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Originally Posted by rubecube
I think it speaks to the fact that we hold higher standards for ourselves than we do others, which is probably a tad racist and patronizing.
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The phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" is a fantastic way to put it, marred only by the fact that it was coined by George W. Bush. Moral relativism is another obvious problem, by the way.
But I actually have sympathy for this sort of reasoning in part because I see myself doing something similar. I'm at a point where I sort of just laughingly dismiss a large proportion of right-wing nonsense as "there go those crazy tea party nuts again", but I'm much more focused on the flaws I see in the behaviour of my ideological bretheren... notwithstanding that although I think the left is in the process of
completely losing its mind on certain issues, it's still perfectly coherent when compared to the carnival taking place under the GOP's big tent.
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Well it seems to me that part of what we're doing right is dismantling patriarchy and colonialism, so continuing to root it out in even it's most benign forms is probably more constructive than sitting here and patting ourselves on the backs. I do get what you're saying though, in that there's a concern that in focusing too much on the obscure stuff, we're overlooking and allowing the more extremist elements to creep back into our society.
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The other concern - which I think Cliff expressed really well with the line about making perfect the enemy of the good - that we become so obsessed with minutae and ensuring utter purity of mind that we outlaw anything that mildly reeks of patriarchical or colonial modes of thought. That effort has some frightening implications, not the least of which is that I can't name a single person I'd trust to be the "patriarchy" gestapo, and certainly not any of the people I can think of off the top of my head as likely wanting the job.
There's some balance to be struck about not resting on the laurels of progress and recognizing that there's still work to be done on the topics of racism and sexism (and LGBT rights, and others), and turning progressivism into some sort of absolutist cult.