The War on Liberalism…

Political discussions
Post Reply
kalm
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 59295
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 3:36 pm
I am a fan of: Eastern
A.K.A.: Humus The Proud
Location: Northern Palouse

The War on Liberalism…

Post by kalm »

The dark side of the left…
Echoes of the confessional state

From the September 4 Issue of The Economist

Old tactics are being revived in a new assault on liberalism

Liberalism was forged in the revolt against the confessional state that had ruled Europe for more than a millennium. In medieval Europe the Roman Catholic church employed a transnational army of black­coated clerics who demanded obedience on all matters spiritual and moral, and had a monopoly in education. The Reformation introduced religious competition, strengthening the confessional state. John Calvin crushed dissent in Geneva with imprisonment, exile and execution. Henry VIII took to boiling dissenters alive. The Roman church invented the Inquisition and the Index of Forbidden Books.

Liberalism started to pick apart this fusion of church and state 350 years ago. John Milton wrote that if the waters of truth “flow not in a perpetual progression they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition”. Baruch Spinoza insisted that scripture must be interpreted like any other book. David Hume and John Stuart Mill argued that the best way to establish truth is by vigorous debate.

The fruit of this thinking was plucked in three revolutions. In America’s, Thomas Jefferson called “the loathsome combination of church and state” the root of most of the world’s ills. The French also established a secular republic. The gradualist English revolution left the Church of England intact but marginalised.

Yet something extraordinary is happening in the West: a new generation of progressives is reviving methods that uncannily resemble those of the confessional state, with modern versions of loyalty oaths and blasphemy laws. And this effort is being spearheaded in the heartland of Anglo­Saxon liberalism—often by people who call themselves liberals. Here is how the old tactics are being revived.

Imposing orthodoxy. Today’s orthodoxy is sustained by an intellectual elite instead of a spiritual one. Their natural home is the university. Some 70­80% of right­leaning academics and doctoral students in Britain and America say that their departments are hostile environments, according to Eric Kaufmann, of Birkbeck College, London.

The progressive left is even more dominant among students. There’s nothing new about left­wing student revolts, but the protests of the 1960s were against the remnants of the confessional state: radicals at Berkeley in California turned Sproul Plaza into a free­speech zone, where anything could be said, and People’s Park into a free­for­all zone, where anything could be done. Today’s radicals demand the enforcement of codes of behaviour and speech. A poll of more than 4,000 fouryear college students for the Knight Foundation in 2019 found that 68% felt that students cannot say what they think because their classmates might find it offensive.

Proselytising. Religious faiths have always had a vanguard, such as the Jesuit order, who see it as their job to move the boundaries of belief and behaviour towards righteousness. The vanguard of the woke revolution are young activists. Belief in foundations of liberalism such as free speech declines with each generation. The Pew Research Centre notes that 40% of millennials favour suppressing, in various unspecified ways, speech deemed offensive to minorities, compared with 27% among Gen Xers, 24% among baby­boom­ers and only 12% among the oldest cohorts.

Progressives replace the liberal emphasis on tolerance and choice with a focus on compulsion and power. As in many religions, righteous folk have a duty to challenge immorality wherever they find it. They find a lot of it, believing that white people can be guilty of racism even if they don’t consciously discriminate against others on the basis of race, because they are beneficiaries of a system of exploitation. Classical liberals conceded that your freedom to swing your fist stops where my nose begins. Today’s progressives argue that your freedom to express your opinions stops where my feelings begin.

Expelling heretics. The new confessional state enforces ideological conformity by expelling heretics from their jobs, a practice that liberals shed much blood trying to eradicate. In academia this is becoming wearily familiar.

In 2018 Colin Wright, a post­doctoral student at Penn State University, wrote two articles arguing that sex is a biological reality not a social construct, a statement that would once have been uncontroversial. Critics posted a warning that “Colin Wright is a Transphobe who supports Race Science” and sent emails to search committees condemning him. Sympathetic academics told him privately that they could not offer him a job as it was “too risky”.

Book banning. In Restoration England Oxford University burned the works of Hobbes and Milton in the great quad next to the Bodleian Library. Today academics put trigger warnings on books, alerting students to the dangers of reading them. Young publishers try to get controversial books “cancelled”.

Though they have failed on their high­est­profile targets such as J.K. Rowling (publishers have to make money), they are succeeding with lesser fry, creating an atmosphere in which senior editors are less likely to bet on unknown authors with controversial opinions. Alexandra Duncan, a white American, even cancelled her own book, “Ember Days”, after writing from the point of view of a black woman, something that is now dismissed as “cultural appropriation”.

