandemic has also allowed some moments for quiet reflection. And out of that reflection, I found a few new principles. Firstly, it is always unhelpful to engage in virtue signalling to prove a point. If we live by our conscience, it will shine through, and we should not care about the judgement of others in the short term. Indeed, nobody can satisfy the twitter mobs forever. Secondly, there is a way to be inclusive of everyone, to reach out and speak to those who disagree with you, yet still be yourself and not compromise your principles. I guess the important point is to not be angry or judgemental at those who disagree with you, and try to communicate with an open mind. Trust me, it will be appreciated and reciprocated, at least some of the time. Finally, in the midst of all this tribalism, culture wars, fake news, manufactured outrage, and so on, what one most needs are three things: bravery, independent thinking, and a clear moral compass.
With all that in mind, I hope to rebuild liberalism, as it was always meant to be. Progressive in an individualistic way. Principled, positive and not reactionary at all. And above all, a strong faith in objectivity, logical empiricism, and free speech.
