Tolerating dissent

[Mugwump]

[Jezza]

[Mugwump]

[pietillidie]

^The Marxian Left hardly exists at all. You're confusing it with poststructuralism, which not only outright rejects the Marxian Left, but has accidentally become mainstream by morphing with general socioeconomic trends.

What comes first, more women entering the workforce because they finally can, or the economic demand for more women to enter the workforce? It's a chicken-egg problem. The point being that most of these things are merely a child of their times, not the result of some scheme arising from a university union lounge somewhere.

The main schools of thought which have merged into poststructuralism have been feminism, queer theory and postcolonialism, among a few others. Just what among these areas of thought are causing so much grief on earth that they're worth waging war against? I am always bemused by the feelings of contest here.

Irritating Facebook talk should not be confused with mundane but important topics, from the recognition of unpaid work in the home, to the history of discrimination against disabled folks. As with business and economics, you have filter out the nonsense and take the good stuff in these fields; there is no war against sinister forces to be had here, for goodness' sake. Such talk is the stuff of the old Marxian Left; is the objective to take up their mantle?

Let's also not forget the rot peddled throughout history which has ultimately seen the scales fall from people's eyes; the entire pre-history of vulgar colonialism, slavery, sexism, racism, elitism, discrimination, ethnocentrism, nationalism, abuse by religious institutions, and blocking of access to opportunity by wealth, is the precursor here.

The mass awareness of that ugly pre-history in many ways gave rise to what could be described as a new form of nihilism as people saw that any old BS with enough power behind it could become 'truth'. Curiously, it also happens to be a 'people's nihilism', unlike the last version which was only accessible to elite circles. It is as much responsible for Trump as it is anything on the Left which grates.

It makes perfect sense that we should be floundering as we try to find a way forward despite knowing that everything is ultimately BS. This is the fundamental challenge; the wars we fight against this or the other social demon are a distraction from it.

[Mugwump]

[stui magpie]

[thesoretoothsayer]

Don't worry it's only Alex Jones, we can totally trust big brother, I mean, big tech:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-02/g ... a/10067648

[pietillidie]

...i did have to smile at the fact that the litany of "isms" you set out to deplore managed to overlook communism, which was pehaps the only one not rooted in ancient human nature, but actually arose from modern hubris to imprison and murder whole populations behind walls. Having emerged from dark ages, only reckless transcendental ideology is likely to plunge us back there.

I was actually discussing the rise of poststructuralism, not deploring isms. Even so, your point is well taken because Communism was the original cause celebre of poststructuralist work, and the immediate reason for its break with the old left, which it saw as trying to salvage the metanarrative underlying Communism.

The popular uptake of communism might have been rooted in indignation arising from those other isms, whether be elitism and classism, or postcolonialism, but it makes the nihilist conclusion even more inescapable: there is no right or righteous position, no matter how justifiably indignant one feels.

Trump can talk nonsense because in the end, all is nonsense. As the history of communism shows, not even righteous indignation can change this; in fact, it only underscores it.

[David]

[stui magpie]

I never said "the left is uniquely censorious and hostile to opposing views." I said " it's a phenomena far more apparent from those on the left."

Edit, as far as the examples you put up all I'll say is that Yassmin idiot is extremely worthy of derision and if you think the grief that feminists cop is bad (and I'm sure it is) jump on twitter sometime and see the abuse that right wing females (and males) get. It's next level.

[David]

[Mugwump]

[stui magpie]

[Pi]

[Skids]