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.
