Woke Right: A Litmus Test
The debate on Rogan’s podcast between Murray and Smith has a tell.
Why would someone abandon normal, everyday reasoning? We saw it on the extreme left for a decade but now I am seeing it on the right.
If I said that Joe Rogan’s opinions on MMA deserved additional respect because he has trained MMA for decades, nobody would disagree. That direct experience deserves consideration when assessing the value of his opinions.
So why wouldn’t visiting a country at war, and spending time there with the people during the war, warrant additional value to their opinions on that conflict?
It was so weird to watch Rogan and Smith dismiss Murray’s questioning of why Smith felt so strongly and didn’t take the time to visit the places he was so passionate about. It’s not like a celebrity couldn’t afford to do it. It would garner a lot of respect from his audience. But they kept acting as if Murray was saying they were not allowed to talk about it unless they visited, which was another tell. Murray never said that and repeatedly said the opposite.
Anyone should be allowed to talk about whatever they want, but to pretend that there are not levels of expertise in the assessment of knowledge and forming of opinions as if we’ve never gone through this is crazy. It tells me that there is something other than truth being pursued. There is a protection of ego happening.
That’s the “tell” I see. That’s why reactions to this discussion I think are part of what has been called a litmus test for where people’s minds are.
It reminds me of something Thomas Sowell said:
“The same approach which treats sins common to the human race as peculiarities of ‘our society’ often also makes the fatal error of confusing victimhood with virtue, by lining up on the side of the victim, instead of lining up on the side of a moral principle. Yet nothing has been more common in history than for victims to become oppressors when they gain power…” — Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture
Determining victims and oppressors leads people to side with people over principles. Once those people falter then you’re in the awkward position of supporting people doing bad things. Like BLM rioters having movie stars bail them out of prison, or rationalizing why teachers unions should be keeping schools shut down with zero evidence for doing so.
Instead of correcting yourself, we abandon logic and reason to protect our egos which are tied up in the moral pronouncements we previously made about people instead of principles. We suddenly become loyal to people instead of being loyal to principles.
Maybe that is what is “woke” about this new right. Like the woke left, they are choosing a side, or people on a side, and forgetting the principles along the way. Like progressive leftists, they too are concerned more with outcomes over processes and fundamentals. It’s why leftists prefer equity over equality. Equity is an outcome but equality is a process that produces inequity.
Maybe it’s a new reactionary tribalism.
The positive here is that the discussion is happening hard and fast. At least the right is arguing it out instead of spending a decade putting up with people who pretend to believe men can get pregnant for fear of being ousted and ridiculed.
You can agree or disagree with Murray’s stance on Israel, or Ukraine, or both. But to pretend that direct experience with the place and people who are in these places and situations is not a valid and hugely advantageous manner in which to build a perspective, is insane.
It’s not the only way, but pretending it doesn’t matter tells me you are protecting a falsehood your ego isn’t ready to let go.