A Time for Truth

 

            Many honorable people on the left and on the right have been fighting to oppose the creeping threat of critical social justice (a.ka. wokeism, hereinafter CSJ), the evil fruits of which have long been apparent. However, they are hampered by not seeing the root and true nature of the evil. I have been ruminating on this for some time and probably should have spoken earlier, but one does not like to think ill of others. However, the hour is late and it is a time for truth.

            First, look to the moral core of CSJ, an idea of social justice that is more than making the organs of the state just. This idea holds in essence that until all of the injustices of the past are corrected, a society is morally rotten. There are several problems with this which include that: not all past injustices are known, the effects of known injustices are often not clear, that this makes for an unending excuse for the ruling class to commit present injustices by state power in the name of social justice, etc.

But more importantly, look to its effects if taken seriously. To illustrate this point let me recall a counter argument I used to jokingly use when someone would start to talk about some historical injustice committed by Christians towards Muslims. “Ok, I admit that there have been historical injustices against Muslims, but when do we get Constantinople back?” If one was serious about social justice, that is what one would advocate for, that not only Constantinople, but the rest of Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, and the whole southern coast of the Mediterranean which were historically part of Christendom be turned over to Christians. Then having caused that disruption you would have to figure out how the Christians had got the land and undo that injustice, etc.    

In other words, the fundamental problem with social justice is that it is an essentially revanchist ideology that encourages the remembrance of past grievances and cheers on the righteous struggle to reverse them.

            Second, Critical Theory is a system for the reification of race, sex, etc. while denying they have physical reality. Of course, it is true that races and sexes really exist not only biologically but socially, but that does not mean that all members of a race or sex are the same or that their race or sex are the essence of their identity. But Critical theory argues that they are. They state that the essence of blackness, womanhood, and queerness are oppression and the essence of whiteness, manhood, and heterosexuality are oppression. CSJ argues that in fact the only reason for the existence of these categories is oppression and that though this arose spontaneously, its perpetuation is done with malice aforethought.

In other words, CSJ essentializes race, sex, orientation etc. and encourages hatred between these groups. That is to speak plainly, it encourages racism, sexism etc.

Third, virtually all intellectual advocates of CDJ are socialists, but a strange sort of socialists who want to coop managerial capitalism.

Fourth, because of its roots in social justice, the only reality that CSJ allows not to be deconstructed is the reality of oppression and suffering. The problem with this is that, it is horrible to teach that the only reality is suffering, it is bad for people’s phycology, it makes them less happy and more angry. An anger that is easily exploited for evil ends.

Fifth, it encourages a social policy of shaming of people on the basis of the categories it reifies. It encourages pride or shame on the basis of race. It uses essentially Maoist struggle sessions and two minutes of hate against those who are members of alleged “oppressor” categories. If this sounds familiar it is because these are totalitarian methods of social control used by fascists and communists alike.  

            Sixth, CSJ advocates openly advocate for state discrimination on the bases of race, sex, etc. While mild versions of this for limited periods may be acceptable for certain repertory purposes, it is clear that CSJ advocates mean for this to be a long-term project that will not end until all the injustices of the past real and imagined are cured. Whatever they may claim people like Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi are not anti-racists, nor are they as their compromising critics assert “reverse racists’ or neo racists, they are just plain racists.

            So, in sum, Critical Social Justice is a revanchist, racist, sexist, economically statist ideology that valorizes suffering, encourages public shaming on the basis of what it claims are immutable characteristics, uses totalitarian methods of social control and advocates for discrimination on the basis of race and sex. If this sounds alarmingly like fascism, that is because it is.

            Therefore, it is not surprising that for example, it has a pluralist epistemology. That is, CSJ holds that since that since suffering is the only true reality, that those who suffer have special knowledge closed to those who have not suffered. This is reminiscent of Nazis who spoke of different “logics” such as “British, Jewish, Middle Class Logic” versus “German Logic” etc.

