'It’s arguable that America is not losing its religion so much as replacing the old faith with a political pseudoreligion — as Europe did in the early 20th century. I would argue that the religion with the most effective political power in contemporary America is technically not a religion at all: it’s the cult of social justice.Rod Dreher, 'The culture war is lost', in The Spectator’s January 2020 US edition.
'...The march of SJWs through American institutions is fast achieving complete hegemony. The unexpected victory of Donald Trump in 2016 is not a sign of recrudescent conservatism but, for traditionalists, actually a desperate last stand. Despite the purplish enthusiasm of conservative Evangelicals for Trump, he is properly seen as a kind of culture-war katechon — a restraining force holding back the mob. As a prominent Evangelical leader confided to me last year, ‘We know that when he goes, we’re done.’ Après Donald, le déluge.'
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Friday, 10 January 2020
Rod Dreher: 'The culture war is lost'
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"Despite the purplish enthusiasm of conservative Evangelicals for Trump, he is properly seen as a kind of culture-war katechon — a restraining force holding back the mob. As a prominent Evangelical leader confided to me last year, ‘We know that when he goes, we’re done.’ Après Donald, le déluge.' "
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly has Trump done to slow down the march of the Culture War? Have I missed something? The Culture War has accelerated during Trump's presidency. He has in fact galvanised the SJWs - they are now much more extreme and much more determined.
And dissent is being suppressed more ruthlessly. Not by the government. That's not how the SJWs operate. Woke Capital is doing the suppressing.The media, both traditional media and social media, have become more zealous in crushing dissent.
Of course when Trump does go things will accelerate even more.
I suspect that in Britain the Culture War will also accelerate under Boris Johnson.
I've said it before and I know it's an unpopular view but any coherent opposition to the Social Justice Cult is not going to come from the political Right.
I think Rod Dreher might agree with you. Donald Trump is partly a symbol. He has appointed conservative judges and kept out of war. He has also said the right things about immigration and much else, which is something. There
DeleteAnn Coulter tweeted yesterday:
'Go Trump! He’s built 0.2% of the wall! ONLY 1,305 MILES TO GO!'
Do you foresee coherent opposition to 'Social Justice' coming from somewhere and if so where?
'Take the sister party of the Conservative party in my birth country, Sweden: The Moderate Party. After Sweden joined the EU, in 1995, this party has abandoned just about all its roots, which should come as no great surprise given that EU membership severely limits the scope for independent policy.Regarding economics, a party that used to talk about the economic upsides of a limited state has turned into an advocator of a bureaucracy (EU) on top of another (national) bureaucracy (also the latter is allowed to swell without much comment). Regarding culture, the previously markedly social conservative Moderate party developed into an active champion of “open-your-hearts-and-borders” multiculturalism.'
Deletehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/10/many-european-parties-will-have-do-boris-johnson-did-die-away/?
Do you foresee coherent opposition to 'Social Justice' coming from somewhere and if so where?
DeleteI think it's possible, and I emphasise the word possible, that there could be a revival of the old-fashioned socially conservative Economic Left. I think it would be a politically viable position. I think that there's a huge number of people who would prefer more socially conservative policies but would also prefer more leftist economic policies (at least moderate economic leftism). I think such a position would be an obvious vote-winner.
You could argue that a lot of people who voted for Trump did so because they perceived him to be well to the right of Hillary on social issues and well to the left of her on economic issues. Of course he turned out to be just another Republican, standing for social radicalism and the same old economic rightism (giving tax cuts to the rich and doing precious little for anybody else). But he was perceived as being sympathetic to the working class.
Much of the support for Bernie Sanders in 2016 came from the same sources - he was perceived as standing for old-fashioned moderate economic leftism whilst being not too extreme on social issues.
The problem is that any social conservative-economic leftist movement will be bitterly opposed by Woke Capital.
I too hope we might see a nationalist left emerge. It seems the answer to the failure of social democracy in the EU states to represent the working class and instead talk about multiculturalism, homosexuals and climate change. https://sputniknews.com/europe/201912201077662210-swedish-communists-launch-new-workers-party-without-multiculturalism-lgbt-greta-thunberg/
DeleteI too hope we might see a nationalist left emerge.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see what conclusions the Labour Party in Britain draws from its recent electoral defeat. The correct conclusion would be that they need to return to their moderate economic leftist roots and forget the social justice stuff. But what I expect them to do is to return to Blairitism - double down on the social justice stuff and move to the Economic Right. If they do that they're finished, but that's what they'll probably do.
The Australian Labor Party seems to have learnt nothing from three straight electoral defeats.
The middle class who are a larger proportion of the Labour electorate like the social justice stuff. Maybe the left wing graduates in the big cities are going to take over. Maybe they already have. Theresa May was a social justice warrior in many ways, wanting race and gender audits of companies, chivvying David Cameron to introduce homosexual marriage, admiring the Suffragettes, whose law breaking postponed women getting the vote, etc, etc.
DeleteIn his heart Boris is not far from her political standpoint, but he is a cavalier not like her a roundhead. I hope he is as able as Tony Blair and decided, for opportunistic reasons, to be much less left-wing or authoritarian and much more conservative on immigration.
Deletehttps://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/01/peter-hitchens.html
DeleteThe middle class who are a larger proportion of the Labour electorate like the social justice stuff
DeleteThe problem is that the Tories are just as big on the social justice stuff as Labour, so if you're middle class you might as well vote Tory. At least the Tories can be retied on to screw the working class, which is what middle-class people want more than anything else.
That leaves Labour with not much of a constituency. And with Boris being very pro-immigration, a very small constituency indeed. Perhaps Labour should chase the immigrant vote by adopting social conservative stances.
In two-party systems you probably always end up with two identical parties, both chasing the middle-class vote and both forcing each other into more and more extreme social justice positions to get that vote. Two-party systems are disastrous.
I disagree - without a two party system we would not have had Brexit. But admittedly that was because of a referendum and even with Corbyn the two parties agreed on too much.
Delete"At least the Tories can be retied on to screw the working class, which is what middle-class people want more than anything else." This is not true unless you mean Tories like low taxes and a small state and less welfare - these things are not anti working class. The working classes have risen in material terms and in terms of respect and self respect because of capitalism not socialism. The biggest harm done to working classes was done by mass immigration and rehousing in tower blocks, for which both parties but not ordinary people are responsible.
DeleteI think a two party system more democratic than circular consensual European chambers but the differences between the parties even in 1983 or 2019 is less important than the huge consensus.
Most Americans don't care about social justice. They are just trying to make a living.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you are right and that is true of every normal country - and even of abnormal ones like Iran or North Korea. It is a very small number of highly motivated people, supported by a much larger group of sympathisers, who decide political direction.
DeleteIt is a very small number of highly motivated people, supported by a much larger group of sympathisers, who decide political direction.
DeleteYes. Most voters have no idea what's going on. They do know they're getting taken for a ride but they don't understand how or why. They vote with their emotions. Maybe you can't fool all of the people all of the time but you can fool the vast majority just about all the time.
The takeover of the Tories by the Cultural Left was accomplished very efficiently without any fuss. Ordinary rank-and-file members are still mystified as to how it happened.
They thought it was necessary to win, if you are speaking of 2000-10 - but 1979-97 the Tories were social liberals, because the country was. When were they anything else, really?
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