So, just a thought I had after watching a lot of leftist commentators faceplant on the Israel/Palestine issue tonight.
Given what I wrote with the last article, and given how my ideological worldview stems from humanism, which is embedded in some ways in Western values, it kind of made me realize that part of the reason the left tends to faceplant so hard on foreign policy issues is postmodernism.
Humanism is related to modernism on the spectrum of premodernism, modernism, and postmodernism. It embraces the modern. it embraces the narrative of progress, the narrative of betterment of the human condition. That things are better now than in the distant past. Postmodernism is essentially...a rejection of the modern, and it tries to move past it.
How does it move past it? By giving up the relative objectivity of modernism. In modernism, you're either on the side of progress, or you become regressive. And I look at other cultures around the world embracing authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism, and doing horrible things to their fellow humans, and I just can't help but staunchly reject that. Not only are these cultures and their practices, at least in warfare, regressive, but they're flat out BARBARIC.
But...on the other hand, postmodernism kind of gives up that sense of objectivity and the idea that there is a point of progress worth aiming for. It relies on cultural narratives instead, is insanely culturally relativistic, and when it does take the side of a culture, it often does so with a western bias. it tends to look at the world through a lens in which the west is privileged and has established systems of white and cultural supremacy and has engaged in colonialism against others. It established the narrative of the "civilized" and "barbaric" in the sense that it has a correct way of doing things and an incorrect way. And in some ways it tries to correct the record with non western groups, which it sees as underprivileged.
While this lens does make sense from a certain perspective within sociology, where you're trying to study other cultures and must keep your own culture's norms within check in doing so to avoid unfairly judging them, it makes less sense in a more mainstream political field. And it leads to dumb conclusions.
Like, these guys will scream Christian fundamentalists are "fascists" for trying to impose their religious, regressive ways on others, but then they just ignore all of the horrifically regressive crap islamic cultures often do to others, such as oppressing women, killing homosexuals, and also ex believers. We gotta tolerate that because that's their culture, but when a western white guy does it, it's bad, it's evil, it's fascist.
I don't care WHO engages in regressive and barbaric behavior, I'm gonna call a spade a spade. And we should reject religious fundamentalism in all of its forms. It doesnt matter what religion it is, it sucks either way.
But, yeah. These postmodernist types, they like to engage in cultural relativism, except when it comes to their own culture, which they judge harshly, and they always see the west as the oppressors and others as the oppressed. And given this mindrot has reached epidemic levels on the left in recent years, it's not all too surprising to see the left condemning israel for their actions against the palestinians, but seemingly defending hamas here.
Honestly, I dont see any issue with criticizing my own culture. Or criticizing the culture of an ally like Israel. Certainly Israel can do better than being an apartheid state, and the palestinians deserve better treatment. But if the palestinians are literally calling for genocide and won't come to the bargaining table, well, I'm not surprised that the far right keeps winning power there, and I'm not surprised so many people are unwilling to be charitable toward hamas and the palestinians. I know a lot of lefties are acting like this is black and white and that israel is the bad guy, but no...not really. At this point, I'm more sympathetic to israel, a country that does represent some level of western values, and is one of the sole countries in the middle east to do so, than palestine, who are so extreme they believe slaughtering civilians and having literally genocidal goals is the way to go. While both sides have room to improve morally, as long as palestine acts this way, I can't see how there can be peace. Even if israel offered it, the palestinians would refuse it. because they want israel gone, and they won't compromise otherwise.
Again, when dealing with an enemy like that, what the heck is israel supposed to do other than what they've been doing? I really dont understand what else they can do. Just let hamas march into their country and slaughter everyone? Yeah.
Israel quite frankly seems more reasonable than hamas, and reason is what really matters here. A reasonable faction can be negotiated with. An unreasonable one cannot, they can only be fought. It seems clear which side of this conflict is one and which side is the other. And that's why I have a different opinion than most on the left. My values are rooted in humanism and rationalism, and postmodernists just end up going kneejerk "west bad" and engaging in selective cultural relativism.
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