Why There Must be a Reform of the Left (and the Entire Social Justice Movement)

Considering what has been happening recently in this country, I’m here to talk about what the next steps should be within the social justice community, the feminist community and the community of all people who identify with the left and with Democratic Party in some fashion. When I use the phrase social justice I am talking about a myriad of social issues that plague our nation, though the movement itself has focused on gender and race issues in recent years, and that will be my focus here as well. I hope that was clear enough for all of you, because I’m not here to argue about the fine details of specifics of those movements. I feel confident that when I bring up social justice and the like you can immediately get a sense of what I am talking about; otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this now would you? I also want to point out that these people represent a vocal minority of those liberally minded people in the country, and it seems that recently they have been dominating the movement.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, lets focus on the actual issue at hand: how the toxic spiral of anger, hate, overreaction, outrage, and venom has created a reactionary left that is equally as bad as the alt-right. Yes I know that is a controversial stance to take from someone who identifies with the left but that is the honest truth. The internet has allowed for these echo chambers to exist, where people whip each other up into a fury and attack their perceived attackers. Where no real discourse happens, only insistent and reactionary speech which tends to serve no real purpose. As your typical, average CIS white male living in California, I see it happen all too much whenever I get involved in talking about these issues.

“You’re just saying that because you’re white”

“You’re white, you don’t understand”

“You’re white, you don’t get to talk about what is racist or not”

“You’re a man, you can’t be raped”

“You’re a white male, you cannot experience sexism or racism, you’re totally blind to it”

I’m not here to refute the facts as I can only truly speak from my own experiences: yes I have had it much easier than most. I could go and endlessly list all of the things that have never happened to me that happen to women and people of color every single day, but that is not the point here. The point is that we have to come together and end this recursive cycle of reactionary thought because it is killing us.

Some piece of media gets released, it could be a piece of writing, an audio recording or some type of video, essentially any type of media, and some part of it offends someone’s sensibilities, thus beginning the cycle of comments, reactions, and outrage. This seems to now happen on an almost daily level this year. I have no trouble in calling these reactions overblown and detrimental to the cause. For a long period during this decade we on the left have lamented the overreaction and perceived craziness from the right (one only needs to invoke the cultural totem of Fox News in their head to get at what I mean) and now we have the same exact thing gnawing away at us.

Yet here we are in 2017 and we continue to witness these ridiculous overreactions. For example, take the recent uproar over The Grammy’s or The Oscar’s. Instead of simply accepting the fact that these are awards shows that do not validate or invalidate someone’s art, and that they are designed with the intention to get viewers, people get frenzied and howl incessantly about how the whole academy is racist because an artist (or movie) they liked did not win. I take no shame in saying this: people have different tastes, especially when it comes to the arts, and people aren’t going to automatically agree with you and they shouldn’t be shamed for their disagreement. Is it so inconceivable for someone to take the stance that Lemonade by Beyonce was NOT the cultural zeitgeist of this decade? Or that Moonlight was not some genre defining movie that will influence a generation of filmmakers? Yet here we have two cases where people on social media have felt emboldened to shove their opinion down everyone’s throats. And if you don’t like it then that means you are racist or if you like a lily-white movie like La La Land or a lily-white artist like Adele that’s only, ONLY because of your race (in this case white) or your subconscious hatred of people of color which has made you put those ahead of vastly superior works by minorities. Media companies now thrive on this type of stuff and put out outrageous articles simply for the sake of getting clicks and reactions from people. We now have writers who find great pleasure in comparing mainstream “whitewashed” music and movies to fascist Nazi propaganda and totalitarian regimes of old.

This type of behavior is killing our movement and turning away the very people we are trying to convert. All it does is continues this endless cycle of frustration that silences many like-minded liberals who want to speak out but feel as if they cannot.

It’s blatantly obvious that the main focus of these social movements should be to educate those people in power so that these injustices stop. I am not having this debate; this is a logical truth of the current situation in society in this country. Just take a moment to look at the premise I am presenting here, and leave whatever inherent biases you have attached out of it. There are people in power who do actions that upset you and make your life more difficult. These people are at the top of the hierarchy so their actions, no matter how minuscule, spill over into your life in some fashion. Thus the goal of the movement is to first change the way these people perceive how their actions affect other people, plain and simple. The country isn’t going to wake up one day and immediately get rid of these privileged CIS white males and replace them with every single oppressed minority. And there are plenty of other privileged people out there that don’t fit the neat description I have just provided you, because America is a diverse nation which means that oppression and injustice come in many different forms from many different people.

Yet, by staying in your own echo chamber and complaining constantly about oppression and racism and sexism you are not actually converting anyone to your cause that was not already interested or a part of it. I’m not saying that adding new members from those marginalized demographics is a bad thing; however more needs to be done in terms of reaching out to those that share a different opinion on the current state of affairs.

