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What's driving social justice ideology? The US and UK compared

14 points| ContrarianBrit | 2 years ago |thepathnottaken.net

21 comments

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insickness|2 years ago

> certain items measure differences between conservative and liberal positions on culture war issues

I strongly dislike the oversimplified left/right dichotomy. If your political views strictly adhere to either side, it suggests a lack of independent thought. I have very little interest in engaging with someone who can't appreciate alternative perspectives.

lelanthran|2 years ago

> I strongly dislike the oversimplified left/right dichotomy. If your political views strictly adhere to either side, it suggests a lack of independent thought. I have very little interest in engaging with someone who can't appreciate alternative perspectives.

Agreed, but irrelevant to the paper, because they are studying the differences between two groups with opposing positions within the context of social justice.

Your point is relevant to one-on-one discussions only, because you qualify it with "independent" thought. By definition alone, a group does not have independent thought.

defrost|2 years ago

I have no idea why someone thought to post the blog of Dr Thomas Prosser, Reader in European Social Policy at Cardiff Business School.

https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/prossertj

It's a terse dot point summary of some observations on recent surveys.

What I do know, however, is that a table of correlations does not identify "What drives social justice ideology". Not in the slightest.

It's not age that drives an outlook in the UK - that comes from particular issues and circumstances that are mainly affecting the young.

Similarly it's not being female that drives an outlook in the US, it's specific issues that predominately affect women, eg: abortion.

Dr Prosser might have the technical chops to cover his subject but his blog post title could use some work.

EDIT: Oh, of course it's entirely possible that 'ContrarianBrit' is Dr Prosser: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ContrarianBrit

soco|2 years ago

Also, the younger have generally more energy to spend on society (or more energy in general, you could say).

lapcat|2 years ago

Am I the only one who is utterly confused by the author's two tables and how they're supposed to match the author's stated conclusions?

beepbooptheory|2 years ago

I totally get wanting to stray away from the empty signifier of "woke", but doesn't just calling it "social justice" make you kind of sound like the baddie if your opposing yourself to it?

"The scourge of social justice must be stopped!"

From a grim tactical point of view, it is smart to start finding ways to force an antagonism between your evil teens and regular liberals. I think that will work very well in the long run.

Because gosh darnit we must keep those statues standing up! Literally can't think of anything more important.

willis936|2 years ago

The term social justice has been in popular use for at least a decade. "Woke" is just a dogwhistle. "Social justice warrior" had already been a polarizing term that came and went in popularity.

neallindsay|2 years ago

It's probably best to name political ideologies for the ideal they believe in rather than whatever criticism their opponents hold for those ideas.

Conservatives want to conserve the status quo. Progressives want to see society progress. Liberals want liberty. Authoritarians want strong authority. "Social justice ideologists" doesn't roll off the tongue, but it does a decent job of conveying who we are talking about.

incomingpain|2 years ago

I never understand what's the driving force behind it until recently. It also tended to follow me for some reason; not because of me... but it just seemed to always be there.

Worse yet, I always found the warring sides in the social justice battles are almost always the same kind of people. 1 side seemed to hate the other side, not because of what they were, but because they saw their own hate personified in their opponents? Both sides see each other as nazis.

So for example, the atheist four horsemen. Dawkins, Harris, etc. But then "Dear Muslima" from Dawkins went down.

Then the james randi, penn jillette, bill nye, etc. The amazing meeting of skeptics and scientists. But then yikes social justice had to destroy them.

Then gamergate at basically the same time. Armor isn't allowed to have boobs!

shortly there after was comicsgate, but it was the opposite. Like comics aren't allowed diversity? James Damore happened roughly here.

But then Trump got elected and the social justice warriors became anti-trump. Literally the world has ended because he got elected. I'm not in the USA, I dont care about US politics, But Trump is LITERALLY HITLER.

But then in 2018, a terrorist killed a bunch of people in Toronto and the CBC invented/boosted the word Incel. Organizing a group of people for the first time ever. Really bad decision.

Learn to code happened next after this.

Everyone involved in social justice or for that matter anti-social justice are just the same thing. I have been watching autism tear itself apart publicly over and over.

Autistic people, who lived a life of trauma, are very social justice. But also really bad at communicating. Some unintentionally say painful and cruel things. There's no way the autism identity or label could ever stay unified.

0xbadc0de5|2 years ago

At its core, communism. Social justice is the means, not the ends.

Which is why so many of us are so skeptical of it.

Ajay-p|2 years ago

I think it goes beyond communism. There is a victim/outrage mentality in some people, and I get the impression they will always look for something to be outraged about. From what I have read of communism it is not based on a personality of playing the victim, and constantly looking for something to be outraged about.