Liberalism and Wokism
How the Left has lost its mind
You don't need to be told this, I know, but let me now set the stage by saying that we live in a very politically polarized society in the United States. As we have become more divided, many have found it hard to differentiate the opposing political poles, as they appear to have circled back on each other, or flipped their scripts entirely in many ways. The meanings of "liberal" and "conservative" have become more confused, as each side demonizes the other, and in the process, becomes more like their arch-enemy (at least in the aspect of demonization of the opposition). Let's review some of the terminology and try to sort out left from right, conservative from liberal.
Some characteristics of the (traditionally) "liberal" mind-set (at least up until the twenty first century century), are personified by the character Atticus Finch of the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. These attributes derive from what is widely regarded as the "Liberal Tradition" which, up until the mid-twentieth century was largely endorsed by both those who referred to themselves as conservative and those who identified as liberal. Reading this description you will see concepts described as liberal which are now more closely associated with conservatives, suggesting that confusion has arisen in the terminology. Here is a brief synopsis, from Wikipedia: "Liberalism in the United States is based on concepts of unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, the right to due process, and equality before the law are widely accepted as a common foundation of liberalism. According to American philosopher Ian Adams, "all U.S. parties are liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism, that is a form of democratised Whig constitutionalism plus the free market. The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism and the proper role of government (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism).
Outside of specific differences in economics and political theory, the attributes of the LIberal Tradition's mindset which grew out of the Enlightenment include (my own opinion):
Open-mindedness
Humility and recognition of one's limitations.
Tolerance for divergent opinions.
Freedom from bias or prejudice.
Curiosity and relentless pursuit of truth.
Acceptance of others who disagree with you.
Willingness and desire to improve understanding between those who disagree.
Recognition of the common humanity of all people.
Respect for others, even when they disagree and even when they disrespect you.
Independent and critical thinking
Desire to treat others fairly, even when one disagrees with them
Skepticism about what one hears and awareness of how people can manipulate one's views by playing on one's feelings.
Here are some characteristic of the (traditionally) "conservative" mind-set, personified by people such as the T.V. character Archie Bunker, of "All In The Family", a 1970's sit-com:
Narrow-mindedness
Arrogance, condescension
Intolerance of divergent opinions
Frank bias or prejudice
Lack of curiosity
Rejection of those who disagree with you.
Lack of interest in working towards forging understanding with others.
Denial of or lack of interest in the humanity of those whom you demonize.
Active disrespect for and even condemnation of those who disagree with you.
Group think and blind acceptance of tribal mores. Refusal to think independently and even condemnation of those who do.
If not actual desire to harm others who disagree with you, tolerance for harm being done to those who disagree with you, when done by others who do agree with you.
Naive acceptance of hucksters who have ulterior motives one doesn't think to question.
The Liberal Tradition, which grew out of the Enlightenment, was a direct outgrowth of the superstition, mythology and un-empirical thought processes that persisted in the Middle Ages extending into the Renaissance. Beginning with the Scientific Revolution, led by thinkers such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and Descartes in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, and then continuing into the seventeenth and eighteenth century with Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Hume, western civilization attempted to move from a more mythic and unscientific view of reality to a way of understanding the world and human nature that was more consistent with scientific principles, and less grounded on biases, prejudices and misperceptions. The Liberal tradition was the basis for the Declaration of Independence, some of the Federalist papers and the Constitution. This tradition also incorporates humanistic values such as the notion that people have basic rights that it is the job of government to protect, above and beyond the moral and ethical guidelines of religion . These documents, particularly the Bill of Rights, are a statement of values as much as they are a blueprint for good government. The documents and the way of thinking upon which they are based, draw heavily from the Liberal Tradition, and form the backbone of democracy. They are fundamental to nearly every aspect of civic affairs.
