It's no secret that I've always had a soft side for traditional liberal ideas. The notion being that everyone should live their life as they wish, granted they don't hurt anyone else. It's because of this, that I've been labeled as a lefty at times, but it's a lot more nuanced than that.
The truth is that we are witnessing a division of ideologies within the umbrella of liberalism. We have a spectrum of course, but there's a clear point where the difference is big enough to anyone who pays attention. We have today, to put it simply, two factions of the left. One that believes and strives for equal opportunity and one that is looking to turn the tables of oppression.
You might read my words and imagine that I'm being hyperbolic, but it doesn't seem to be the case at all, as much as I would wish it to be. What makes this confusing, for lack of a better word, is that these two factions of liberalism are intermingled. Which is to say that in many ideological conversations, those who appear as allies are actually not, but they lack awareness of what each other think.
We can truly use this framing to examine many of the current socio-political discussions and find ourselves able to make the clear distinctions. We can clearly see a difference between the traditional idea of feminism, that seeked to put women's right equal to men, and the distorted version that believes men to be inferior scum, and that's not hyperbole.
What this mean to society, I don't really know. I think at times that the waters are settling and we are doing a better job at molding public discourse, abandoning identity politics and the demonization of others, but I'm quickly confronted with the opposite with just a couple of clicks.
Does this mean that the right is the one who holds the truth these days? Not necessarily, of course. But it does seem like the ones who were supposed to help bring progress to the forefront are actually responsible for the regressions, and that is somewhat sad.
MenO