Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
As one of those people, I'll simply re-iterate that the identity politics left and their social justice efforts are illiberal, and I oppose them as a liberal.
What do I mean by liberal? I mean I believe people should be able to do and say what they like so long as they do not harm other people. As a liberal, I wrote articles in the college paper 25 years ago denouncing the practice of landlords kicking out gay tenants. I championed gay marriage long before it was cool, including forceful exchanges with my boss at the time.
This sort of tarring people with the bigotry brush of they don't agree with your agenda is tiresome. Someone can agree that X is a problem, while disagreeing that A, B, and C are the source of the problem and D, E, and F are the best ways to address it. But the identity politics left have cultivated a climate where to even question any of A, B, C, D, E, or F, is to reveal yourself as someone who can be immediately denounced as a bigot and an enemy. Basically, they hate openly debating their agendas in a public dialog, and like all dogmatists (including their counterparts on the right), they will employ shaming, intimidation, or coercion to shut down discussion.
As someone who thinks every issue under the sun should be freely, openly, and publicly examined, analysed, and debated from every possible angle, without resort to ad hominem or poisoning the well, I regard their tactics as a threat to my core values. And as someone who judges people as individuals, who judges the opinions of others and want my own opinions to be judged on their own merit, I find their imposition of a hierarchy of privilege on any social discourse to be risible nonsense.
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