In contrast to the caricatured version of conservatism present in the much hated apotheosis of anti-Enlightenment (or at least pre-Enlightenment ) thinking, Archie Bunker, the modern conservative movement has actually fallen more in line with the Liberal Tradition than is widely appreciated. The conservative political movement, which has been referred to as the "Right wing" (Right wing has come to connote far more than mere conservatism). has tended to protect those aspects of the Liberal tradition that were felt to be worth keeping, in the face of ongoing change. Conservativism as a movement was hardly distinguishable from Liberalism until the 1950's, when the anti-communist fervor stirred up by the McCarthy era led many who feared for the survival of the Liberal tradition to fight against the insurgency of communism against what was then perceived as a threat to that tradition. This movement eventually became identified as "Conservatism".
The liberal political movement, often known as the "Left wing" (Similarly, "Left wing" has come to connote something far different from mere liberalism). has tended to expand and build upon the already existing Liberal Tradition, believing that change was generally equivalent to advancement or improvement. Both parties had the same affinity for an enlightened and reasoned understanding of reality. While conservatives do not eschew change entirely, they are more careful to examine proposed changes for possible compromises to original moral and Constitutionally inscribed principles. Liberals tend to view innovation in a more favorable light, viewing old traditions as often antiquated and needing revisions to accommodate modern trends. I do not intend to give the impression that one view is the one and only correct political one. Both have weaknesses and strengths.
Conservatives tend to protect what is good in the Liberal Tradition more assiduously, but this may come at times at the cost of having difficulty adapting to modern trends in morality and culture. For example, no-one now thinks, as the Founders once did, that blacks, women, or non-landowners shouldn't vote. These changes were embraced, fortunately, by both Conservatives and Liberals (it may be remembered that Republicans fought harder for these changes than democrats in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century). Conservatives were less ready to adopt the Civil Rights Act of 1963 (Again, curiously, many of the conservatives who opposed it were at that time Democrats - southern Democrats).
Similarly, Liberals tend to excel at being attuned to how traditional values may have fallen out of step with contemporary morality. This has been critical in ending slavery, expanding voting rights, and stopping the depredations of monopolies in the Gilded Age. However, in recent times, Liberals have embraced many "regulations" that have violated constitutionally enshrined principles, including free speech, the right to assembly, the right to practice religion, and the right to bodily autonomy (the latter of which has always been championed by Liberals). Privacy rights guarded by the fourth amendment have also been compromised with the approval of many liberals, and many other constitutional rights have been threatened or overrun under an ostensibly "liberal" Biden presidency. This suggests that modern day liberalism have become unmoored from the founding principles of the Liberal Tradition upon which liberalism was originally based. Repudiating the Liberal Tradition is not improving upon it: it is violating it. It represents a return to the barbarism of the pre-Enlightenment period — the so-called "State of Nature" described by Thomas Hobbes in which life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."
There clearly is a time for preservation, and a time for innovation or modification.
Archie Bunker is a caricature and not a fair representative of conservatives. Instead his character represents a return to the pre-enlightenment prejudicial and narrow-minded perspectives that prevailed in the Middle Ages and in general, that portion of society that has embraced anti-intellectual mind-sets. Individuals of this type are unreceptive or hostile to rational and objective thinking. Unfortunately, the type of thinking revealed by Archie Bunker, though falsely labeled as "conservative" by liberals is now becoming increasingly prevalent in the rhetoric of those who call themselves liberals — or at least, Democrats — and have come to be known by some as "woke". In this ironic twist, so-called liberals have been behaving in the way that they (incorrectly) have previously used to identify conservatives. Most of the anti-intellectual, medieval styles of thought listed above are now more frequently heard coming from the exponents of liberal "woke" culture, and far less from traditionally "conservative" culture. These observation are derived from my own experience, as an independent and moderate, but other more moderate, erstwhile liberal, and conservative commentators have observed the same trend. There are now more clearly than ever before virtues and vices on both sides to varying degrees. The various vices on the left I have described can also be seen at times on the right, although in recent years, the worst violations seem to be coming from the left.
The "woke" liberals all too often are unwilling to entertain viewpoints that differ from their own, and seem unable to see a different way of looking at things. If you don't support trans ideology, the reality of the climate crisis, the availability of pornographic books in elementary schools, mandated vaccines and masks, the pervasiveness of "structural racism", any restrictions on abortion, gun control (whatever it may be defined as) and state imposed restrictions on freedoms, including freedom of religion and freedom of speech, you are considered a heretic or even worse, a dangerous "right wing extremist", and possibly even anti-semitic.