Creeds. Churches demanded that people sign a statement of religious beliefs, like the Anglican church’s 39 Articles, before they could hold civil office. The University of California (uc) is doing something similar. Applicants for faculty posts have to complete statements about how they will advance diversity and inclusion.

These are worthy goals. But Abigail Thompson, until recently chair of maths at uc Davis and a lifelong liberal, points out that uc’s scoring system rewards a woke view of how to realise them. In 2019 the life­sciences department at uc Berkeley rejected 76% of applicants on the basis of their diversity statements without looking at their research records.

Blasphemy. Scotland, a cradle of the Enlightenment, abolished the crime of blasphemy in March. At the same time, however, it reintroduced it by creating new offences such as “stirring up hatred” and “abusive speech” —punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The analogy with the past has its limits: no one is getting burnt at the stake. But it is a useful reminder that liberal values such as tolerance cannot be taken for granted. They were the product of centuries of argument and effort. The liberal state is still much younger today than the confessional state was when liberalism replaced it.
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021 ... liberalism
Image
Image
Image
Ibanez
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 60482
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:16 pm
I am a fan of: Coastal Carolina

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ibanez »

FFS....can I get the executive summary please?
Turns out I might be a little gay. 89Hen 11/7/17
User avatar
AZGrizFan
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 59959
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:40 pm
I am a fan of: Sexual Chocolate
Location: Just to the right of center

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by AZGrizFan »

Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:46 am FFS....can I get the executive summary please?
Basic summary: Liberalism has gone off the deep end with woke-ism.
"Ah fuck. You are right." KYJelly, 11/6/12
"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." Barack Obama, 9/25/12
Image
kalm
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 59295
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 3:36 pm
I am a fan of: Eastern
A.K.A.: Humus The Proud
Location: Northern Palouse

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by kalm »

AZGrizFan wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:55 am
Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:46 am FFS....can I get the executive summary please?
Basic summary: Liberalism has gone off the deep end with woke-ism.
Wokism is illiberal. :coffee:
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
GannonFan
Level5
Level5
Posts: 18033
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:51 am
I am a fan of: Delaware
A.K.A.: Non-Partisan Hack

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by GannonFan »

kalm wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:27 am
AZGrizFan wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:55 am

Basic summary: Liberalism has gone off the deep end with woke-ism.
Wokism is illiberal. :coffee:
This is news how? :coffee:
Proud Member of the Blue Hen Nation
kalm
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 59295
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 3:36 pm
I am a fan of: Eastern
A.K.A.: Humus The Proud
Location: Northern Palouse

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by kalm »

GannonFan wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:39 am
kalm wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:27 am

Wokism is illiberal. :coffee:
This is news how? :coffee:
See the post above mine. :coffee:
Image
Image
Image
Ivytalk
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 26827
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:22 pm
I am a fan of: Salisbury University
Location: Republic of Western Sussex

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ivytalk »

Truth, but not new. The Progressive Inquisition has been accelerating for some time.
“I’m tired and done.” — 89Hen 3/27/22.
User avatar
UNI88
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 19949
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:30 am
I am a fan of: UNI
Location: the foggy, woggy banks Of the Limpopo River

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by UNI88 »

Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:33 am Truth, but not new. The Progressive Inquisition has been accelerating for some time.
Inquisition is a good descriptor.
Being wrong about a topic is called post partisanism - kalm
User avatar
CID1990
Level5
Level5
Posts: 25460
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:40 am
I am a fan of: Pie
A.K.A.: CID 1990
Location: กรุงเทพมหานคร

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by CID1990 »

GannonFan wrote:
kalm wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:27 am Wokism is illiberal. :coffee:
This is news how? :coffee:
Yeah several of us have only been saying this on here for years


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
"You however, are an insufferable ankle biting mental chihuahua..." - Clizzoris
User avatar
Pwns
Level4
Level4
Posts: 7273
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:38 pm
I am a fan of: Georgia Friggin' Southern
A.K.A.: FCS_pwns_FBS (AGS)

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Pwns »

The best argument against American Meritocracy is to look at how stupid a lot of today's yuppies are. These are the people that send their kids to schools that are about "decolonizing math" and "making gender obsolete". In previous times you sent your kids to private schools to get away from that stuff.

