Yes, strange times. I doubt many of their readers might necessarily also like my other writing, though I think about a quarter of my readership is Christian in some form or another.
And I do like to remind people that the communist party which asked Marx to write the Communist Manifesto was a merger of two groups, the larger part being the "League of the Just," which was a Catholic communist group. And as John Michael Greer likes to say, "communism is a Christian heresy."
"Changing the way an adult thinks requires coming up with a good argument, reasoning well, and taking into account their counter-arguments."
Has anyone experienced this? I never have. Changes of mind have come from the heart, not reason. If anything, reasoned arguements have entrenched opinions, but that might just be my being crap at arguing. And spelling. And grammar. People tend to rationalise their feelings, which is why getting them while they are still malleable is better.
I have. Many of the most significant ideological and perception changes in my life came as an adult and through reasoning, often also through argument. But in my view, reason isn't just an intellectual exercise, since our minds are part of our bodies.
This makes me think of Ursula le Guin’s The Dispossessed where I loved all the ideas except the break up of the family, all the children separated from their parents -‘everyone’s children’, something I hadn’t previously known was a leftist project (my own ignorance entirely).
Also in Brave New World, but there at least it’s obvious it’s unsettling.
Yes, absolutely. I think that's why she subtitled it "an ambiguous utopia." Even as an anarchist, I realized I would really not prefer to live in that kind of society, despite it being exactly an "ideal" anarchist one.
Yes, and I think Le Guin implicitly critiques (or at least interrogates) this system within the plot too- like many other plot points, the question becomes 'what do we do when it doesn't work?'
I'm a paying subscriber to Unherd but have struggled to go there recently, seeing their general bias, particularly among readers, regarding Israel. But it's great they're publishing you, Rhyd, and I'll be interested to see what the response is there to your work.
This has happened for a lot of journals lately, yes, and not just on Israel. I feel quite estranged from all of them, but I long ago stopped thinking I need to agree with an outlet to actually publish there (wish the rest of the left would understand this...).
All that being said, I will likely -not- read the comments there. :)
A valuable reminder of the dangers of extremist ideology of any kind, and I think Social Justice Identarianism is a brilliant label for some adherents of it.
To be clear, I'm not the only leftist who has written there. Freddie DeBoer also does, for example.
I had read the Guardian article a week after I pitched the essay, but found the author's argument unpersuasive and quite alarmist, especially in how he attempted to make Unherd's massive readership (2 million unique visitors per month, much more than the New Statesmen) as something that should be "worrisome." All major media outlets are owned or funded by very rich people with establishment politics, and Unherd is now a major one that millions of people read, rather than a fringe journal.
Also, as you know, there are very few leftist journals or publishers that will even dare critique social justice identitarianism right now. Perhaps you've noticed that my own book hasn't appeared in any journals and is barely even being promoted by the publisher currently. There's a bit of a blacklisting on this topic, but Unherd was more than willing to work with me and did not even try to change the slightest bit of my defenses of leftism itself.
Great essay, and I appreciate the historical research you put into your work. I actually think these are huge reasons (abolishing the nuclear family and the creepier parts of sex positivity) why many people who support left-leaning policy around healthcare, student debt, and labor rights are wary of what is called leftism is now. It's become a counterculture of people rebelling against very specific childhood traumas involving their Christian upbringing, rather than a politics.
Also, I think it's great you write for Unherd. I don't like this leftist presupposition that if you write in a publication that features right wing writers, that you are going to catch some fascist disease and be forever tainted by association. The idea that people who read right wing publications are bad and can never be persuaded by a leftist idea feels like some kind of Calvinist predetermination thing.
I remember in the 2020 election, when it looked like Warren was going to drop out of the Democratic primary, there was some talk among my Sanders supporting friends of reaching out to Warren supporters to help with Bernie's campaign, rather than bully them online (which a lot of Sanders supporters were doing). A lot of leftists insisted that bullying Warren supporters online was justified because bullying was never a factor in influencing an already "good" person to change their mind about a political issue. At this point I became convinced that many people who identify as leftist didn't want to build a mass movement behind some of Sanders' more popular policy proposals, and just wanted a socially sanctioned way to punish others for the personal injustices they feel they've experienced.
I've been pleasantly surprised to see you on the fringes I've been residing in since 2017. And impressed that you have many of the same concerns I did. After Occupy Wall Street there was an enormous shift away from class consciousness toward race consciousness, BMI consciousness, sexual minority consciousness, disability consciousness, and pretty much EVERY form of consciousness that didn't mention income inequality.
Back in the day our rule of thumb was that just about any form of sexual deviance (in the clincal, not the pejorative sense) was acceptable so long as all parties involved were consenting adults. It's telling that we then started hearing complaints about consent and racism, ableism, transphobia, etc. And recurring comments like "so why is adult/child sex ALWAYS a bad thing?"
You're spot on regarding Wilhelm Reich and the idea that the Sexual Revolution was going to schtup its way into a new utopia. It's why we have crusaders fighting against persecution of "gender identities" that didn't exist last week. The Frankfurt School recognized that it was easier to get people excited by orgies than economic theory. (To be fair, given a choice between an orgy and reading *Das Kapital* I think most of us would choose the former... ). Harnessing the sex drive for political revolutions was a clever piece of social engineering, but one that leads to a lot of bourgeois playacting that ultimately shores up the System rather than tearing it down.
Yes, strange times. I doubt many of their readers might necessarily also like my other writing, though I think about a quarter of my readership is Christian in some form or another.
And I do like to remind people that the communist party which asked Marx to write the Communist Manifesto was a merger of two groups, the larger part being the "League of the Just," which was a Catholic communist group. And as John Michael Greer likes to say, "communism is a Christian heresy."
