Liberalism vs. SJW's (are we still talking about this??)

 


This is a response to a long-ago post on Camels With Hammers on Patheos Nonreligious, which no longer exists.  "Camels" posted a piece with the jaw-breaking title of "I Stand with Liberalism against the Critical Theory Domination of the Social Justice Movement."  Unfortunately, I can't find the original material, so here's what I've got left: a nice bit of food for thought.

👨 on SJM: "From my outsider point view (I live in Europe, and American-style "SJW" movements are far less prevalent here), I can see three fundamental problems with the "SJW" approach (practical if not theoretical):

"1. Careless, one-size-fits-all attitude towards opponents: "calling out" a leading politician is way different from targeting a confused, maybe uneducated and surely angry supporter of his - the former has power, the latter has none; the former has an agenda, the latter probably has none. But treating both the apex and the base of the other side in the same way is dishonest, dehumanizing, and it is the best way to make sure the latter keeps clinging to the former

"2. Factionalism: embracing one's identity (be it ethnic or sexual or whatever) can be a powerful source of political thought and action, but when labels become more important than shared goals, no progress can be made - I mean, are you really ready to wasting time and energy on arguing with me just because I'm not totally embracing (not embracing, mind you, not opposing) your view on some obscure categorization of sexual orientation?

"3. Manichaeism: the most extreme but logical consequence of point #2 - whenever dogma prevails whoever isn't 99% on board is conflated with the enemy, no matter how trivial that missing 1% might be: but this is a great way to make tons of potential, good-willing allies feel disenfranchised, or worse."

Posted by Jennifer A. Nolan


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