On another note, I wonder if the economic left will figure out that these people that think race is a more important than class in America are their worst enemies and not Bubba and Jim Bob.
Celebrate Diversity.*
*of appearance only. Restrictions apply.
Ibanez
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 60482
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:16 pm
I am a fan of: Coastal Carolina

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ibanez »

Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:33 am Truth, but not new. The Progressive Inquisition has been accelerating for some time.
The Inquisition, what a show!
The Inquisition, here we go!
We know you're wishin' that we go away
So come on, you Muslims and you Jews
We got big news for all of youse
You better change your point of views today
'cause the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay!
Turns out I might be a little gay. 89Hen 11/7/17
Ivytalk
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 26827
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:22 pm
I am a fan of: Salisbury University
Location: Republic of Western Sussex

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ivytalk »

Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:20 am
Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:33 am Truth, but not new. The Progressive Inquisition has been accelerating for some time.
The Inquisition, what a show!
The Inquisition, here we go!
We know you're wishin' that we go away
So come on, you Muslims and you Jews
We got big news for all of youse
You better change your point of views today
'cause the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay!
:tothehand:
“I’m tired and done.” — 89Hen 3/27/22.
User avatar
UNI88
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 19949
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:30 am
I am a fan of: UNI
Location: the foggy, woggy banks Of the Limpopo River

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by UNI88 »

Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:47 am
Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:20 am
The Inquisition, what a show!
The Inquisition, here we go!
We know you're wishin' that we go away
So come on, you Muslims and you Jews
We got big news for all of youse
You better change your point of views today
'cause the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay!
:tothehand:
You don't like Mel Brooks? Blasphemy! :kisswink:
Being wrong about a topic is called post partisanism - kalm
Ibanez
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 60482
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:16 pm
I am a fan of: Coastal Carolina

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ibanez »

Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:47 am
Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:20 am
The Inquisition, what a show!
The Inquisition, here we go!
We know you're wishin' that we go away
So come on, you Muslims and you Jews
We got big news for all of youse
You better change your point of views today
'cause the Inquisition's here and it's here to stay!
:tothehand:
Not a Mel Brooks fan?
Turns out I might be a little gay. 89Hen 11/7/17
Ivytalk
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 26827
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:22 pm
I am a fan of: Salisbury University
Location: Republic of Western Sussex

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ivytalk »

Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:59 am
Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:47 am

:tothehand:
Not a Mel Brooks fan?
Love Mel Brooks. It was the second time today that you responded to one of my posts with a long movie quote. Junior Ivy drives me nuts that way. I had enough.
“I’m tired and done.” — 89Hen 3/27/22.
User avatar
UNI88
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 19949
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:30 am
I am a fan of: UNI
Location: the foggy, woggy banks Of the Limpopo River

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by UNI88 »

Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 12:40 pm
Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:59 am
Not a Mel Brooks fan?
Love Mel Brooks. It was the second time today that you responded to one of my posts with a long movie quote. Junior Ivy drives me nuts that way. I had enough.
Is this quote short enough for you ...

Image

;)
Being wrong about a topic is called post partisanism - kalm
Ivytalk
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 26827
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:22 pm
I am a fan of: Salisbury University
Location: Republic of Western Sussex

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ivytalk »

UNI88 wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 12:41 pm
Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 12:40 pm

Love Mel Brooks. It was the second time today that you responded to one of my posts with a long movie quote. Junior Ivy drives me nuts that way. I had enough.
Is this quote short enough for you ...

Image

;)
:tothehand:
“I’m tired and done.” — 89Hen 3/27/22.
Ibanez
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 60482
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:16 pm
I am a fan of: Coastal Carolina

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ibanez »

Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 12:40 pm
Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:59 am
Not a Mel Brooks fan?
Love Mel Brooks. It was the second time today that you responded to one of my posts with a long movie quote. Junior Ivy drives me nuts that way. I had enough.
I didn't mean to upset the dauphin. :kisswink: :kisswink:
Turns out I might be a little gay. 89Hen 11/7/17
CAA Flagship
4th&29
4th&29
Posts: 38526
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:01 pm
I am a fan of: Old Dominion
A.K.A.: He/His/Him/Himself
Location: Pizza Hell

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by CAA Flagship »

Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:59 am
Ivytalk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:47 am

:tothehand:
Not a Mel Brooks fan?
I have him in the death pool. :lol:
Ivytalk
Supporter
Supporter
Posts: 26827
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:22 pm
I am a fan of: Salisbury University
Location: Republic of Western Sussex

Re: The War on Liberalism…

Post by Ivytalk »

CAA Flagship wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:33 pm
Ibanez wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:59 am
Not a Mel Brooks fan?
I have him in the death pool. :lol:
:tothehand:

:mrgreen:
“I’m tired and done.” — 89Hen 3/27/22.
Post Reply