"Changing the way an adult thinks requires coming up with a good argument, reasoning well, and taking into account their counter-arguments."
Has anyone experienced this? I never have. Changes of mind have come from the heart, not reason. If anything, reasoned arguements have entrenched opinions, but that might just be my being crap at arguing. And spelling. And grammar. People tend to rationalise their feelings, which is why getting them while they are still malleable is better.
I have. Many of the most significant ideological and perception changes in my life came as an adult and through reasoning, often also through argument. But in my view, reason isn't just an intellectual exercise, since our minds are part of our bodies.
This makes me think of Ursula le Guin’s The Dispossessed where I loved all the ideas except the break up of the family, all the children separated from their parents -‘everyone’s children’, something I hadn’t previously known was a leftist project (my own ignorance entirely).
Also in Brave New World, but there at least it’s obvious it’s unsettling.
Yes, absolutely. I think that's why she subtitled it "an ambiguous utopia." Even as an anarchist, I realized I would really not prefer to live in that kind of society, despite it being exactly an "ideal" anarchist one.
Yes, and I think Le Guin implicitly critiques (or at least interrogates) this system within the plot too- like many other plot points, the question becomes 'what do we do when it doesn't work?'
I'm a paying subscriber to Unherd but have struggled to go there recently, seeing their general bias, particularly among readers, regarding Israel. But it's great they're publishing you, Rhyd, and I'll be interested to see what the response is there to your work.
This has happened for a lot of journals lately, yes, and not just on Israel. I feel quite estranged from all of them, but I long ago stopped thinking I need to agree with an outlet to actually publish there (wish the rest of the left would understand this...).
All that being said, I will likely -not- read the comments there. :)
I've just had a look and, yes, maybe best not to... Eek!
A valuable reminder of the dangers of extremist ideology of any kind, and I think Social Justice Identarianism is a brilliant label for some adherents of it.
But please be careful with UnHerd. I know Paul Kingsnorth has been caught up in it as he has embraced anti-modernism. But most of the writers on it are hard-right conservatives and many are outright racists, including those propagating disgusting anti-Moslem hate and propaganda about events in Gaza. This article in the Guardian sounds the alarm about getting into bed with them: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/28/loud-and-uncowed-how-unherd-owner-paul-marshall-became-britains-newest-media-mogul
To be clear, I'm not the only leftist who has written there. Freddie DeBoer also does, for example.
I had read the Guardian article a week after I pitched the essay, but found the author's argument unpersuasive and quite alarmist, especially in how he attempted to make Unherd's massive readership (2 million unique visitors per month, much more than the New Statesmen) as something that should be "worrisome." All major media outlets are owned or funded by very rich people with establishment politics, and Unherd is now a major one that millions of people read, rather than a fringe journal.
Also, as you know, there are very few leftist journals or publishers that will even dare critique social justice identitarianism right now. Perhaps you've noticed that my own book hasn't appeared in any journals and is barely even being promoted by the publisher currently. There's a bit of a blacklisting on this topic, but Unherd was more than willing to work with me and did not even try to change the slightest bit of my defenses of leftism itself.
Great essay, and I appreciate the historical research you put into your work. I actually think these are huge reasons (abolishing the nuclear family and the creepier parts of sex positivity) why many people who support left-leaning policy around healthcare, student debt, and labor rights are wary of what is called leftism is now. It's become a counterculture of people rebelling against very specific childhood traumas involving their Christian upbringing, rather than a politics.
Also, I think it's great you write for Unherd. I don't like this leftist presupposition that if you write in a publication that features right wing writers, that you are going to catch some fascist disease and be forever tainted by association. The idea that people who read right wing publications are bad and can never be persuaded by a leftist idea feels like some kind of Calvinist predetermination thing.
I remember in the 2020 election, when it looked like Warren was going to drop out of the Democratic primary, there was some talk among my Sanders supporting friends of reaching out to Warren supporters to help with Bernie's campaign, rather than bully them online (which a lot of Sanders supporters were doing). A lot of leftists insisted that bullying Warren supporters online was justified because bullying was never a factor in influencing an already "good" person to change their mind about a political issue. At this point I became convinced that many people who identify as leftist didn't want to build a mass movement behind some of Sanders' more popular policy proposals, and just wanted a socially sanctioned way to punish others for the personal injustices they feel they've experienced.
You are absolutely correct in all of this. Thanks for your support.
I've been pleasantly surprised to see you on the fringes I've been residing in since 2017. And impressed that you have many of the same concerns I did. After Occupy Wall Street there was an enormous shift away from class consciousness toward race consciousness, BMI consciousness, sexual minority consciousness, disability consciousness, and pretty much EVERY form of consciousness that didn't mention income inequality.
Back in the day our rule of thumb was that just about any form of sexual deviance (in the clincal, not the pejorative sense) was acceptable so long as all parties involved were consenting adults. It's telling that we then started hearing complaints about consent and racism, ableism, transphobia, etc. And recurring comments like "so why is adult/child sex ALWAYS a bad thing?"
You're spot on regarding Wilhelm Reich and the idea that the Sexual Revolution was going to schtup its way into a new utopia. It's why we have crusaders fighting against persecution of "gender identities" that didn't exist last week. The Frankfurt School recognized that it was easier to get people excited by orgies than economic theory. (To be fair, given a choice between an orgy and reading *Das Kapital* I think most of us would choose the former... ). Harnessing the sex drive for political revolutions was a clever piece of social engineering, but one that leads to a lot of bourgeois playacting that ultimately shores up the System rather than tearing it down.
I wanted to read your comments at the Unherd site, but the'privacy' policies of that site are unacceptable to me.