This post will inevitably draw the ire of many, particularly in my circle of friends and acquaintances. However, if they take the time to read this through, perhaps we can find some common ground.
Recently, Milo Yiannopoulos was permanently banned from Twitter for allegedly instigating a terribly prejudiced and insensitive attack on actress Leslie Jones. I happen to agree with the ban, although I generally support Milo's role as a provocateur (for philosophical reasons touched on in my three previous posts). So how is it that I could support Yiannopoulos, while still maintaining my particular, fairly-Left ideologies?
Well, it goes something like this: The pejorative term "social justice warrior" has a basis in reality. Although it is sometimes misused, it does describe a real phenomenon and a real breakdown in the structure of progressive politics. In fact, I completely attribute the recent uptick in far Right, alt-right, ethnopluralist ideology to the rise of SJWs. And that isn't to say that those ideologies are inherently bad all the time; I just mean to say that they aren't necessarily the most enlightened ways of looking at things.
When Yiannopoulos engages ardent feminists in debate, for example, he exposes something that is emblematic of many on the Left who were swept up into their causes without sufficient research or investigation, and that is that so, so many of us became involved in "causes" on emotional grounds. So many on the Left do not question the information that they are given, nor do they have any foundation in why they do what they do. Therefore, when Milo confronts them with conflicting information about the wage gap, they do not have factual rebuttals for their positions (that, for example, women show less income for a myriad of social reasons that do NOT include discrimination). They do not counter him with facts, or address his information with anything approaching an explanation. They simply shout "sexist!" or "bigot!", or chain themselves to doors in hysterics, or use air horns to drown out his voice. This does nothing but push the overwhelming young, white, and perceptively "disenfranchised" alt-right further and further away.
His role as a provocateur exposes the Left and progressives for all the bad things that it has become. It shows in stark detail that all the circle-jerking accomplished nothing. We have a huge cultural divide right now, the largest that I ever recall in my lifetime, because people on the Left (with whom I would most accurately identify) can't calmly handle their affairs when faced with alternative points-of-view.
Recently, Milo Yiannopoulos was permanently banned from Twitter for allegedly instigating a terribly prejudiced and insensitive attack on actress Leslie Jones. I happen to agree with the ban, although I generally support Milo's role as a provocateur (for philosophical reasons touched on in my three previous posts). So how is it that I could support Yiannopoulos, while still maintaining my particular, fairly-Left ideologies?
Well, it goes something like this: The pejorative term "social justice warrior" has a basis in reality. Although it is sometimes misused, it does describe a real phenomenon and a real breakdown in the structure of progressive politics. In fact, I completely attribute the recent uptick in far Right, alt-right, ethnopluralist ideology to the rise of SJWs. And that isn't to say that those ideologies are inherently bad all the time; I just mean to say that they aren't necessarily the most enlightened ways of looking at things.
When Yiannopoulos engages ardent feminists in debate, for example, he exposes something that is emblematic of many on the Left who were swept up into their causes without sufficient research or investigation, and that is that so, so many of us became involved in "causes" on emotional grounds. So many on the Left do not question the information that they are given, nor do they have any foundation in why they do what they do. Therefore, when Milo confronts them with conflicting information about the wage gap, they do not have factual rebuttals for their positions (that, for example, women show less income for a myriad of social reasons that do NOT include discrimination). They do not counter him with facts, or address his information with anything approaching an explanation. They simply shout "sexist!" or "bigot!", or chain themselves to doors in hysterics, or use air horns to drown out his voice. This does nothing but push the overwhelming young, white, and perceptively "disenfranchised" alt-right further and further away.
His role as a provocateur exposes the Left and progressives for all the bad things that it has become. It shows in stark detail that all the circle-jerking accomplished nothing. We have a huge cultural divide right now, the largest that I ever recall in my lifetime, because people on the Left (with whom I would most accurately identify) can't calmly handle their affairs when faced with alternative points-of-view.
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