The "woke" liberals all too often have little use for those whom they derisively refer to as "conservatives" or "right wing radicals", to whom they react dismissively and with indignant exasperation. The language of wokism frequently includes the “othering” of others, typified by Hillary Clinton’s reference to Republicans as “deplorables”.
The "woke" liberals all too often show intolerance for those who have different viewpoints from them, no matter how since, such as pro-lifers, or "anti-vaxxers". Both of these terms have come to have pejorative connotations in the contemporary media.
The "woke" liberals and even many who are not "woke" reflexively respond negatively and often hostilely to those who identify as Republican, conservative, religious, or Trumpers. It is clear they have a prejudice against these people, however much they may attempt to compensate for it. Moreover, they frequently believe this prejudice is justified.
Efforts to get the "woke" liberal to explore the truth further in hot-button topics are often shut down or evaded. People steer away from discussions where "crazy" ideas or "conspiracy theories' might be proposed. Too upsetting, apparently.
The "woke" liberal has been known to denounce, reject, and ostracize those whose opinions don't match their own, even their friends and family. In recent years many who opposed vaccine or mask mandates found themselves ostracized by their families and friends.
Being "right" for the "woke" person often means sticking to what you believe above all, and even abandoning any invitation to constructive dialogue and rapprochement.
Calling people names such as "deplorable", "white supremacist", "hater", "anti-trans" , "anti-vaxx" is a way some "woke" liberals have of demonizing and objectifying those who disagree with them. This is fundamentally anti-humanistic.
There seems little effort among some "woke" liberals to temper their disagreement with respect for the dignity and humanity of those whom they disagree with . Many times, ad hominem attacks are made that slander others and amount to character assassination.
The classical liberal value of independent, critical thinking, fueled by healthy skepticism has given way in "woke" culture to tribalism: a kind of group think characterized by a desire to conform to the thinking patterns of one's identified group and a cultish unwillingness to challenge conventional wisdom or authority. Respect for authority and group loyalty are two classically conservative traits, but we see them in full force in the "woke" liberal movement.
Amongst the "woke" left, there seems to be all too much self-satisfied schadenfreude in watching people who defy the social norms get hammered for their non-compliance, which is mislabeled in highly disrespectful terms as "selfish". This was seen particularly in the COVID era towards vaccine refusers, but is now seen in those who pay a penalty with job loss or public vilification because of refusing to endorse sex reassignment surgery for their children, trans ideology or critical race theory. I have witnessed liberals making fun of those who think independently by saying things such as, "Don't tell me you are going to 'do your own research' again?"
The most outrageous lies of the pandemic were accepted blithely by many wokesters as gospel, regarding COVID propaganda, served up with Krispy Kreme donuts, Star Trek "warp speed" science fiction terminology, and even the ostensibly trans viewpoint that young children's opinions about their gender identity could be knowable more so than experts, developmental psychologists, and their own parents, regardless of how and where it came from.
In pointing out these attitudes of the liberal Left, I do not mean to say that there are no valid points in Leftist thinking. I agree with many Leftist points to varying degrees. I can say the same about the Right. However, the attributes of the classical Liberalism tradition are missing from much of modern Leftist rhetoric and from their thought processes, and they have come to resemble more and more what they have so studiously and even vehemently criticized. In modern thought, it should matter less whether one's political affiliation is Right or Left, Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Democrat. It should matter far more whether one's thinking demonstrates the characteristics we inherited from the Enlightenment that are part of the Liberal Tradition.
I know that many conservatives may bristle at being associated with the "Liberal Tradition" — such is the extreme animus that sometimes prevails among conservatives towards anything "liberal". I also know that many liberals will bristle at being described as resembling "conservatives" (even if it is only in the caricatured form of conservatism) — such is the animus of liberals for conservatives. In making these analogies, I am confident I will win many enemies on both sides. But the truth has no political alignment. I have attempted to align myself with it, and not with any partisan group. My apologies to any whom I may have offended in my allegiance to the pursuit of truth. I care little for partisan politics. I care a lot about the truth. I hope I may have discovered a little bit of it here.