So, on one of the forums I was on, a guy got into a discussion on wokeness (being critical of it) and some edgelord asked the guy to define it. So basically he defined it in the terms that it's a "cultural marxist" view in which the privileged groups are framed like the bourgeoisie, and the underprivileged groups like the proletariat, and it leads to extremely one sided perspectives on relations between these two groups. Generally speaking, I thought this was a good definition, if you're gonna define the ideology. I personally go more in the direction of being "woke" (pejorative) is more about a set of behaviors, but this dude seemed to sum it up pretty well, and it's a definition I largely agree with.
The problem was the SJWs lost their crap over this, going on about neo nazis and anders brevik and how it's "anti semitic" (wtf how?!) and when I was like wtf over this, they told me to google it. I did, and I mostly got a bunch of uncharitable articles written by people with an obvious pro SJW slant who seemed to be interested in attacking the concept and downplaying it as a "conspiracy theory." And this seems ridiculous to me. Yes yes, when a right winger goes on screaming about "cultural marxism" you should probably hear alarm bells going off in your head, but I tend to view the issue different than most on the left.
First of all, I think calling critical theory "cultural marxism" is technically accurate. I kind of described critical theory previously on here from a sociology perspective, and I basically said it was a subset of conflict theory within sociology. Now, what is conflict theory? Well, it's a general sociological paradigm that frames society as a conflict between various groups for power, resources, etc., and generally looks at how they favor the rich and stuff. Marxism is the original conflict theory, as Marx looked at society as a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. All critical theory is, is an adaption of this idea to apply to identity groups like race, gender, sexuality, etc. It's actually an interesting paradigm that as I keep saying, I actually respect intellectually, I just think the believers and adherents to the idea take things WAY too far and turn it into a secular religion. But yeah, all things considered "cultural marxism" seems like a valid descriptor of this way of thinking. It's marxian conflict theory applied to the culture wars.
Heck, let's be honest, people like Foucault and Derrida who came up with critical theory? They clearly seemed to have marxist influences. And those influences are kind of visible in how they view the world. As I said, is it that much of a stretch to say that post modernism/critical theory/SJW ideology is really an offshoot of marxism? I don't think it is.
So, for me, the SJW left is doing what they do best, screeching into the void about how everything they dont like is fascism. Clearly some fascist type people they dont approve of have used these terms before, so therefore, no one should use those terms if they dont' want to be caught by guilt by association and canceled for daring to actually have a different opinion. But again, I find this to be a perfectly reasonable descriptor of the ideology.
Heck, if there's one thing I respect about some segments of the right, and this might have to do with my original roots on the right reading "Understanding the Times" in high school, but honestly, I feel like to some extent, the right is more self aware of their own biases than the left is at times, and they kind of understand that the culture war comes down to a conflict between differing value systems. The right has a very traditionalist value system, based on things like religion, authority, enlightenment authors, and the sense that there's a certain correct way to do things that has been tried in the past, and anyone who deviates from those ways is wrong and playing with fire. We can say what we want about how their worldviews are incorrect, wrong, completely insane, what have you, but they have this worldview and they advocate for it.
The left, on the other hand, gets arrogant. They see their way of seeing the world as the only objective truth, and everyone else is bad. I feel like the right, at least the more intelligent once who actually CAN define wokeism decently, and can discuss its philosophical origins, actually is more aware of the origins of left wing theory than even leftists are at times. Especially among the SJW crowds. It's like the SJWs are just blinded to their own biases and call everything they don't hate fascism and bigotry, without understanding that their ideas are only one set of ideas among many, they aren't that special or compelling, and that people who aren't indoctrinated into their little cult can spot their biases from a mile away.
Really, to those of us who dont make wokeness our entire worldview, the biases woke people express in practice is quite extreme. It's like a stink, everyone can smell it but the person emitting the smell for some reason. They're just like "this is fine, there is no smell, you people are crazy', but then we smell it clear as day, because we're not used to the smell and it hits us immediately.
That's the thing the left doesn't understand. I see it all the time from woke people. They're like "this isn't a thing" and 'you're crazy", and they like to gaslight you to make you question your own experiences, but you know it's an actual thing. That's the asymmetry I think exists between the right and left here. The right is aware of what they advocate for, and what their opponents advocate for, and see the world as a conflict between these opposing worldviews, and the left just...doesn't recognize that. They think their view is THE ONE CORRECT worldview, and that everyone else is just wrong.
Well, while I don't advocate for what the right does, I'm also not on board with many left wing ideologies either. That's the thing about the left, if you go by understanding the times, most worldviews are actually left wing to them. Secular Humanism, Cosmic Humanism, Marxism, and Postmodernism is this massive multiheaded hydra that stands in opposition to their fundamentalist christian conservative worldview, and while they are all attached to the same beast (according to the right), they are also very different takes on philosophy, and is a huge reason why there's so much infighting among the left. Because the marxist left, the postmodernist left, and other branches of left (I'm closest to secular humanism, btw), all have different takes on things, view the world a bit differently, and have different goals, and sometimes you'll have a secular humanist like me who just ends up sitting it out or taking pot shots at both sides when I see the right and the postmodernist left get in their little catfights. And sadly, the postmodernist left thinks I'm some flaming right wing apologist when I dare take swipes at them for being overzealous nutcases at times.
But yeah. I digress. The point is, you don't need to be a right winger to actually recognize that postmodernism is actually just marxism but for identity politics and the culture wars. It literally is "cultural marxism", and I don't think that you need to be some weirdo alt right ideologue to recognize this fact. It's literally the simplest way to explain the concept for the first time for someone who has never heard of it. And of course the right views it as a massive threat, because it goes against their worldview. So does normal marxism. So does softer liberal and progressive worldviews like secular humanism. The right are very snowflakey with ideologies they dont like either. And they also go on quite unhinged rants about how everything they dont like is an existential threat to our (well, their) culture. I'm just saying you can disagree with them and still see the "cultural marxist" analogy as accurate.
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