So, I think I finally got to the core of what annoys me so much about identity politics. Essentially it comes down to how I see the world, vs how identity politics causes people to see the world. Everything I believe comes down to firmly held principles that I've developed over time.
When I was a fundamentalist christian in high school, I was taught a curriculum from the book "understanding the times". It was a book that was designed to give christians a fundamentalist christian worldview rooted in biblical literalism. It contrasted the biblical worldview with other worldviews, like marxism-leninism, secular humanism, and new age beliefs. While it was, in retrospect, a bit biased and strawmanny, strong manning the biblical perspective, while strawmanning the others and making them look stupid and inconsistent, it is the basis for how I see philosophy. Worldview matters. How you see the world at its core influences the rest of your beliefs about the world.
Ultimately, I found the biblical worldview untenable, and this course, in retrospect, did set me up for failure. Because here's the thing about the Biblical worldview: if its core cosmology and tenets don't hold, then with it, the Christian faith comes crashing down.
If you did not believe in say, Adam and Eve being real people who ate a real human fruit, why is the world so evil? Why does sin exist? Why do we need to be redeemed? As you poke holes in the Biblical cosmology, the philosophical reasons for accepting the rest of the bible become weaker, until the entire worldview comes crashing down on you like a deck of cards. And that's precisely what happened to me. Because look at the evidence. Biblical creationism is insane. The evidence is overwhelming that the earth is older than that. And it seems clear that the bible's story was made up by a bunch of scientifically illiterate sheep herders and the like. While Christians might come up with reasons to accept the story of Jesus, often redefining the whole problem, it feels empty and hollow to me, almost an exercise in futility. And ultimately, I left that faith for a reason. I lost all reasons to believe in it, and it wasn't worth saving.
That was in 2012. I had struggled with my faith in the years leading up to that point, and it was because my worldview got muddled. It was full of inconsistencies, and as I explored them and really ended up running into problems, my view of the world fell apart.
This caused me to embrace atheism and secular humanism. A worldview that I once mocked because of weird christian strawman logic, but that after I lost my faith made a heck of a lot of sense. And most of my political views are based in that secular worldview. I am a progressive because I understand that these human social conventions are subjective, the world is malleable, and that they exist for our benefit. We shouldnt restrict human behavior unless we have to for a valid reason. And as such, we should let people get married to who they want, have sex with who they want, change their gender, and even get abortions. Racism makes zero sense to me, if we're all homo sapiens, although cultural divides may cause conflicts in society for whatever reason. Critical theory is compelling at pointing out inequalities, but in and of itself, it isn't worth building views on.
And ultimately, I ended up changing my economics too. Unshackled by the conservative ethics I had, such as the protestant work ethic and learned helplessness in which "this is the best we can do", I used my progressive mentality to figure how to best improve the human condition. And for me, capitalism is the least bad economic system. I dont find socialism or communism or anarchism compelling, although they might offer valid criticisms of capitalism. Still, I'd rather work on improving capitalism. After all, these social structures exist for our benefit, and can change as we want them to. If we want to introduce regulations to raise wages, or safety nets to offer people better services or ways of life than the market does naturally, we should. ANd I believe that the net benefits are worth it. And above all, I developed my indepentarian perspective with UBI. I researched UBI extensively after deconverting, and found it to be THE biggest most effective solution we could implement to improve our society. It would solve poverty, and it would give people more freedom. And we need that. Liberty is important to me. Because without the freedom to pursue your own interests, what about this life is really worth it? If youre not free, youre similar to that of a slave, and I saw market relations in their natural state as a form of pseudo slavery. Given there is no inherent purpose to work, and work exists merely to provide the goods and services we need or want, why should we work? This idea of work as end to itself, rather than a means to an end, seems backwards as hell for me. Are we in charge of our social structures, or do they control us instead? The economy is made for man, not man for the economy.
