“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are entitled to just as we are.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As someone who used to enjoy getting into scrappy situations as a young adult, I’m not going to start off this article by saying I didn’t enjoy Richard Spencer getting sucker punched in the face. Seeing the baby daddy of the Alt-Right catch an alt-right hook to the face was priceless. As I mentioned this incident to friends and family expecting to get a laugh, I was quickly met with disappointment from their end; disappointment in me for enjoying seeing a man who wasn’t harming someone get viciously attacked for no reason other than the attacker didn’t like him.
Spencer and others like him love to agitate, but violence never breeds anything good. As a libertarian, I’m a hypocrite; as a Christian, a major hypocrite. This brought up a major realization as I began to look at this whole issue dispassionately. We often fall into the trap of binary thinking which forces us to make a decision as to who we side with, buying into something wholesale for the sake of avoiding being excluded. Trump or Clinton? Nationalist or Globalist (two very undefined terms even the people throwing them around can’t properly define)? Social Justice Warriors or Alt-Right? This rationalization takes away individualism from people and stirs up antipathy with communities that otherwise could have a proper discussion.
The Alt-Right is an ill-tempered movement of people that feel victimized, ignored, abused, and are fighting for attention. Their tactics include shaming, bullying, and ruthlessness that they justify with a sense of moral righteousness.
Social Justice Warriors are an ill-tempered movement of people that feel victimized, ignored, abused, and are fighting for attention. Their tactics include shaming, bullying, and ruthlessness that they justify with a sense of moral righteousness.
Do you see a difference in either description? If you did, go back and read it over and over again. There is no moral relativist claim to make though; both side’s arguments aren’t null. Just because I criticize one more than the other doesn’t mean the other is less problematic or occupies the moral high ground.
Growing up in Northern Virginia, I know how volatile and insane the Left can be. There is a war on college campuses and progressives are the primary agitator. Yet, the Alt-Right opposition is no more conservative than those they oppose since they can be just as relentless as SJW’s. The progressive menace seen on college campuses is real, but here is the thing about progressives: they are too lazy to do anything in the real world. The real world is for producers and those who understand that you can’t just be a fascist jerk all the time; that’s why you find people on college campuses working on their second feminist Masters degree. Am I saying anyone who is not a progressive should just deal with the hate? Not at all, yet the zeal and love of sparking up controversy is simply making things worse. All I’m saying is reserve your energy for what matters, and not argue with losers that don’t contribute in any way to society.
Everyone spends so much time combating each other, no one spends time on anything substantial. Milo Yiannopoulis is popular because he brings up controversy, and sometimes controversy is necessary to bring attention to things no one talks about, but there is a fine line between trying to be a reformer and being a jerk just for the sake of it. Yeah, Milo never punched anyone, but his behavior has caused more polarization than anything.
The Alt-Right and the SJW’s want you to pick sides, and I for one pick neither because both are full of crap. They both want you to conform to their thoughts and feelings and if you don’t they will slander, attack, and villainize you for the crime of being an individual. This isn’t a binary option; you can be a reformer without being a fire thrower or internet troll.
Violence breeds violence, agitation brings out the worst in everyone, and in this cultural conflict there is no winner as long as everyone just wants to roll over each other.
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