Progressive Intellectuals: Image vs. Reality

I have spent many years around progressive intellectuals. They fill the academic world and the elite cultural circles of our society. As a group, they seem to me incredibly deceived and self-deceived people—much more self-deceived than right-wing intellectuals (of whom there are far fewer). Their worldview revolves around self-serving lies, and much of their self-image is practically the opposite of reality.

Let’s see some examples, then think about why this might be.

1. Five Self-Deceptions

a. Progressive Prejudice

There are still right-wing racists and sexists in the country, but they’ve been excluded from elite cultural circles for decades. If you move in even moderately high-status circles in our society, you’re basically never going to run into right-wing bigots. But you’re going to be repeatedly bombarded by left-wing bigotry. The most virulently racist people you’ll ever meet will be people whose entire self-image and worldview revolves around “anti-racism”. The most irredeemably sexist people will be the ones whose life revolves around feminism.

Some manifestations of this prejudice:

1. Collectivist obsession

Progressive intellectuals are obsessed with race, sex, and other “identity groups”, far more so than normal Americans. They cannot stop talking about race and gender, viewing every event through that lens. When they look at you, they don’t see a unique individual; they see a collection of group identities. You’re just a representative of your race, sex, etc. When two people have a conflict, the progressive “anti-racist” needs to know the races of the two people before he decides which side he is on. The “anti-sexist” feminist needs to know the genders of the two people.

2. Animosity

A classic feature of racism is animosity toward one or more particular races. In traditional, right-wing racism, that would be hatred toward blacks, Jews, Latinos, and perhaps Asians. Traditional sexism involves having lower respect for women (though perhaps not hatred).

In contemporary, left-wing racism, we see hatred toward white people, and perhaps Jews, and perhaps Asians. (The Jews get it from both sides.) In left-wing sexism, we see hatred and contempt for men.

Progressives don’t like to think of themselves as hate-mongers. But if someone talked about any other group the way progressives talk about white men—e.g., talking about the harms of “whiteness”; going on about wrongs committed by white men, emphasizing their race and sex, while passing over wrongs committed by other groups—progressives would take one nanosecond to label that “hate speech”.

3. Scapegoating

Progressives like to blame white people for most of the world’s problems. This is another classic feature of racism. Right-wing racists such as the Nazis tried to blame the Jews for most of society’s problems. It doesn’t cease to be racism just because you pick a different race to scapegoat.

4. Stereotyping

Another classic feature of racism: negative stereotyping. Traditional racists would stereotype Jews as greedy, blacks as criminals, etc. Traditional sexists stereotype women as less capable than men. Left-wing bigots, on the other hand, stereotype white men as abusers and oppressors, and other groups as victims of white males.

That is the first element of progressive self-deception: they style themselves warriors against prejudice, but they are the biggest force stoking prejudice in our society. They think that their prejudice is different because the group they’re attacking is actually bad. They don’t see their stereotypes as stereotypes but just as the truth. That, of course, is what all bigots think.