You get the ideal, each and every political belief I have is because of 2012, and those shifts I made. Even in rediscovering "god", and becoming spiritual again, not much changed. My new belief system there is similar to the new age belief systems. I considered writing a post trying to reconcile the above beliefs with my new spiritual system, but I see no real need. TLDR, I would argue that God let me go through those experiences in order to give me these beliefs and free my mind from these earthly dogmas and to develop my own belief system as I saw fit. It was a part of my development. And it's not really fundamentally incompatible with my views. I believe God ultimately respects human free will, and rarely intervenes directly in trying to impose morality on us, morality is something we make for ourselves, and through it, we learn. So whatever beliefs I learned while an atheist are largely still valid and part of my own life plan. You're free to accept or reject them as you see fit, and I will still largely defend them on secular grounds, given my dedication to separation of church and state, my need to defend all of my views with reason and evidence, and the fact that I can't defend my spirituality on those grounds as my belief is based in a specific revelation that applies to me and no one else. Do wih that what you will.
So where does that leave me politically? Well for me, the main difference between the left and right is one of worldview and ideology. The right in this country still accepts the religious worldview that I now reject. They hold fundamentally regressive attitudes in society, and often have a religious and authoritarian worldview that I reject. Even worse, they want to force it on others. On economics, they're far right market fundamentalists, although in recent years theyve gotten more protectionist with trump at the helm. But they're still against like 95% of what I support. And on social issues, they basically want to impose the bible on people. They are theocrats who don't believe in separation of church and state and dont believe in sound policy based on evidence. Even on things that help their goals, they don't support policies that actually get them there. Because ultimately, they're not even consequentialists. They dont care about the consequences of their policies. They're hardcore deontologists who place their "this is what the world should be" above all else. Oh if you didnt want to get pregnant dont have sex. Birth control? WHat are you talking about, that will just enable you to have sex. It will reduce abortions? Who cares. Sin is sin. You shouldnt have had sex. And thats why the bible belt is a breeding ground for STDs and full of teenage pregnancy. And this leads to more poverty, crime etc. Which they blame on the breakdown of the family unit and people turning on god or lacking work ethic. You just cant reason with these people.
For me, the left is the opposite of this. The left for me was about improving society. It's about on economics saying yes, we can do better than free market fundamentalism. Social democratic policies and stuff like UBI would greatly improve society. Yes, controlling consequences like abortion, STDs, etc., are worth it. We should give people birth control. Let people have sex with who they want. And control the circumstances. And we can do it. It just violates the right's little idea of ethics.
For me, I just want society to flourish as I see it as flourishing. I have different values than most, and given a society split between regressives, and a large conservative faction of the democratic party more based in the status quo than in actually improving society, my views are a minority. And that's why I fight so hard for them.
But since 2016, I feel like this divide between religious traditionalism and secular progressivism has become less important. And identity politics is one of many distractions. I see identity politics as where good ideas go to die. Because for me, identity politics is FACTIONAL, not philsophical. By this, I mean that theres very little underlying ideology behind identity politics. I guess if I were to point out the underlying theory, it is based on critical theory, which is a sub lens of conflict theory based on trying to uncover the differences between different factions in society. But all this turns politics into is fights between groups. There is no longer philosophy and ethics guiding our decisions. The left becomes this force of fighting for the rights of disadvantage groups...against the so called advantaged groups. The reducing the overall differences between groups is more important than actually making a fair and just society for all.
Most of what i care about is cast aside in the process. I support policies that help everyone. UBI, medicare for all, free college, addressing climate change, housing, these ideas are intended to help EVERYONE. Including the underprivileged. But if we look at policy through this critical lens, it just makes the debate about how do we improve the life of black people to make it more similar to that of whites. Again, factionalized conflicts between groups becomes more important than these overarching societal changes. The real probkems in society get to go ignored and fester. What's more important than doubling the quality of life for everyone is to ensure that everyone is more equal. Rather than alleviating poverty, it's more important to ensure black people arent more poor than white people. More female CEOs is more important than wondering about whether we should be taxing CEOs more to provide for everyone else, or whether we should have CEOs at all if we want to be more socialist.
