A
common charge made against Social Justice Warriors by members of the
online resistance movement is that social justice has become a
religion for Social Justice Warriors – that feminism is a religion.
Given that most of the anti-SJW pro-liberty figures are atheists,
this charge is meant to be an insult. But it is far closer to the
truth than those who make the charge realize. Contemporary Social
Justice Warrior-ism has taken root in the US, UK and Canada
predominately, all of which have some things in common, including a
religious history rooted in Protestantism.
What
does Protestantism have to do with a largely atheistic movement? The
answer lies in the impact these religious doctrines have on culture.
Protestant ideas, especially extreme ideas associated with Calvinism,
are pervasive in American culture today. This was revealed to me by
reading a book for my doctoral dissertation on an entirely separate
topic. The book is Broken Trust, Broken Land by Robert G Lee,
which focuses on the topic of environmentalism and the authoritarian
nature of the environmentalist movement. Lee is a forester and
sociologist who himself believed in the claims of the environmental
movement until he grappled with two major issues in the movement.
The
first movement issue he dealt with was the authoritarian nature of
the environmental movement. According to Lee, natural resource
managers don't particularly care about the jobs lost, lives
destroyed, and families undermined by the policies of resource
managers who live and work hundreds if not thousands of miles away
from the lands they manage. Lee responds to the claim made in the 90s
by conservatives that environmentalists are not American:
There
is a tendency for Americans to be easily seduced by biocentric views
because we still hold a Calvinist outlook on life, and have
difficulty accepting responsibility for others. We tend to see
ourselves through a lens of religious imagery as a favored people
whose destiny is to lead the world to freedom and enlightenment.
Hence, it would be totally wrong to say that radical
environmentalists are 'anti-Americans.' They are instead about as
American as they can be. Environmental preservationists are simply
the latest in a long line of reformers who have drawn upon our
Puritan origins and Calvinist ethics to divide the world into the
saved and the damned. The religious imagery we inherited from Calvin,
although now highly secularized, is what makes the environmental
movement so appealing. Calvinism is a familiar resting place in a
time of uncertainty and rapid change.
(Lee 1994, pg 52).
Lee
goes on to illustrate the destructive nature of dividing society
between the 'saved' and the 'damned.' If you change the words
'environmentalist' and 'biocentric' into 'Social Justice Warrior' and
'feminist' (respectively) you'll see that this idea applies equally
to the landscape in the US today. As Lee says, Calvinism is hidden in
the idea that some authorities have the right to tell others how we
should live, to plan our lives, and to manage the technical
infrastructure that makes modern life what it is. Thus we see
ideologues like Anita Sarkeesian as part of the new censorship
movement on Twitter. Thus, to shamelessly rework a quote of Lee and
apply it to the current landscape, “Anyone who has seen Calvin's
ghost will conclude that [feminism] embodies moral exclusion and
could, under adverse political circumstances, lead to horrors few
would have anticipated. A secularized Calvinism provides no limits to
radical solutions for [social justice] problems” (Lee, pg 53, edits
mine). The horrors today include the case of Gregory Allen Elliot
who made the mistake of confronting radical feminists online and
disagree with them forcefully; Elliot was charged in Canada with
harassment and banned from the internet for 2 years until he won his
case in court. The Elliot case only touches the surface of the
horrors of social control we see being promoted by adherents to the
new Calvinism, however.
Feminist
curriculum in public elementary schools targets children at their
most impressionable age. That is, taxes are being used to promote an
ideology rooted in a strange and unholy marriage between Marxism and
Calvinism. Children are actively being taught unscientific and
unsupported theories regarding gender identity. Children are being
indoctrinated to believe race-based privilege is a real thing when
they are too young to engage the concept and make informed decisions
on their own regarding these important topics. Jailing people for
saying unpopular things is scary but the terrifying prospect is that
feminists are using the state in the US and Canada to remake society
in their image. In true Calvinist form they are conditioning people
into being in the feminist elect.
If
this book sounds interesting to you follow the link. I make no money
off the sales of the book and have no connection to Dr Lee in any
way. Buy it here
for the current cost of 1 penny plus shipping in the US. It's worth
the read.
