The far left and radical right are not as different as perceived

The far left and radical right are not as different as perceived

As someone who identifies more socially and fiscally with liberals, yet, is unafraid of voicing a heretical opinion, I believe to have noticed something within our politics that most people have not.

The far left of our own country seems in alliance with an even more radically right-wing than that of our own Republicans, fighting the freedoms America has always sought to protect and fighting each other instead of governmental encroachments into personal rights, for globalization and for small people’s protection against large corporations. The most obvious example of this alliance is found in millennials’ willingness to stifle free speech: a phenomenon that has been fought by many comedians and public speakers, such as Bill Maher, Louis C.K., George Carlin and others.

Modern liberals sometimes think that the path to political or social truth is not by relying on the validity and soundness of one’s argument, but by the popularity or acceptability of said argument. This is not only fundamentally un-American, but shameful, as I find many truths within the liberal worldview.

Very inarticulately put, having the right answers for the wrong reasons is less honest than having the wrong answers for the right reasons.

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I also view the fight against cultural appropriation as a sometimes extreme manifestation of social conservatism. In all cases I will lend you my ears, and in many, my support in pursuit of retaining a culture’s nuance, tradition and meaning in a more global and commercial world; however, this fight has only served to prevent the mixture of cultures in America.

When people call for certain styles of hair, clothing or foods to be protected against modification by members of another culture or race, I can’t hope to grasp at their intention. It seems as though they wish for an even further divided America.

People have the right to free expression and bodily autonomy, not the right to deny another person’s rights on the grounds of cultural offense. In fact much of the most valued modern and contemporary art can be interpreted as a permutation of or rebellion against other cultures or earlier ages.

My same argument can be broadened to the efforts of some Republicans as well: the type that wants the Pledge of Allegiance or prayers forced upon kids in schools and state institutions in direct violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment to our constitution.

The most egregious form this alliance takes is the opprobrium surrounding Islamophobia. It should be understood that an attack upon a faith or ideology is not an attack upon either its members or any ethnic group; however, many liberals can’t appear to stop equating islamophobia with racism.

The term is also clever as it conflates criticism of the faith with a fear of or prejudice against its constituents, something the term anti-semitic doesn’t do. I’ve even heard women who openly protest rape culture in America justify the serial rape of women in majority Muslim countries as a cultural and religious difference that one would be bigoted to denounce.

To be clear, I don’t ever think it is okay to harass someone or prejudge someone based upon their religion or religious dress. I only mean to say that I don’t think it is a coincidence that the labelling of others as Islamophobic is popular both among Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood as it is popular among liberals in the name of multiculturalism or multicultural etiquette.

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