Has the social justice movement gone too far? A flurry of new books claim that today’s activists are behaving more like religious fanatics than true social liberals. But others bitterly disagree.
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New Puritans suck joy out of life says writer
Has the social justice movement gone too far? A flurry of new books claim that today's activists are behaving more like religious fanatics than true social liberals. But others bitterly disagree.
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In 1620, an odd group of English families landed on the rainy Massachusetts BayA bay in the north-eastern United States that is mostly in the state of Massachusetts.1. Some 102 people had been living together for ten weeks on a ship only around 30m long, the MayflowerThe ship on which the first Puritan settlers, now often known as the Pilgrim Fathers, arrived. Some US families are proud to trace their ancestry all the way back to this first voyage.. The group quickly formed a new settlement that they named Plymouth, after the English port town from which they had set sail.
The settlers were Puritans, a sect devoted to hardline ProtestantismThe umbrella term for a wide variety of movements that trace their roots to a schism in the Catholic Church in the early 16th Century. Protestants are united by a number of core beliefs, but there is much diversity among its movements.. Perhaps unfairly, the puritans have become a byword for self-righteousness, moral certainty, and intolerance of argument.
Now one author thinks the Puritans are still with us in spirit. In a new book, former comedian Andrew Doyle argues that they have found a home in the modern left.
He claims the left sees political differences as moral ones. If someone disagrees on certain issues, they are not merely wrong, but actually evil.
He likens so-called "cancel culture" to the religious fundamentalists in Arthur MillerThe US playwright wrote The Crucible in 1953 as a political commentary on the fear and paranoia of 20th-Century politics.'s play The CrucibleOne of Arthur Miller's most famous plays. He wrote it as a satire on the McCarthy Trials that were at that time forcing many American leftists out of public life., based on the Salem Witch TrialsA series of hearings held in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693 in response to a moral panic about witchcraft. More than 200 people were accused and 19 executed.. In the play, a whole community is reluctantly caught up in a fervour for finding and punishing witches, and innocent people are killed.
But, some counter, political differences can indeed be moral ones. If one of our friends is being victimised by a racist, sexist, or homophobic bully, they say, we have a duty to support them and call out the bully. Why should it be any different when the nastiness is dressed up as "political difference"?
Indeed, some think it is the anti-"woke" who are the true puritans. They point out that critics like Doyle never engage with actual left-wing ideas. Instead, they complain about the "culture" surrounding these ideas. They fulminate about "woke mobs" and "lefty teachers" instead of doing any serious thinking about what it is the other side is actually saying.
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Has the social justice movement gone too far?
Yes: There is a certain subset of people who treat their political views like a faith. They are very prominent on social media and they have been known to hound people out of their jobs.
No: The left is only intolerant of intolerant people: those who are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic. If it is a choice between tolerance for the intolerant and tolerance for the marginalised, we should opt for the latter.
Or...Social media brings out the worst sides of any community. Right-wingers are just as toxic online as the left. This is a problem with online culture, not with any one political movement.
Keywords
Massachusetts Bay - A bay in the north-eastern United States that is mostly in the state of Massachusetts.
Mayflower - The ship on which the first Puritan settlers, now often known as the Pilgrim Fathers, arrived. Some US families are proud to trace their ancestry all the way back to this first voyage.
Protestantism - The umbrella term for a wide variety of movements that trace their roots to a schism in the Catholic Church in the early 16th Century. Protestants are united by a number of core beliefs, but there is much diversity among its movements.
Arthur Miller - The US playwright wrote The Crucible in 1953 as a political commentary on the fear and paranoia of 20th-Century politics.
The Crucible - One of Arthur Miller's most famous plays. He wrote it as a satire on the McCarthy Trials that were at that time forcing many American leftists out of public life.
Salem Witch Trials - A series of hearings held in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693 in response to a moral panic about witchcraft. More than 200 people were accused and 19 executed.
New Puritans suck joy out of life says writer
Still relevant? The Crucible is a tale of witch hunts, ostracism and persecution. Glossary
Massachusetts Bay - A bay in the north-eastern United States that is mostly in the state of Massachusetts.
Mayflower - The ship on which the first Puritan settlers, now often known as the Pilgrim Fathers, arrived. Some US families are proud to trace their ancestry all the way back to this first voyage.
Protestantism - The umbrella term for a wide variety of movements that trace their roots to a schism in the Catholic Church in the early 16th Century. Protestants are united by a number of core beliefs, but there is much diversity among its movements.
Arthur Miller - The US playwright wrote The Crucible in 1953 as a political commentary on the fear and paranoia of 20th-Century politics.
The Crucible - One of Arthur Miller’s most famous plays. He wrote it as a satire on the McCarthy Trials that were at that time forcing many American leftists out of public life.
Salem Witch Trials - A series of hearings held in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693 in response to a moral panic about witchcraft. More than 200 people were accused and 19 executed.