The biggest thing that I cannot forgive the Left is that it liberated some of the worst, meanest impulses of human beings. We all have dark, cruel impulses. It’s a normal part of the human condition, but we’re supposed to fight it. Being civilized means keeping your inner bastard under control. I have a non-tenured colleague who annoys the living daylights out of me, but when I was Chair, I knew that I was her boss and she was dependent on me for her livelihood. I prayed and meditated before every engagement with her, trying to act towards her with the greatest kindness that is possible to me. It took a lot of effort, but I’m proud of never being short-tempered with her.
Leftism made it okay to say the most horrible, cruel things to people for no reason. We have a colleague who is the kindest, sweetest, most helpful man you could possibly imagine. He achieved some stellar things for his program. I once witnessed two female professors casually tell him that he’s “a mediocre white man” who owes his promotion to his race and sex. This wasn’t said in the heat of the moment. I don’t approve of losing your temper, even in the midst of a hardcore fight, but in this situation there was no fight. It was a completely casual conversation. The women had no beef with this man who was in a different program. They were mean to him because they could, because his race and sex, the characteristics over which he has zero control, made it socially acceptable to be nasty to him.
It became normal coldly to say the most terrible things to people because they are white, or male, or “cisgendered”. And not only normal but laudable. The more outrageous the accusations, the more social capital you accumulate. Evan Barker tells about exactly this in her book Nothing Left. People would make insanely unprovoked accusations as a matter of course. And it’s not a passing, short-lived fad. Back in 2014-15, I was told several times to my face, “Ukrainian? Aren’t you guys all Nazis?” This was before I came out as a conservative, and I guess now these people feel completely vindicated. In 2020, I was told by a colleague on campus that I wanted to cause deaths of hundreds of people out of personal convenience. He was unhappy with my decision to teach in person but, surely, an educated person could find other ways to express disagreement. This same colleague was later told he wanted to re-enslave black people because he’s white.
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