Political/Social Commentary: Unpacking the Concept of the "Illiberal Left"

Unpacking the concept of the "illiberal left": 

The true, or "classical" liberal, has an open mind, and values free speech, even when they don’t agree with the viewpoint being professed. They rely on the competition of various viewpoints in the "marketplace of ideas" to bring forth the "true" or "best" idea, rather than trying to impose one idea or group of ideas dogmatically, and forcing everyone to accept those ideas.

lib·er·al

adjective

1.    1.

open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.    

2.    2.

(of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.

1.    1.

a person of liberal views.

synonyms:

wide-ranging, broad-based, general "a liberal education"

People who protest against free speech are not "liberal" at all.  A liberal should want to allow an opponent to speak - possibly allowing their own words to make them look foolish, or possibly engaging them in a discussion or debate. Using violence to shut down speech, discussion, or debate is an illiberal act. It is more in line with an authoritarian, totalitarian, or even a fascist mindset. It is certainly a tactic employed by authoritarian, totalitarian, and fascist groups throughout history - including the group whose name we all seem to love to use to label our opponents - the Nazis.

What we commonly describe as a "liberal" in our society is a person who is not at all liberal, but who is often left of the political center.

While a liberal can lean fairly hard to the left or right, they will tend to be moderate in at least some areas – and may even be to the right of center on some topics and to the left of center on other topics.

The reason that “liberal” is thrown around as an epithet is that the word has come to be associated with people who are not liberal at all, but are exceptionally narrow minded and dogmatic in their approach to political and social issues, and demand conformity of belief from those around them.  When people are not exposed to differing viewpoints, liberalism tends to grow weak, and be replaced by dogmatic belief.  

I grew up in the SF bay area “bubble”, and like many people there, thought that most/all “smart” people thought in pretty much the same way.  I was lucky to spend a fair chunk of my adult life living in different parts of the country – parts where the people are often dismissed as “poorly educated”, “ignorant”, “reactionary”, “hicks from the sticks”. “rednecks”, “trash”,  or even “deplorables” by others in the bay area.  Yes, I lived in “flyover country”, and I discovered that many of the people I met there were smart, well-educated, sensitive, thoughtful, and good people.  Most of them did not even try to stereotype me based on where I was from, although a few seemed to think that SF and LA are right next to each other, and SF is a neighborhood/subirb of LA.

In the SF bay area, where I spent most of my life, people live in a leftist bubble – most of the viewpoints that they hear are left of center, and those who are more moderate, or even right of center, are belittled, mocked, and people who hold such views are often afraid to even speak out.  And once the diverse voices are silenced, there is no marketplace of ideas for liberals to engage in. This is why I often refer to Harvey Milk’s statements about the importance of “coming out” for the gay community, because people who learn that they have friends, family members, coworkers, or other members of their community who are gay, are forced to readdress any homophobic prejudices that they have.  Milk said that “people who know us are twice as likely to support our rights”.  The same applies to people who are moderate, center right, or even right of center - unless the other members of society know that "regular", "normal" people can have views like that, it is easy to demonize anyone who does not fall into lockstep with the illiberal leftist dogma that is prevalent in the media, politics, schools, and the public arena.

I’m guessing that one of the big reasons that conservative people from the bay area feel it is important to hold a rally is to show the rest of the community that they do exist, and that it is therefore not okay to casually and thoughtlessly dismiss and deride them at every turn.  Just as you would have to start thinking twice before casually making racist, sexist, or homophobic statements once you realize that your friends include people from each of those groups, they want you to think twice about your casual condemnation of conservatives - including Trump supporters - and the hostile atmosphere that it creates for them (including those who are not Trump fans, but voted for him because the other choices were so much worse).


The illiberal left tends to be quite Orwellian in its doctrine – engaging in “doublethink” to avoid having to accept the hypocrisy of many of their positions, hounding those who deviate from conformity for “thoughtcrime”, and even creating their own form of “newspeak” via the "Politically Correct" (PC) lexicon.    Like Big Brother, they  believe that “War is Peace” – as evidenced by their violent actions at “peaceful” protests, that “Freedom is Slavery” by their attempts to impose more and more state control over the lives of individuals, and that “Ignorance is Strength” by their repeated attempts to turn our schools, colleges, and universities into indoctrination centers, rather than institutions of learning, and by their increasingly violent attempts to suppress the free expression of any ideas that they disagree with – including actual liberals, whether left, center, or right.