Thread by @barrydeutsch

For me, being on the left is awkward.

Because a bunch of (not all) people on the left ARE rigid, unforgiving, and dogmatic. It creates an atmosphere of intimidation and chilled speech, especially for people who have problems with being over-scrupulous.

I have a friend who has a history of being silenced by vicious right-wing online mobs. But the friend's speech is ALSO being chilled from the left. And it's hard for them to talk about this in public.

But at the same time, the main people I see criticizing the chilling effects of dogmatism on the left are anti-SJWs & righties, and their entire program is so awful.

First, they turn a convenient blind eye to dogmaticism on the center and on the right. (And there is plenty!)

Second, their solution to a problem like "criticizing instances of misogyny may lead to over-scrupulous people being afraid to talk at all" works out to, in not so many words, "feminists should shut up and stop criticizing misogyny."

Third, they tend to pretend that social justice has never done any good, and therefore can be harmlessly gotten rid of. But most gains in (for example) LGBT rights in my lifetime have been made by lefties derided at the time for being mean, dogmatic, bullies, etc.

Abortion rights are in great danger. Does anyone think the anti-SJWs and IDWites are going to lift a finger to protect reproductive rights?

Does anyone thing those groups are going to fight to protect trans access to public bathrooms?

You know one big difference between dogmatic, rigid left-wing bullies and dogmatic, rigid right-wing bullies?

No one like that on the left is elected President.

Basically, I think some of the criticism of some SJWs for being dogmatic, mean, and chilling of speech is correct.

But I also think the movement against the "SJW threat" is a right-wing political program that has much wider aims.

I'm not going to march arm in arm with Jordan Peterson and Charles Murray and James Lindsay against SJW extremes. Because although being anti-SJW is what most unites them, it's not the limit of their political program.

So if I criticize dogmatism on the left, am I being intellectually honest and helping to police my own?

Or am I joining a right-wing bandwagon of fearmongers who are opposed, not to dogmatism and bullying, but to social justice itself?