Sustainable Progress, Deprogramming Postmodernism & Tackling Pre-fascism
Weekly Summary, 29 Feb 2024
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It's Time for Sustainable Progressives to Speak Up
The radicals like to say that they are intolerant of injustice in any form, and that is what differentiates them from 'centrists' like myself. I guess they mean that they are happy to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. To put it more bluntly, it's their way, or the highway. They would not compromise, and they don't care about the real world results of this. For example, they are committed to the idea that gender is a social construct, invented by radical feminists in the 20th century. They are going to make society accept it by trying to 'deconstruct gender' in the real world. They are not going to care that this flawed idea has led to the so-called 'TERF wars' between gender critical feminists and trans activists, leading to the defeat of both feminism and the case for trans rights. They are going to make 'transmedicalism', i.e. the traditional 'born this way' model of trans identity, taboo so that they can push their agenda through, and they're not going to care that reactionary governments are going to use their ideas as an excuse to take away trans health care rights. A similar thing happened with the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and critical race theory (CRT). They simply wouldn't allow there to be a focus on practical things like police reform and improving racial relations, which would necessitate that revolutionary philosophy like CRT and 'defund the police' be pushed aside. The result is that almost no progress has been made on racial justice, even after all the drama….
Moderate Reformists Need to Reclaim Conservatism
…A conservative is a reformist whose reforms are rooted in practical reality, and made to be in line with the nation's traditions as much as possible. Even revolutionary change might be consistent with Burkean conservatism: America's Founding Fathers' revolution was an example of a 'conservative' revolution, while the French Revolution, with its anti-traditional cultural radicalism, was certainly not. The difference is that the American Revolution preserved core British cultural norms and values, while parts of the French Revolution aimed to destroy core French cultural norms and values. Conservatism is therefore welcoming of reform and change, as long as it does not destroy core cultural norms and values. It is therefore, above all, not meant to be reactionary.
The Pre-Fascist Problem on the Right
That the new illiberal-right harbors a pre-fascist worldview means that it shares a fundamental common ground with actual fascists. This, in turn, makes it much easier for them to mingle and cooperate with each other. This stands in contrast to Reaganite conservatives, who have no natural common ground with fascists, given their commitment to limited government. This, plus the fact that the new illiberal-right has found inroads into the mainstream right in recent years, means that they are effectively functioning as a bridge between actual fascists and the mainstream right. Therefore, I believe, without the rise of the new illiberal-right, we wouldn't be seeing actual fascists increasingly finding a way into mainstream conservatism. The new illiberal-right, the bloc of anti-liberal thinkers, activists, and donors and politicians sympathetic to them, are the problem here. We can't stop the mainstreaming of fascistic ideas, and ultimately the inclusion and normalization of actual fascists in the mainstream right, without taking a strong stance against the illiberal-right….
On Deprogramming the Critical Anarchist Mindset
The problem with the critical anarchist worldview is that it leads to an us-vs-them, all-or-none worldview, that makes reformism within the status quo impossible. Either the whole status quo has to be shattered, which would likely lead to widespread chaos, or there would be total paralysis, if the status quo can't be shattered, because of the false belief that the 'system' isn't worth reforming. In either case, nothing positive or productive can ever come out of it. This is why I strongly believe that we must try to deprogram the critical anarchist mindset out of as many progressive movements and people as possible….
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).