Political correctness and social justice are complicated and ever-evolving movements, but they can be distilled down to a simple, Manichean dualism: You are either oppressor or oppressed. What you are depends on demographic markers: race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, height, weight, etc. The list of associated labels is long, but they are primarily for differentiating the oppressed. Oppressors aren’t granted the luxury of stratification, especially if they bear one particular “oppressor” marker.
Yes, indeed, there is a “trump card” (pun obviously intended) that overrides all other markers when it comes to the oppressor/oppressed bisection. That trump card is political orientation. It’s pretty simple. You can make up for being a white male (the first and foremost “oppressor” marker) by fully embracing the tenets of modern liberalism. These tenets include a whole lot of self-flagellation and a perpetual requirement of genuflection, social justice warmongering, and overt antagonism to those in your identity group who aren’t doing the same. Conversely, you can override a sheaf of “oppressed” markers by “going off the reservation” i.e. not being liberal. A conservative who is black, or gay, or female, draws especial ire from the Left, much as heretics and apostates draw especial ire from the religions they’ve rejected.
The language games that the Left seems to obsess about hadn’t reached the point of dubbing all conservatives bigots or racists (although many liberals have done so individually). Until, that is, the Trump phenomenon started happening. We now have a new term being bandied about: Alt-Right. Alt-Right is the catch-all for everything Trump, for his staunch supporters, and for the push-back against liberalism, political correctness and social justice that has manifested over recent years. It’s also presumed racist.
Consider a vocabulary recently published by the LA Times. Scan the list and you’ll find multiple assertions of racism and bigotry. Contemplate the list, however, and you’ll find that much (not all, but much) of what they assert as “racism” is instead sarcasm, mockery, or direct insult. Calling people “snowflakes,” “crybabies,” “betas,” “cucks,” and “libtards,” isn’t nice, nor is it conducive to reasoned dialogue. But, it’s not de facto racist either.
These are schoolyard taunts, intended both to hurt and to identify disliked behaviors. But, since modern political correctness/social justice has a particular obsession with bullying and absolutely zero regard for individual free speech and right to expression when it doesn’t conform to their requirements, these schoolyard taunts have sinister undertones attached to them. Even telling someone to “man up,” i.e. not to be a sniveling, wilting daisy, is now considered to be an oppression. It is “masculonormative,” i.e. it presumes a particular strength of behavior in men and an associated weakness of behavior in women. Yes, indeedy, there are people who devote a whole lot of time, ink and brainpower to sussing out deep nefariousness from such colloquialisms.
The Left has decided that condescending insults directed at its own are rooted in racism and bigotry rather than ideological differences. Thus, the Left has changed the endless liberal-conservative conflict into one of oppressed and oppressor. The obvious purpose for this is to attempt to establish yet another point of moral superiority, and in doing so put the oppressor on weaker footing. It’s nonsense, of course. Yes, there are obviously bigots and racists in the Alt-Right. These people existed before the Alt-Right became a thing, and they’ll exist after the term has faded away. They are not, however, the sum total of people who mock modern liberalism for, among other things, its production of adult children, of overly fragile individuals unable to have a conversation that involves any philosophical disagreement, and that must be protected from exposure to opposing viewpoints (by force, if necessary).
Liberals will tell us that they are now an official oppressed group in Trump’s America, even as they assert Clinton’s popular vote victory means they remain the majority and the mainstream of public opinion. It’s amusing to think that a majority can deem itself oppressed victims, but that sort of dissonance is, sadly, not uncommon.
My suggestion? Keep mocking. Mockery, especially when it rings true, stings more than any other form of rebuttal. We’re wired to hate and avoid shame and humiliation, and that wiring is probably a big driver in the Left’s perpetual efforts to systematically marginalize those who shame and humiliate them. After all, snowflakes and wilting daisies aren’t particularly durable structures. And, if they call you a racist or a bigot, laugh it off for what it is: a weak attempt to silence rather than engage.
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