Even issues I agree with the left on become minefields, simply because i happen to be a straight white male. Being a straight white male alienate me big time because not only do any of these policies not do anything for me, they risk making my life worse, make me out to be the bad guy for no reason, and make me constantly walk on eggshells.
Like my last article. YOURE A MAN, YOU CANT HAVE AN OPINION ON ABORTION, THIS IS A WOMAN'S ISSUE. Meanwhile here I am, a progressive man who wants people to have as many abortions as they want, and I'm treated like the enemy just for having certain genitalia.
The privilege crap just poisons every well, turns every discussion into a clusterfudge, and makes me out to be the baddie just because of my gender, skin color, etc. And yes,, I know ON AVERAGE people of my gender, skin color, etc., do better than POC or whatever, but that doesnt mean that things are great. Again, I want improvements too.
And before people say I might like this stuff if identity politics benefitted me, no I wouldnt.
Republicans do white identity politics. Tucker carlson hypes that crap up. Great replacement theory, etc. How does that help me? I dont see minorities as the enemy. The republicans have no policies that improve my life. Why would I support them? Especially when they're so ideologically opposed to literally 90% of what i stand for?
I've dealt with MRAs before (men's rights activists). They're all as toxic as the feminists. Even groups like "left wing male advocates" just because a toxic, factional circlejerk. They make horrid traditionalist arguments about how men have it so bad and women had it better when they were back in the kitchen, to which I'm like what the actual fudge? MRAs often go straight into misogyny and blame women for everything. INcels are MRAs. MGTOW are MRAs. They're all crap.
I'm autistic, do I want a group based around autism? Not necessarily. I dont necessarily agree with the goals of autism advocacy groups, which are normally based around trying to help us conform to society.
Heck thats probably my biggest problem. Again, I'm PROGRESSIVE at heart. I agree in improving society. identity politics is about making disadvantaged groups able to succeed in society at the same rate as everyone else. but if my advocacy isnt just about making peace with society, but about improving it, then an identity advocacy group isnt really aligned with my goals?
Honestly, I feel like america has many collective mental illnesses. Our right wing is increasingly out of touch with reality. Prone to conspiracy theories on top of their crazed religious worldview. And increasingly authoritarian.
And our left is just...a mess. Many lefties arent progressives at all. They're just conservatives. They're centrists, and centrists are conservative. Biden's "nothing will fundamentally change" is their motto. And identity politics people are fundamentally centrists too. Their idea of "progress" is merely trying to make their target group have a better standing in society equal to a "privileged" once. But they arent interested in fixing or meaningly improving society.
So much energy on the left goes to causes that are about merely conserving society rather than improving it. Actual progressives are a minority, and we dont always agree on what progress looks like. Is progress abolishing capitalism or refroming it? is progress having a UBI and letting people work less or having a job guarantee? What healthcare model should we use? Single payer, public option, etc? Progressives are a minority, and then we cant even agree on what progress looks like.
It's so screwed.
Honestly, before 2016 it seemed simple. Society was broken, the right were religious nuts, we need a secular society where people do what they want, and we improve the economic system. But now most of the left has no real progressive spirit, and so much energy is wasted on BS factionalism that wastes energy and gets us nowhere. And actual progress is so hard to achieve. Because 50% are society are regressive nutcases. Another 30% are conservatives dems obsessed with identity at best. And progressives are a minority that cant even agree with each other on what progress looks like.
But yeah. TO get back to the point of writing this, the problem with is that in the grand scheme of things is that it just seems to be a bunch of nonsense factionalism that has little to no actual principles behind it and turns everything into an identity based drama fest than a political movement with a sound philosophy and solid goals. I just hate it and deem it a waste. It;s toxic at best and useless at most.
No comments:
Post a Comment