Leftists: Where is the love?
“Fifty years ago, demonstrators demanded an end to Jim Crow and to in loco parentis regulations. Today, they demand in the name of social justice that adult administrators and faculty members help govern matters of personal expression—for instance, what Halloween costumes they should or shouldn’t wear.” - Josh Zeitz
The other day, I was watching Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, and it got me thinking about how different the counterculture movement of the 60s/70s is from the modern left.
While the modern left paints themselves as the rebellious spiritual successors to the Civil Rights and Anti-War Movement of the twentieth century, their advocation of authoritarian policies and rejection of free thought, speech, and expression put them at odds with the classic liberal ideals of the movement.
A key characteristic of the Civil Rights Movement was a dedication to non-violence and an understanding that the ends cannot justify immoral means. In other words, you cannot eliminate hate by spewing hate or end discrimination by discriminating against new populations. They were right in this understanding.
"We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way." - Martin Luther King Jr.
The heart of the movement was centered on love and seeking equality for disadvantaged populations. They fought for noble goals: to end racial segregation, empower women in society, and stop what they viewed as a never-ending, unjust war that took the lives of thousands of America’s fathers, sons, and brothers.
Many in the modern left romanticize this time period and fantasize about what it would have been like to be politically active during such a significant era. They yearn for meaning and have searched far and wide for an issue to serve as the lightning rod for a new social justice movement. Yet they are blind to how drastically they have turned away from the principles of the fore-bearers they claim to emulate and idolize.
Rather than viewing atrocities and disasters within the individual context of the event, the modern left views every mass shooting as a wakeup call for increased gun control, every instance of police brutality as a result of institutionalized racism, every mean Tweet as an excuse for censorship, and every freak weather occurrence as a result of climate change. Worse yet, any attempt to counter these forced narratives is met, not with reasoned debate, but an attempt to delegitimize and silence those who might disagree.
These tactics frequently work, and as a result, the general public is unaware that we are living in the safest time in human history or that most tragedies are statistical outliers that are not indicative of systemic problems other than the existence of evil in the world.
As President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel famously stated: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. I mean, it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Modern leftists have taken this credo to heart and instead of focusing on loving others and removing barriers to lift up the most vulnerable, they leverage every tragedy as an opportunity to execute their vision of the greater good.
In modern social justice, the love espoused by Martin Luther King Jr. is no longer the key tenet of the movement. It has instead been replaced by self-righteousness and victory-at-all-costs. The goal is no longer equality through lifting others up, but instead leveling the playing field by bringing others down.
As we have stated previously: We are not making progress if we are pulling one group of Americans out from their status as outcasts and immediately replacing them with another. That is not justice and it is not love. It is retribution. It is revenge. It is seeking to subjugate those who were once viewed to be among the class or tribe of subjugators.
If reasonable Americans, whether they are conservatives, libertarians, or moderates are to be successful in combating this take-no-prisoners approach to politics, we must do so from a place of principle and not stoop down to the level of utilizing the tactics of delegitimization mainstreamed by the left. We are better than that, we have the facts and real-world evidence on our side. We must rise above and make the affirmative case that our vision is the one that shows love and lifts people up as the left had once claimed to want to do.
Just as junk food might give us the short-term sugar high we enjoy in the moment, superficial "victories" scored for the purpose of virtue signaling might bring us a fleeting dopamine boost but do little to advance our public policy priorities. This style of politics only further coarsens our discourse and turns people away from wanting to engage out of the fear that they find themselves in the crossfire of controversy.
Americans are longing for something to believe in once again. They have -- we all have -- witnessed far too much pessimism and destruction at the hands of those who would seek to tear us apart to lift themselves up. So let's be better.