            Likewise, it is no accident that CSJ, like fascism and revolutionary socialism, considers liberalism to be its most deadly enemy. This is because liberalism even when applied by flawed humans is based on the principal of individualism and reason which CSJ rejects as tools of oppression.  

            Further it is no accident that CSJ is opposed to free speech, after all if language is not a tool for communicating ideas that maybe evaluated by individuals in light of reason and evidence, but a tool of power by which false consciousness is foisted on the oppressed, then why not limit it to halt oppression. Weather that oppression is of the German “Volk” by the machinations of “Judo Bolshevism,” of the Working Class by the Capitalists, Kulaks etc., or of Gay Trans People of Color, by Cis Het White Males, is irrelevant. Once one has rejected reasoned debate as a means of settling differences, force is the only thing left.

            Similarly, like revolutionary socialists, who while keen on the benefits of industrialization, were unwilling to permit inquiry into topics that might undermine Marxism-Leninism, so to CSJ, is willing to refer to science when it seems to support their cause, as with implicit bias tests. But they ignore or suppress research that shows their premises are wrong. Again, this is not a case of opportunism, but a reflection of their belief that science is just another discourse of power. Therefore, free inquiry must in their view be suppressed when it conflicts with CSJ theory. 

            Likewise, CSJ is opposed to due process of law because in their view it is only a tool of oppression. After all, if as they claim our society is fundamentally corrupt, so to are its organs such as the courts and our eight-hundred-year-old tradition of growing due process of law. These are just shields that the privileged use to their benefit.

            Nor is it surprising that CSJ has serious antisemitism problem. If as CSJ insists, intelligence, wealth, etc. are all products of white supremacy, it follows that oppressed groups cannot display what society considers intelligence and success. But since Jewish people are clearly a historically oppressed group and do display high intelligence and wealth, their very existence is a threat to CSJ and it is no wonder that this triggers antisemitism among many of its devotees.

            Nor are Jewish people the only minority group, that does not fit the CSJ narrative. Both east and south Asians do not fit neatly into this idea. Nor are all or even most members of: ethnic minority groups, the female sex, gay folk or other minorities, support CSJ. In part this is explained away by CSJ as false consciousness. However, in other cases where the experience of an ethic group such as Asians too strongly contradicts CSJ, then they must impute bad motives to them. Just as the Soviet Communists called those poorer peasants who opposed the collectivization of agriculture “Kulak Henchmen”, so to CSJ has a derogatory term for those among “oppressed groups” who oppose them “White Adjacent.”

            It is time for us all to face the rather distressing fact that our universities have, partly unwittingly, incubated an ideology that has the essential features of fascism: revanchism, racism, sexism, statist economics, the valorization of suffering, and totalitarian methods of social control. This movement has many other characteristics of fascism: anti-liberalism, opposition to free speech and open inquiry, opposition to due process of the laws, antisemitism, and racial hierarchies.

            What is to be done about this dangerous ideology? The first thing to do is to name it. The purpose of concepts is to allow us to think clearly. As Churchill once said “euphemism, is a euphemism, for lie.” The hour is late and speaking in timid euphemism is the path to defeat. But we should not fall into the trap of adopting the tactics of our enemy.

            While fascism is a horrifying ideology, most of the proponents of CSJ don’t know that they are complicit in a fascist ideology and shaming is a method we should largely leave to our opponents. That is name CSJ as fascism but don’t shame it adherents.

We need to educate them to the degree possible, though their pluralist epistemology largely insulates them from critical thinking. However, the best way to try and educate them, is through public debate where were we can demonstrate the nature of CSJ to a wider audience.  

            While we should work to remove CSJ from our public schools and its use in anti-racism training, but we should not of course forbid its discussion. As I indicated above, it needs to be debated and can not stand up to rational debate.

            If you are in a position to influence whether a school or corporation uses CSJ training you need to take a stand.

            In sum, we need to as CSJ people say, “do the work,” first to educate ourselves in the way that our information flow is being manipulated by CSJ narratives and the true meaning of the ideology and second to be brave, stand up and speak the truth.