Leaving the New Left Behind, and Reimagining What Progressive Means
Plus, why the Authoritarian New Right's attempt to supplant conservatism will fail
Let's face it: in recent years, progressive politics has lost its way. Much of the 'left' has been affected by the mainstreaming of postmodern critical theory in one way or another, with its relentlessly negativity and authoritarian tendencies making a clear mark on the left. On the other hand, backlash against wokeness, and the lack of a positive progressive alternative, has allowed an equally negative and equally authoritarian 'populist right' to rise up. In many ways, the postmodern left and the populist right are mirror images of each other: both relentlessly negative, divisive, skeptical of individual freedom, and ultimately destructive. It is clear that both forms of destructive politics are driven by negativity, and only positive thinking can combat them both. In short, we need a more positive alternative. This is why I think it's important to reimagine what a positive, progressive politics could look like…
Not only has the far-left's philosophical theories been unhelpful for real world progressive politics, it has also brought an overall feeling of oppression, defeat, hopelessness and melancholy. This is rooted in both the far-left's 'oppressor vs oppressed' philosophical worldview, as well as their very real historical defeats throughout the past century (brought about by their unsound theory and hence their unsound approach to politics). The Western far-left reeks of more than a century of defeatism and escapism, and we need to reject all that decisively. We need to embrace the power of positive thinking instead. Rather than being a blackpilled doomer, we should adopt a 'glass half full' attitude…
The Problem With... 'New Left' Theory
The key point is, much of the Western Left today takes a theory-based approach to everything, and base their so-called progressivism on achieving the goals of their theory. They decide what is a good course of action, or what counts as success, not based on objective reality, not based on if the lives of people have actually been made better, but on their theoretical concerns. This, I think, is essentially being a slave to theory. Hence theory has actually become slavery, in the context of the 21st century Western Left.
Besides being unable to improve people's lives, what I'm most concerned with the theory-Left is that it effectively discourages independent thinking, which I value very much as a Moral Libertarian. Through building a movement that is enslaved to a whole suite of critical theories, which explain every social issue and cultural conflict with its particular philosophy, New Left activism actually creates a mass of people who think in lockstep on every issue, because they are informed by theory rather than their own observation of reality and their own independent thinking. In turn, this actually divides society into two sides, one side which thinks in lockstep with theory on every issue, and another side which comes together simply to fight what they correctly see as an illogical and contradictory coalition. I think this is a major reason behind the polarization we are seeing in the West today.
The Authoritarian New Right Wants to Supplant Conservatism
…The reason why the New Right's fantasy remains, at least for the moment, a fantasy, is because of simple electoral math. Conservative parties are sustained by a coalition of voters that includes classical liberals, Burkean conservatives as well as the kind of reactionaries who fantasize about reactionary strongman politics. If the party is taken over by reactionary strongmen and used to implement their will, the classical liberals and Burkean conservaties would surely walk away. Even Trump, who arguably has not entirely abandoned classical liberal norms yet, is suffering from a fracturing of the Republican Party, with many 'Haley Republicans' still refusing to commit to vote for him this year. There's a good reason why Trump won't embrace a national abortion ban. That parts of his base strongly disagree with him reflects how deluded they are about what is possible electorally. The simple fact is, conservative parties can't win without at least some moderates and classical liberals. Even Trump knows this…
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who is the author of the Moral Libertarian Manifesto and the Moral Libertarian book series, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for the West.
She is also the author of The Trans Case Against Queer Theory and The TaraElla Story (her autobiography).