And here is the root of all of this: you don’t convince people to take your side by shaming them or pointing out that their entire existence is wrong and incorrect. It reeks of arrogance; in fact it reeks of privilege, the very privilege you are trying to combat. The fact that you are able to read this right now is proof enough that you have some form of privilege in your life. This is a fact; you have an internet connection that has allowed you to pull up this page and read what I have to say. You have had the time to educate yourself on all of these matters and stay active politically and scream at the top of your lungs about privilege and oppression. This arrogance is toxic because it doesn’t produce an actual discourse between the two opposing sides. Life is not a zero sum game with absolute winners and absolute losers, where one side claims victory at the expense of the other. We may be in a period of time where this concept of nuanced and reasoned discourse seems impossible at worst and improbable at best, but don’t let yourself become a prisoner of the moment. Presenting your situation, presenting your arguments, and your grievances in a logically sound way that accurately describes your concerns is still possible.

One has to be aware of their audience when it comes to speaking, especially when it comes to persuading people to agree with you. Yet, you seem to act like these unnamed assailants, these evil white males, will just agree with you after you harass them enough or make enough signs or protest outside of their offices or tweet at them enough.

Not good enough.

If we were to flip this paradigm around you would see how faulty this line of reasoning is. Imagine that a bunch of these evil white male boogie-men appeared outside your place of work, demanding that you adhere to their social standards. Or if they spend their free time bashing you on social media or writing long dramatic articles online to make it appear that you are solely responsible for all the hardship and suffering in their lives. How exactly does that sound to you? Does it sound convincing? You can whine and go ahead and say how that is not a fair comparison since white men have been in power this whole time and thus have shaped the entire world to fit their own designs but my point still stands: the argument is not persuasive.

Compassion and understanding are not weaknesses; being well spoken is not a detriment to rational dialogue. Those that scream the loudest on both sides of this divide do so knowing (at some level) that they are bound to get a reaction from the opposition, that they are bound to get their attention. Yet, this type of action on social media doesn’t produce anything substantive: it only ends in a recursive cycle of insults and name-calling. If we are to gain more political traction around the country and continue to fight to have our ideals and our causes heard there has to be a better approach.

As I have discussed earlier, this approach spills over into many other facets of culture as well: everything is examined and determined to either be hurtful, harmful, racist, sexist and all the like things associated with those terms and their opposites. We now constantly judge everything on social media, sitting in our rooms typing away at our screens about all of these perceived slights and outrages. How does this lead to any kind of discourse that actually solves any of these issues? As it turns out very little discourse because people want simple solutions to complex problems and they are not willing to put in the intellectual work to figure out a simple solution that can work.

And I have one, one that is quite simple for anyone out there to do. All it took was some insightful and thoughtful thinking with regards to these issues that we continue to face. It also involved admitting to myself that I too am prone to overreacting to the situation when it’s not in my favor.

So,

When someone says something that bothers you, think critically about it: why does it cause you to react in a certain way. Resist the urge to make a ridiculous statement or go whine to your friends about it. Just take a few moments to deconstruct what’s occurring: break it down to its base elements. Next think about the person who said it and what their line of reasoning could be. Perhaps they are just a mean spirited troll that is out to make people react harshly to their outrageous claims. Or perhaps they are merely voicing an honest opinion they have about something. Instead of howling or demonizing them, take a moment to consider why they would hold those viewpoints. Sure, they could be coming from a privileged point of view, so you may have to take that into consideration. There are a myriad of points to consider when critically thinking about these issues, and this is incredibly important when it comes to creating some kind of honest and thoughtful discourse. Please understand that, and understand that we’re all in this together; we reside in this country and these issues are not going to get solved with the current approach. We face tough times ahead because many people who live in critical and important states are tired of hearing these arguments, and they are tired of being demonized for simply living their lives. Sure there are plenty of counterexamples to be had here but try to think about the underlying point here as it relates to this piece: you can’t simply convince people that their entire life is wrong and that they have secretly been oppressing someone else this entire time and that their opinions are not valid.

In fact, by overreacting to everything that you find to offend your sensibility you are giving those on the right side of the spectrum ample fodder to work with. They want to provoke reactions and use these reactions as justification that liberal leaning people are deranged and hypocritical: they shout and scream when a perceived attack is hurled their way and do the exact opposite when the issue is one they oppose. Again we see this happen on an almost daily basis on social media and it does us no good. We now have this reactionary arm of the left that seeks to react to the reactionary right: and this creates an endless recursive, negative feedback loop. If you truly believe that your point of view is correct and you are justified in your stance, then you should have no trouble being able to prove it without resorting to theatrics.

I do believe that the cause we are fighting for is a good one, one that is centered on fair and equal treatment for everyone living in this country. However, we have to extend that courtesy to those who may not share our political views: to stigmatize and push back against them creates an environment of hostility, such as the one we are currently living in. Really all I ask is that you take a moment to think critically about what is actually going on before making some social media post, or before you even verbalize your opinion to someone else. Take the time to analyze the situation and what is at stake for both sides.

This is the only reasonable way I can think of for us to start to bridge these gaping divides that currently exist here in America and I hope that you can take the time to critically think about these issues from a rational perspective.