Conservative Homophobia and Progressive Avoidance of CRT
Welcome to the Lib Lib Report, i.e. the Liberal Libertarian Report, where we talk about news and current affairs from a liberal libertarian point of view. We aim for a practical pro-liberty politics encouraging things like free speech and free thought in the here and now, while looking for more libertarian solutions moving towards the future.
I want to talk about political tribalism making people unable to face the problems on their own side of politics. I believe that the ideal of a free society should include people being able to think independently and look at things objectively at all times, and not feel pressured to stay silent when things go wrong. Sadly, we are clearly not there yet. I will use the example of homophobia in conservative circles and the avoidance of the critical race theory debate in progressive circles to illustrate the problem.
Recently, when conservative commentator Dave Rubin announced that he was starting a family with his husband, it was quite controversially received in conservative circles. Some people even said some horribly homophobic things (that I won’t repeat here). Others were surprised at the intensity of the reaction within the Right. After all, almost every Western country has gay marriage nowadays, and a recent poll showed that a large majority of Americans, including a slim majority of Republicans, now supported marriage equality. But then, it is clear that society does not move in the direction of freedom at the same pace, and some people remain quite behind the times on this issue. It is also not the only time conservatives had a negative reaction to LGBT people on their own side: last year, when Caitlyn Jenner ran for governor in California, some conservatives reacted quite badly too.
The mixed reaction to Rubin’s announcement led to a discussion, on both the Left and the Right, as to whether there remains a serious problem of homophobia on the Right. As expected, the Left basically unanimously nailed the Right as homophobic, which also linked into their view that Rubin made the wrong choice in moving to the Right. Meanwhile, many on the Right, who are clearly not anti-gay themselves, nevertheless seemed to feel the need to downplay the problem on their side, putting the reaction down to a niche faction within the Right that didn’t represent mainstream conservatism. I guess the truth is somewhere in between. But the point is, people are clearly more interested in attacking the opposite side or defending their own side, rather than seeking the truth of the matter, and thinking about what we might be able to do to make things better.
Now, let’s talk about how progressive liberals have basically avoided talking about critical race theory (CRT). While CRT has been a hot topic of conversation in America and several other Western countries, mainstream progressives seem to have avoided dealing with the substance of the topic. For example, while conservatives argue against CRT and the Theory Left argue for CRT, based on what CRT actually is, many progressives would choose to instead talk about how conservative attempts to ‘ban CRT’ from schools are having adverse impacts on free speech and the teaching of accurate history to students. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with quite a lot of these criticisms too, to the point where I believe that government action to ‘ban CRT’ is basically illiberal and counterproductive. However, none of this takes away from the fact that CRT, and other associated critical theories, are increasingly influencing the mainstream culture of the West, and this has serious implications for our future, because certain commitments of CRT are clearly incompatible with liberal democracy.
I guess the reluctance of progressive liberals to seriously deal with CRT is because they feel conflicted. I’m sure that many of them have serious concerns about CRT and its associated ideas too. However, they don’t want to cede any ground to conservatives by speaking up about it. It’s like how many pro-LGBT conservatives privately concede that their side still has a homophobia problem. However, they downplay it to avoid giving any ground to progressives. In both cases, it is tribalism that is preventing people from following their own conscience, and speaking up on what they see is wrong. This is why it’s important to prevent tribalism in our thinking, and support the culture of free speech that encourages free thought.
TaraElla is a singer-songwriter and author, who recently published her autobiography The TaraElla Story, in which she described the events that inspired her writing.
She is also the author of the Moral Libertarian Horizon books, which argue that liberalism is still the most moral and effective value system for Western democracies in the 21st century.
