I’m Still Pretty Left-Wing by 2004 Standards
And other reflections on being politically homeless for 11 years
By now, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of the ‘Why I Left the Left’ story. In fact, it’s been done to death, by everyone from Dave Rubin to Elon Musk. But before that, it was sort of my story. I considered myself having ‘left the left’ way back in 2013. By ‘left’, I don’t mean political parties like the Democrats or the British Labour Party, or their counterparts in other countries. Parties are broad churches, and there are many people in these parties who are not necessarily ‘left’. (I don’t even think of Biden and Starmer as ‘left’ anyway, in fact they have made their parties less ‘left’, defying their parties’ base in doing so.) I also don’t mean actual (old-school) socialists like Bernie. What I mean by ‘left’ is a specific kind of activist, or semi-activist. They have a specific collective culture and worldview, and they base their activism on that. Moreover, this worldview can change over time, because of various influences. Back in around 2013, I felt that I no longer belonged in this culture. My ‘why I left the left’ story was as simple as that. (And it certainly didn’t mean going to the right!)
Another aspect of the ‘Why I Left the Left’ phenomenon is that some people like to say, ‘I didn’t leave the Left. The Left left me.’ It seems that this would apply to me, actually. I still have most of the beliefs I had when I was in college. I was pro-free speech then, and I am still pro-free speech now. I was anti-war then, and I am still anti-war now. I was pro-gay marriage then, and I am still pro-gay marriage now. Nothing much has changed. Back then, what I supported was objectively in opposition to what the right stood for, so I naturally identified with the left, which stood opposed to the right, particularly the neoconservative-religious right represented by the Bush-43 administration. The ‘left’ back then seemed to have no particular agenda except being anti-right, and sometimes anti-Bush specifically. Given the authoritarian tendencies of Bush and neoconservatism, this made the ‘left’ the side of freedom by default. As I liked to say, unlike the right, the left did not have a specific agenda, except to live and let live.
However, around 2013, something changed. The left began to be heavily influenced by postmodern critical theory. Looking back, it began with the obsession about things like whether this or that was cultural appropriation, and whether to call out this or that. Then came the supposedly ‘progressive’ developments like ‘safe speech’, ‘check your privilege’ and ‘xyz is a social construct’. And if you raised objections to these viewpoints, they would show their most severe displeasure at the minimum, and actively try to cancel you at the maximum. All this eventually evolved into what is commonly known as ‘wokeness’ and cancel culture. I guess this was why a lot of freedom-loving people began to ‘leave the left’. The ‘left’, whatever it was, was no longer for us. It was no longer a place without a specific agenda, except to live and let live. It now had an agenda, and it was not very live and let live at all.
After essentially being forced out of the left, we became politically homeless. This did not feel very good, but you get used to it. But it really didn’t feel good to be ‘lonely’, especially in the beginning. I guess this was why some people who ‘left the left’ this way ended up on the right, and often became its loudest cheerleaders. They needed to side with something. They needed a community to agree with. Just like we joined the ‘left’ because we opposed neoconservatism, they now joined the ‘right’ because they opposed the postmodern critical theory new left. I think that’s a tragedy, because the right simply hasn’t given up on its authoritarian tendencies. They never did, and I suspect they never will, given how much they depend on funding from the religious right and political organization based in evangelical churches. In fact, they appear to have taken authoritarianism to whole new heights in recent years, with the rise of ‘national conservatism’ (NatCon) and similar ideologies.
The troubling thing is, those who wanted to join the right basically ended up rationalizing their authoritarianism. Like how the religious right is now the lesser evil compared to the woke. Like, you’re still saying this after they passed six-week abortion bans, drag bans, and even tried to ban IVF in Alabama? And haven’t you read the Project 2025 policies yet? Alternatively, they say that wokeism has created such an emergency that it justifies right-wing illiberalism as an emergency measure. Sort of like how Bush et al. used terrorism as an excuse to overturn basic civil liberties that had stood for centuries, something that has not been reversed to this day. You know, I wouldn’t have had my first political awakening during the ‘war on terror’ if I was OK with all this. Seeing how these formerly ‘pro freedom’ people make excuses for authoritarianism so easily, just to fit in with their new tribe, almost makes me lose faith in humanity itself. By staying politically homeless, at least I can stay true to my freedom-loving conscience, and not have to defend, or be associated in any way with, stuff like this.
So politically homeless is the best way to be, at least for now, at least for live and let live people like myself. At least we don’t have to join the authoritarian cults on either side. I still have hope for the future that we can set up our own camp, and make it like how the ‘left’ was twenty years ago: live and let live, with no specific agenda. And certainly no ideological obsessions coming from either postmodern critical theory or religious fundamentalism.
Originally published at https://taraella.substack.com.
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).
