James Lindsay
analyzes the Religion of the Regressive Left.
Highlights:
James Linday wrote:I'm going to start by introducing a term that sounds funny but isn't. Ophobophobia.
Ophobophobia is the irrational fear of being perceived a bigot (by self or others) by being deemed insufficiently sensitive to the experience of some identifiable group of others.
Ophobophobia is the strongest motivating animus in what we might call the Religion of Identity Politics, which in its extreme forms, is now rightly being called Regressive Leftism. The most obvious example of an ophobophobic position is a rationally unjustifiable and rabid defense of obfuscation between Muslims, Islam, Islamism, and Jihadist Islamism, and it is the irrational fear of being branded an Islamophobe by being insufficiently sensitive in the discussions surrounding those terms. Such people exhibit Islamophobophobia.
Sadly, this sense of identity and thus righteous esteem often leads to outright othering, the negative side of a groupish effect known as parochial altruism. Parochial altruists defend and help members of the in-group, and they distrust, demonize, and even become hostile or violent with members of perceived out-groups. This is the dark side to an ethic of identity politicking, and it is rife.
As is the case with many "grand" purposes, the Regressive Leftist is fighting for a romanticized notion of social justice, not necessarily a real one. And, as with all things romanticized, he must bulldoze nearly all of the relevant details in order to fill the cast of his drama with obvious, type-cast archetypes. Nuance is distracting and unromantic, after all. Real societies are complicated and difficult, but categories that can be neatly made into hierarchies, power dynamics, and Manichaean roles are simple, efficient, and romantic. Thus, when reality presents the Regressive Leftist with characters outside of these neat categories, the easiest resolution to the ensuing cognitive dissonance is to believe that they are somehow traitors--which is, itself, a neat, Manichaen category. The addiction to the romantic drama is the problem here, and the need to feel a clear sense of purpose on a tractable problem is the psychological basis upon which it runs amok.
Understanding it [the Regressive Left] as a religous object, together with understanding the nature of religious objects themselves, should allow us to have more fruitful discussions about the phenomena, and thus hopefully arrive at better solutions. Adherents to the Religion of Identity Politics that are reading this--especially ones who are non-religious in the usual sense--should take this opportunity to reflect and see if, indeed, this poisonous, damaging approach to a set of social goals (however noble in seeming on paper), is something better met with doubt, skepticism, open-mindedness to change, reason, and, ultimately, reconsideration.